Scenario 2A Winds Progress

[Bobfrat]

Progress: 2A Winds

Successes

• Observation datasets containing wind speed and direction were discovered, accessed, and plotted for multiple stations in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Catalog-driven search using OGC CSW allowed for dynamic updating as new datasets become available (or inactive).
• Data from both OPeNDAP-CF and SOS endpoints were discovered, accessed and used. The accessing of SOS endpoint leveraged IOOS driven tools (PYOOS).
• Forecast model datasets were discovered, accessed, and plotted for points near the observation stations.
• Standards-based tools allowed extraction of NOAA/NCEP GFS structured grid model output, courtesy of the British Met Office Iris package.
• Time series plots were created visualizing wind speed and gusts on a single plot for observation stations (Figure 1), and wind direction (Figure 2).
• An inline interactive map interface displays the locations of observation data and corresponding model grid points (Figure 3). A line was drawn on the map to show the distance between observation stations and the corresponding nearest model grid point.
• Modeled and observation data were compared via a time series plot (Figure 4).

Figure 1: Time series plot of wind speed (blue) and gusts (green).

Figure 2: Time series plot of wind direction.

Figure 3: Map shows all the observation stations (blue) within a bounding box; the nearest model point to the observation point is shown in red. The green line connects the observation point to the model point against which it is being compared.

Figure 4: Time series of modeled and observed wind speeds for a single station.

Easy Challenges: Identified and Fixed

• Some models have different longitude conventions ([0 360] and [-180 180]). This was accounted for by converting all longitude values to [-180 180].
• Of all the CSW endpoints tested NGDC and NODC were the only ones with very recent wind data available. The NGDC CSW end point was used.
• As of 07/31/2014, the NOAA/NCEP GFS model can't be accessed. See issue Can't access the PacIOOS NOAA/NCEP GFS model #134.

Longer-term Challenges Identified

• None