The NCOF Partners are:
Openlayers / Web Map Server Demo
Below is an interactive map showing sea surface temperature from a choice of dataset from 1st April 2008:
- The OSTIA daily high resolution analysis based on satellite and in-situ observations.
- The FOAM Global 1 degree deep ocean model, which assimilates observations including temperature into a physically based numerical model.
Use the radio buttons to switch between the two layers - sometimes this can take a few seconds as the data is loaded and displayed. You can pan and zoom the map using the controls at the top left, or you can drag the map around with your mouse. As you zoom in, more detailed data is loaded so the image does not pixellate the way you might expect. However since FOAM 1 degree is our coursest resolution model, when zoomed in you can see the squares of the numerical grid.
The map here is displayed using the OpenLayers library. The oceanographic data displayed is provided using a Web Map Server (WMS, as specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium) provided by ESSC at the University of Reading. The WMS allows users to pull the information they need into their own applications without having to download and process entire data sets. Here, in addition to the oceanographic data, the map is drawing the land texture information from the "Blue Marble" dataset served by Metacarta.
See the GODIVA2 web portal at ESSC for a more advanced demonstration portal combining OpenLayers and WMS-served map images.