OpenClimateGIS Overview
OpenClimateGIS is a Python (v2.7) package designed for geospatial manipulation, subsetting, computation, and translation of climate datasets stored in local NetCDF files or files served through THREDDS data servers. OpenClimateGIS has a straightforward, request-based API that is simple to use yet complex enough to perform a variety of computational tasks. The software is built entirely from open source packages.
OpenClimateGIS is currently in beta and is actively seeking users. (Hurry and get special developer attention!)
GIS Capabilities
- Subsetting (e.g. intersects and intersection) of climate datasets by bounding box, Shapely geometries, or shapefile poly/multipolygon(s) (e.g. a single county or watershed, state boundaries).
- Time and level range subsetting.
- Single or multi-dataset requests (i.e. concatenation).
- Area-weighted aggregation to selection geometries.
- Alpha support for projected climate datasets.
- Geometry wrapping and unwrapping to maintain logically consistent longitudinal domains.
- Polygon and point geometric abstractions.
Data Conversion
- Access to local NetCDF data or data hosted remotely on a THREDDS (OPeNDAP protocol) data server. Only the piece of data selected by an area-of-interest is transferred from the remote server.
- Stream climate data to multiple formats. Currently supported formats include keyed CSV-shapefile, shapefile, CSV, NetCDF, and NumPy.
- Extensible converter framework to add custom formats.
- Automatic generation of request metadata.
- Push data to a familiar format to perform analysis or keep the data as NumPy arrays, perform analysis, and dump to a supported format.
Computation
- Extensible computational framework for arbitrary inclusion of NumPy-based calculations.
- Apply computations to entire data arrays or temporal groups.
- Computed data may be streamed to any supported formats (NetCDF currently available in the development branch).
What exactly is OpenClimateGIS?
OpenClimateGIS is Python (v2.7) package used inside a Python scripting or application environment. OpenClimateGIS also has RESTful URL representations of operational calls and may be readily incorporated into web service applications.
How do I get OpenClimateGIS?
Instructions for installing OpenClimateGIS may be found on its documentation site: http://ncpp.github.io/ocgis/install.html.
Where is the software documentation?
Sphinx-based documentation may be found here: http://ncpp.github.io/ocgis/index.html.
Are there examples of how to use OpenClimateGIS?
Yes, example scripts are available here: http://ncpp.github.io/ocgis/examples.html.
Why should I use OpenClimateGIS?
Working with climate data in its native format is not ideal for all types of anlyses and use cases. It often requires a technical skill (and software) not required to successfully work with other data and data formats. OpenClimateGIS is designed to operate in this grey area facilitating data access and minimizing "data jockeying". Furthermore, by working explicitly with data subsets data quantity is also minimized. It may also be the case that a particular analysis is regional in nature (e.g. county-level, management district). OpenClimateGIS is designed to work with regional use cases in mind. Lastly, raw data values from say a daily climate dataset may present too much resolution and complication if monthly or annual values are desired. The computational capabilities inside OpenClimateGIS provide methods to reduce the daily to data to statistically summarized values.
How do I know if my data is compatible with OpenClimatGIS?
If your dataset is CF-compliant (Climate and Forecasting Convention), then there should be no issue. Once you have the software installed, you can quickly inspect a dataset to determine if OpenClimateGIS can read its internal structure. If your data is not CF-compliant, it may still be compatible with OpenClimateGIS provided you overload some dimensional parameters.
What is the overall goal of OpenClimateGIS project?
The climate modeling community typically stores climate data in multidimensional gridded formats capable of efficiently storing large volumes of data (e.g. NetCDF) while the geospatial community typically uses flexible vector and raster formats that are capable of storing small volumes of data (relative to the multidimensional gridded formats). OpenClimateGIS seeks to address this difference in data formats by clipping climate data to user-specified vector geometries (i.e. areas of interest) and translating the gridded data on-the-fly into multiple vector representations. The OpenClimateGIS system does not store climate data archives locally, but rather works in conjunction with external climate archives that expose climate data via the OPeNDAP protocol.
Who is developing OpenClimateGIS?
OpenClimateGIS is being developed in the NESII Group in association with the NCPP Project under funding provided by the NOAA Climate Program Office.
Last Update: April 16, 2013, 5:50 p.m. by Benjamin Koziol
Data Search
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OpenClimateGIS: AGU Poster Presentation
Presentation at the AGU Meeting in San Francisco. December 8, ... More » rbrood @ 12/05/2011 3:04 p.m. |
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OpenClimateGIS: Demo: 21 November 2011
Tyler Erickson will present current capabilities of OpenClimateGIS to the ... More » rbrood @ 11/28/2011 11:29 a.m. |
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OpenClimateGIS: Demo: 1 August 2011
Tyler Erickson will demonstrate current capabilities of OpenClimateGIS to the ... More » rbrood @ 11/21/2011 12:32 p.m. |
