Coastal online analysis and synthesis tool 2.0 (COAST)

Abstract

The Coastal Online Assessment and Synthesis Tool (COAST) geobrowser has been developed at NASA Stennis Space Center (SSC) for integration of previously disparate coastal datasets from NASA and other sources into a common desktop client tool. COAST will provide insightful new data visualization and analysis capabilities for the coastal researcher. COAST is built upon the NASA open source 3D geobrowser, World Wind, developed at the NASA Ames Research Center. COAST also integrated some of the value-added modifications and enhancements from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center version of World Wind, SERVIR-Viz. COAST is being developed to maximize use of open source data access, viewing, and data manipulation software tools, creating a low-cost, widely installable base for potential users. Feedback from preliminary reviewers has led to more robust understanding of the data integration and visual analytic challenges and of the potential solutions that COAST can offer to the broader user community. Improved mode of functionality for these users will lead to a more refined methodology for implementation of COAST as an effective tool for a range of potential users varying from researcher to investigator to potential decision maker. Development of the Temporal Visualization Tool (TVT) plugin for COAST was begun in the 2007 Integrated Approach to Monitoring Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico project. The origin of this time-based animated data overlay tool is the Naval Research Laboratory Monterey Weather plugin, which is still distributed with the present World Wind 1.4 package. Modifications to the TVT tool have been targeted to provide users the capability to connect to and map/integrate disparate datasets, located locally and online, into project sessions. The TVT allows direct data listing of accessible raster datasets, subsequent multi-select, temporally animated image overlays in the COAST browser, and transparency control over the animated layer within COAST via a slider mechanism. The development of the Recursive Online Remote Data — Data Mapper (RECORD-DM) utility was driven by the need for an ability to map and add online remote image-product datasets to the TVT plugin's list of available images as needed. The RECORD-DM tool allows a user to map the current state, structure, and location of online raster data available for viewing in TVT. It also allows geographic position information to be attached and creates an XML file map of the data for immediate use in the TVT as either static or temporally animated overlays in the current COAST session. The Import Data Tool provides the ability to quickly add image and vector datasets in a COAST session without having to be a geospatial or image processing expert. The envisioned COAST end user community can vary from seasoned research scientists wanting to integrate decision model output into their sessions all the way to coastal community managers wanting to review local, state, and federal data products in their areas of interest.