THREDDS Collaborations

Last Updated: October 22, 2004

Data Providers

The following institutions have agreed to be data-server partners (themes and contacts noted parenthetically):

• CDC, the Climate Diagnostic Center (climate, Don "Hoop" Hooper);
• FNMOC, Fleet Numerical Meteorological and Oceanographic Center (oceanographic, Phil Sharfstein);
• GMU, George Mason University, (hydrologic, Menas Kafatos and Ruixin Yang);
• COLA, Center for Oceans Land Atmosphere (variety of data and GrADS Data Server, Jim Kinter)
• IRI/LDEO, International Research Institute/Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (climate, oceanographic, Benno Blumenthal);
• NCAR, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (atmospheric, oceanographic, Luca Cinquini);
• NCDC, the National Climatic Data Center (climate, Ben Watkins);
• NOMADS (NOAA Operational Model Archive and Distribution System, a unified climate and weather data archive, Glenn Rutledge).
• NGDC, National Geophysical Data Center (geophysical, Ted Habermann);
• SSEC, the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (GOES satellite data, Steve Ackerman and Tom Whittaker);
• PMEL, the Pacific Marine Environment Laboratory (oceanographic, marine, and Live Access Server, Steve Hankin);
• University of Alabama Huntsville (satellite and hydrology, Sara Graves and Rahul Ramachandran); and
• The ADDE servers in the Unidata community (real-time atmospheric data, Tom Yoksas).

Note that NCAR and SSEC serve as testbed sites for server-side software.  As the project progresses and the common underpinnings are tested, additional sites will be added. Under consideration are:

• IRIS DMC, Incorporated Research Institutes for Seismology Data Management Center (seismic, Tim Ahern);
• University of Oklahoma (radar, Kelvin Droegemeier)
• ARM (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement, Chris Klaus); and
• University of Florence (European satellite data, Stefano Nativi).

THREDDS Second Generation Additions

• CIESIN (Columbia University Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network, Bob Downs)
• CUAHSI (Consortium of Universities for Advancement of Hydrologic Science, David Maidment)
• ESIG/NCAR (NCAR Environmental Societal Impacts Group, Bob Harriss)
• Earthscope (UCAR UNAVCO, Chuck Meertens)
• GEON (GEOphysical Network, Chaitan Baru, UCSD San Diego Supercomputer Center)

The data being offered range from climate and weather data to oceanographic, marine, and satellite data. These collections are already in place but there is no methodology for a unified search across all the independent servers. As partners in the THREDDS NSDL collections proposal, these data providers have agreed to:

• Supply the hardware and system administration required to run the THREDDS servers;
• Provide access to their characteristic data sets via DODS and/or ADDE client/server protocols in addition to more traditional methods (e.g., FTP, tapes);
• Provide browser/server access to certain data sets via Web-based thin clients such as PMEL’s Live Access Server (LAS) where appropriate;
• Using LDM/IDD technology (where appropriate), make real-time data available on the server; and
• Work with Unidata to incorporate systems for expanded metadata to make it easier for users to find data sets and to use them once found.  This is the key component that will tie the server systems together, enable remote clients to find and access the data, and connect the servers with the DLESE discovery system.

Client Analysis and Display Tools

The THREDDS prototype will provide examples of a wide variety of working applications that use our metadata framework to find, analyze, and display data from server sites.  This will demonstrate an end-to-end system for data access and visualization. The following developers will incorporate our client-side data-access components (class libraries and metadata access) into their own data manipulation tools:

• Data Discovery Toolkit and Foundry based on EDMI (Earth Data Multimedia Instrument, New Media Studio, Bruce Caron). These are a set of data-analysis and display tools based on IDL and Macromedia Director. They can be used to generate very elaborate educational modules.
• IDV (Integrated Data Viewer, Unidata Program Center, Don Murray). A set of pure Java, platform-independent, two- and three-dimensional data-analysis and display tools—based on the VISAD infrastructure.
• INGRID (IRI/LDEO, Benno Blumenthal). This is another example of a system enabling analysis and display of data via a Web browser.  As with LAS and GDS, INGRID provides substantial data-analysis capabilities.
• Live Access Server (LAS, PMEL, Steve Hankin). LAS illustrates the use of a Web-based (thin) client with the bulk of the analysis and display generation done on the server side.
• Virtual Geophysical Exploration Environment (VGEE, formerly The Virtual Exploratorium, the University of Illinois, West Chester State, DLESE, and NCAR, Don Middleton). This application incorporates the educational functions directly into the data analysis and display tool itself.
• VISAD infrastructure from SSEC (Bill Hibbard of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in conjunction with the Unidata Program Center).
• WXWise applets (the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Tom Whittaker). These applets illustrate the use of Java to embed data-analysis and display tools directly into educational modules on a Web site.
• Others: Some software packages (MatLab, IDL, McIDAS, etc.) already have been adapted to acquire remote data via DODS or ADDE.  Even if these systems are not adapted to take direct advantage of PICats or other THREDDS advances, their users will benefit from data available on THREDDS servers.

THREDDS Second Generation Additions

• ESRI GIS Clients (ESRI, Inc., Jack Dangermond, President)
• OGC Clients (Open GIS Consortium, David Schell, President)
• MyWorld (Northwestern educational GIS Client, Danny Edelson)

Interoperability

As noted elsewhere, the technological core of this proposal, the crucial component that has yet to be developed, is a system for adding the semantic description of scientific data sets necessary for data manipulation and discovery. It must interoperate with data providers, data servers, data clients, catalog servers, discovery systems, and other middleware components. Investigators will select key scientific data sets and semantic descriptions developed for an end-to-end demonstration of the utility of this approach. Unidata staff will work closely with DLESE to ensure that the resulting metadata system will interoperate effectively with NSDL.

Partners with whom we will consult on matters of metadata and interoperability are:

• The Earth System Markup Language (ESML, University of Alabama-Huntsville);
• The DIstributed MEtadata System (DIMES, George Mason University);
• The aggregation data catalog that is part of DODS (URI, Unidata);
• DLESE;
• The University of Florence (Italy), which will act as a liaison with the international metadata standards community. Dr. Stefano Nativi, our distinguished visitor from the University of Florence has made many contributions to THREDDS which are documented in his Observations on THREDDS, International Metadata Standards, and Data Interoperability Issues.

THREDDS Second Generation Additions

• ADL (Gazetteer Services The University of California, Santa Barbara, Linda Hill and Michael Goodchild)
• DLESE Evaluation Services (The University of Colorado CIRES, Susan Buhr)
• DLESE Data Services (Tamara Ledley)
• DLESE Program Center Digital Library for Earth System Education (Mary Marlino)
• ESRI (Jack Dangermond, President)
• OPeNDAP (The University of Rhode Island Open source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol -- formerly DODS, Peter Cornillon)
• LAITS (Laboratory for Advanced Information Technology and Standards,Liping Di, George Mason University)
• NSDL Evaluation Services (University of Colorado, Tamara Sumner)
• OGC (Open GIS Consortium, David Schell, President)
• SWEET (Semantic Web for Earth and Environmental Terminology, Rob Raskin)