Data Services

Data Services : ERDDAP

Environmental Research Division’s Data Access Program (ERDDAP)

URL: https://pae-paha.pacioos.hawaii.edu/erddap/

Developed by: NOAA Environmental Research Division (ERD), ERDDAP info

Summary:

Supports a large variety of output formats for both gridded and point-based data sets. Useful as both a data server and a data viewer. Our primary data server for non-gridded data sets, such as in situ observations from buoys, stations, autonomous underwater vehicles, field collections, and other discrete sampling geometries.

Suggested use:

• Subset and download data in a wide variety of output formats.
• Map and plot either gridded or non-gridded (e.g., point-based) data sets.

Pros:

• RESTful (URL-based) data access for both gridded and point data sets.
• Highly customizable data access and data browse capabilities in one interface.
• Metadata in three flavors: FGDC, ISO, and NetCDF attributes. Tip: View PacIOOS metadata at http://pacioos.org/data/metadata/

Cons:

• Web Map Service (WMS) only supports the geographic “latlon” projection (EPSG:4326). Tip:THREDDS provides WMS with further projection support and other enhancements.
• Data sets that include variables with and without a depth component must be split into separate catalog entries.
• Maps and plots are not interactive: you cannot drag/pan them, click to query data, or double-click to zoom, etc. Tip: See PacIOOS Voyager.
• Coastlines are coarse and no basemaps are provided, such as satellite imagery, Google-like maps, or other geographic aids. Tip: See PacIOOS Voyager.

Data offerings:

• Includes real-time and other in situ observations like water quality buoys, nearshore sensors, automatic weather stations (AWS), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), water quality samples, biological surveys, and other discrete sampling geometries.
• Provides most of our forecast models, satellite data, and other gridded data like bathymetry, though it cannot handle irregular (curvilinear) grids like some of our Regional Ocean Models (ROMS).

Screenshots:

Data types:

• grids
• points
• profiles
• trajectories

Services:

• RESTful (URL-based) data access
• OPeNDAP
• gridded data only:
  • Web Map Service (WMS): EPSG:4326 latlon projection only. For spherical mercator (EPSG:3857) and other map projections, use THREDDS instead.

Output formats:

• NetCDF
• DODS binary (OPeNDAP)
• PNG
• KML
• PDF
• GeoTIFF
• XML
• ASCII text: comma-separated values (CSV) or tab-separated values (TSV)
• JSON, GeoJSON
• HTML table
• MATLAB binary
• others…

Metadata:

• ISO 19115-2: Geographic Information − Metadata
• FGDC: U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM)
• CF: NetCDF Climate and Forecast Metadata Convention
• NetCDF Attribute Convention for Dataset Discovery (ACDD)

Viewers:

• makes maps and time series plots
• generates vector maps (wind, currents) from u (eastward) and v (northward) velocity components

Additional features:

• Full text search and advanced search capabilities for finding datasets of interest.
• RSS feeds and e-mail subscriptions for update notifications.
• Embed maps and plots into your own website.
• Use ERDDAP’s slide sorter to produce a website from multiple maps, plots, or other content.