Data Services : ERDDAP

Environmental Research Division’s Data Access Program (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.
Data Interoperability

Plug-and-play with PacIOOS data in your chosen software or programming language using standardized web services protocols like OPeNDAP, Web Map Service (WMS), NetCDF Subset Service (NCSS), and other open access methods. Please contact us at info@pacioos.org if you have any questions!