Format and Feed Support

Information to help understand and use the data file formats and data feeds served by SECOORA.

Comma Separated Value (CSV) files are text files containing rows of data. Data values in each row are separated by commas. CSV files also contain a comma-separated header row explaining each row's value ordering.

Applications:

Microsoft Excel
Text editors (MS Notepad, MS Wordpad etc)
Specialized CSV editors ( CSVed )
GIS applications ( Quantum GIS , ESRI ArcGIS )
Ocean Data View (ODV) : useful for CSV data from CTDs

Shapefile (SHP)

Shapfiles are a geospatial vector data format for GIS software.

Applications:

Quantum GIS
MapWindow
ESRI ArcGIS
Vector transform tools (like OGR )

ObsKML

ObsKML is a SECOORA internally developed XML schema convention for sharing recent in-situ observation data measurements in KML 'Metadata' tags which are spatially and temporally referenced via their associated KML 'Placemark' tags. ObsKML is also being utilized by SECOORA as a 'staging' XML based format to bring various other external data feeds to a common observation oriented format for data import/export with SECOORA internally developed Xenia relational database schema and various other utility scripts.

Styled KML

Styled KML is KML (Keyhole Markup Language used for 3D Globe visualizations like Google Earth) which has been visually 'styled' towards a specific customized view of the data.

SECOORA latest Styled KML

Within the 'by operator' folder, data is organized in subfolders by the operator and platform. When a placemark is clicked, the table information presented is all the latest observations for that platform.

Within the 'by observation' folder, data is initially ordered by observation type with the measurements for that observation type visually presented with an associated color gradient to represent the observation value. Subfolders allow toggling specific operators and platforms within each observation type and table information presented when a placemark is clicked is only the measurement for the associated observation type.

Applications:

SQLite Database

SQLite is a relational database that is self-contained and serverless. The entire database (definitions, tables, indices, and the data itself) is stored as a single file.

SQLite.org

Applications:

Data Feed Types

OGC Web Map Service (WMS)

A Web Map Service (WMS) produces maps of spatially referenced data dynamically from geospatial data.

'GetCapabilities' WMS request for SECOORA in-situ data. Returns an XML file with possible WMS data request options:
http://secoora.net/ncogc/mapserv?MAP=/opt/secoora_ogc/maps/secoora_insitu.map&REQUEST=GetCapabilities&SERVICE=WMS

'GetMap' WMS request for SECOORA in-situ SST data. Returns a map image based on query string arguments:

http://secoora.net/ncogc/mapserv?
&MAP=/opt/secoora_ogc/maps/secoora_insitu.map
&REQUEST=GetMap&SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1
&EXCEPTIONS=application/vnd.ogc.se_inimage
&FORMAT=image/png
&LAYERS=us_filled,world_filled,sst_obs_hourly_recent
&TIME_OFFSET_HOURS=2
&SRS=EPSG:4269
&BBOX=-91,19,-70,40
&HEIGHT=700&WIDTH=700

(base WMS URL: required)
(WMS map path: required)
(WMS parameters: required)
(error messages on map: can be removed)
(map image type: see GetCapabilities for options)
(layer names and layering order: see GetCapabilities for options)
(temporal offset: hours before present)
(map projection: see GetCapabilities for options)
(bounding box: LL lon,LL lat,UR lon,UR lat)
(map image size in pixels: H to W ratio to match bounding box)

Applications:

OGC Web Feature Service (WFS)

A Web Feature Service (WFS) provides a mechanism for requesting geographical feature data across the web using GML.

'GetCapabilities' WFS request for SECOORA in-situ data. Returns an XML file with possible WFS data request options:
http://secoora.net/ncogc/mapserv?MAP=/opt/secoora_ogc/maps/secoora_insitu.map&REQUEST=GetCapabilities&SERVICE=WFS

'GetFeature' WFS request for SECOORA in-situ SST data. Returns a GML file based on query string arguments:

http://secoora.net/ncogc/mapserv?
&MAP=/opt/secoora_ogc/maps/secoora_insitu.map
&REQUEST=GetFeature&SERVICE=WFS&VERSION=1.0.0
&TYPENAME=sst_obs_hourly_recent
&TIME_OFFSET_HOURS=2
&BBOX=-91,19,-70,40

(base WFS URL: required)
(WFS map path: required)
(WFS parameters: required)
(layer names: see GetCapabilities for options)
(temporal offset: hours before present)
(bounding box: LL lon,LL lat,UR lon,UR lat)

Applications:

OGC Sensor Observation Service (SOS)

A standard web service interface for requesting, filtering, and retrieving observations and sensor system information. Information for two different "flavors" of SOS are below.

Note also earlier development with WFS at http://code.google.com/p/xenia/wiki/XeniaPackageSqlite#MicroWFS