Networked coastal sensors reporting real-time environmental conditions.
Real-time data maps on this site demonstrate the combined power of standards and Web services. The maps show a coastal monitoring network with hundreds of in situ and space-borne observations from dozens of different organizations. As a result, government agencies, research institutions and nonprofits contribute observations that easily and readily combine into one seamless network of observations and value-added products. The conceptual design for this "system of systems" has been prototyped with consensus standards from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).

How does it work?
The real-time maps update by regularly polling OGC-compliant web services from each data-provider. The map of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) - introduced on this site in 2003 - use the OGC Web Mapping Service (WMS) and Web Feature Service (WFS). We have also been testing and implementing the relatively new standards for the OGC Sensor Web Enablement initiative, which transfers data using the Sensor Observation Service (SOS).

What's remarkable about this?
The diversity of data providers is remarkable. The real-time data network demonstrates a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that integrates distributed data systems using Web 2.0 technologies (i.e., Web services & XML) and OGC standards. Contact us to find out how you can participate.

Would you like to participate?
Our goal is to simplify the process of deploying OGC-compliant web services. To that end, many of our partners participate in a companion open-source, software development project called OOSTethys. If you have data that you'd like to contribute to the network, please contact us and we'll help you get involved.