Progress on Metadata Issues for Ocean Observing

Stephanie Watson, CeNCOOS

Julie Bosch, NOAA NCDDC

Presented at the QARTOD II Workshop, 2/28-3/2/05

Overview

• Metadata in IOOS Data Management and Communications (DMAC) plan and subsequent issue paper

• COTS/ONR Metadata Working Group for IOOS Interoperability II

• Marine Metadata Interoperability (MMI) Initiative– Example resources for wave and current metadata

• Contributions from this workshop

IOOS DMAC Plan

• Metadata

• Data discovery

• Data transport

• On-line browse

• Data archive

DMAC plan, 2003

Metadata Needs in DMAC Plan• Determine IOOS metadata content and format

standards • Develop tools and procedures to support metadata

providers • Select (or develop) and maintain catalog and search

capability • Develop discovery interface for archive system • Design discovery portal • Study alternative discovery approaches • Design and implement data location service • Initial recommendations: FGDC and catalog

Example additional metadata issues

• Design FGDC v. 3/ISO 19139-compliant profile(s) (machine readable)

• Translators for all FGDC v.2 records (incl. Profiles and Extensions) into machine-readable ISO 19139

• Platform or sensor-related info. in metadata• Use cases in guidance• Catalog synchronization• Consider use of OGC specifications (e.g., Web Catalog Service)• Consider use of UDDI, SOAP, WSDL, ISO 11179 metadata

registries• Formalize vocabularies/thesauri/ontologies in XML/RDF/OWL

and submit to online library• Other recommendations (e.g., metadata in XML)

Addressing these metadata issues will happen in 3 stages

I. Inventory what’s already available (time scale: sub-year)

II. Identify best practices from among the inventory items (time scale:

sub- year)

III. Develop community-based standards (time scale: years)

COTS/ONR Metadata Working Group

• Participants: Anne Ball (lead), Julie Bosch, Stephanie Watson, Rob Bochonek, Dwayne Porter, Steve Collins

• Task: Develop a work plan to develop metadata to enable the IOOS Interoperability Demo II– Demo I: www.openioos.org (winds, SST)– Demo II will add waves, surface currents,

chlorophyll in regional natural hazards framework

Definitions• Data Dictionary

includes the metadata elements (terms) necessary to describe the data sets:– name, abbreviation (label), definition, units, scope the domain

and/or range of values, data type (actual measurement, derived, model result), source, for example

• Thesaurus- hierarchical and synonym information for each term entry, as well as the identification of the source of the related terms

--allows mapping between different data dictionaries

COTS/ONR Metadata WG Milestones

• I. (6 months)Version 1 of an IOOS/COTS Data Dictionary with contents describing the metadata elements required for the automatic discovery, access and use of SST, wind, waves, surface current and chlorophyll data.

• II. (12 months)Metadata Guidance for IOOS/COTS Data Providers - to include Use Cases which incorporate data dictionary content and thesaurus information into the metadata standard(s) used by the Interoperability II demonstration

Tasks• Jan 15 Identify Staff• Feb 1 Identify web workspace• Feb 15 Establish 5 sub-groups (1 per variable)• Feb 15 Identify metadata elements required, drawing from

existing efforts• Mar 1 Establish structure of metadata elements• Apr 1 Draft data dictionary and thesaurus• May 1 Final data dictionary and thesaurus• June 30 Milestone I complete• Aug 1 “How to” guidance• Sept 1 Publish guidance to web• Oct 1 Develop examples (“use cases”) – involving a variety of

forms e.g., NetCDF headers, FGDC, SensorML• Dec 1 Metadata available for Interoperability II demo • Dec 30 Publish guidance on how to add new parameters

to demo• Dec 31 Milestone II complete

Some Additional Considerations

• Continuously coordinate with the other COTS/ONR working groups

• Build on work already accomplished or in development

• Additional tools may need to be developed (e.g., automated access to data dictionaries/thesauri)

• Develop in compliance with FGDC/ISO 19115/19139 (latter is the draft specification used by the OGC web services)

• Make metadata available via a catalog service (data discovery)

Marine Metadata Interoperability (MMI) Initiative• Funded by NSF, with additional support from

SURA/SCOOP• Lead PI: John Graybeal (MBARI).

Other partners: Scripps, LDEO, OSU, WHOI, SURA/SCOOP, UHawaii, NOAA, UKansas, NASA, BODC (international)

• Contact information:– Luis Bermudez, MMI Liaison

bermudez@mbari.org– www.marinemetadata.org

MMI Mission and Objectives• Mission: To promote the exchange, integration and

use of marine data through enhanced data publishing, discovery, documentation and accessibility.

• Objectives:– Provide guidance and reference documentation on properly

using and developing metadata solutions for the ocean science community;

– encourage community involvement in the development and evaluation of the documentation; and

– use two test-bed activities to demonstrate the functions of metadata in cross-platform, cross-disciplinary, interoperable distributed data systems

Organization of the MMIWebsite

Http://marinemetadata.org

San Francisco Bay image showing currents and waves

Metadata terms/data dictionary currents – some sources id’d via MMI• “CODAR in FGDC” - developed by domain experts

at Marine Metadata Workshop, 10/03 http://cuahsi.sdsc.edu/html/metadataresources.html

• ADCP examples started at the metadata workshop (excel spreadsheet) and some suggested metadata elements at http://mmug.calfish.org/adcp.htm

• SEACOOS Data Dictionary http://nautilus.baruch.sc.edu/seacoos_dd/php/dd_login.php

• Others from MMI website: http://marinemetadata.org/vocabularies/refs

CF, BODC metadata elements: currents

• CF metadata elements– eastward_sea_water_velocity– northward_sea_water_velocity– upward_sea_water_velocity– direction_of_sea_water_velocity– sea_water_speed BODC metadata elements

- Horizontal velocity of the water column - Vertical velocity of the water column - Raw current meter output parameters

http://marinemetadata.org/vocabularies/examples/ioos/

http://www.isracam.co.il/swell.htm

CORTEZ BANK

Metadata terms/data dictionarywaves – some sources

• NDBC/CDIP/NCDDC working group for spectral wave metadata

• SEACOOS Data Dictionary http://nautilus.baruch.sc.edu/seacoos_dd/php/dd_login.php

• Others from MMI website: http://marinemetadata.org/vocabularies/refs

NDBC/CDIP working group for spectral wave metadata

• Example:– 1. Entity: sea state

• 1.1 Attribute: Significant wave height– 1.1.1. Units: Length: meter– 1.1.2. Method of Determination: Estimation Zeroth Spectral

Moment– 1.1.3. Source: spectral density– 1.1.4. Availability of Source: available

• 1.2 Attribute: Spectral peak period– 1.2.1. AKA: Dominant Period– 1.2.2. Unites: Time: Second– 1.2.3 Method of Determination: Maximum spectral density– 1.2.4. Source: spectral density– 1.2.5. Availability of Source: available…

CF, BODC metadata elements for IOOS variable: waves

• CF metadata elements– significant_height_of_wind_waves– direction_of_wind_wave_velocity– swell_wave_period– direction_of_swell_wave_velocity– wind_wave_period– significant_height_of_swell_waves

• BODC Surface_waves – Wave height and period statistics – Wave direction – 'Other' wave statistics – Spectral wave data parameters http://marinemetadata.org/vocabularies/examples/ioos/

Contributions from this workshop – identify:

• Terminology required to discover and use the wave and current data

• Definitions for each term• Labels for each term• Domains (acceptable values)• Ranges• Units• Quality control flags