A Web-Enabled System for Storage and Retrieval of GOES-8 Meteorological data from a Semantic Database

摘要

Meteorological data is a major component in the study and understanding of environment behaviors and their impact on society. Examples of the effects of hazardous weather conditions range from mild structural damage and agricultural and commercial losses to massive death and destruction. Meteorological data enables the prediction and analysis of weather phenomena and its possible life-threatening and property-damaging effects. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) system provides timely global weather information, including advanced warning of developing storms. Using GOES imagery, meteorologists are able to better study and understand atmospheric circulation patterns and behaviors. Capable of generating over 18 GB of meteorological data per day over the eastern United States, the GOES-8 is the first of this new generation of Earth-observing satellites. The High Performance Database Research Center (HPDRC), in conjunction with the NASA Regional Applications Center (RAC), has developed a web-enabled system which houses several gigabytes of GOES-8 meteorological data during each hurricane season. This system uses semantic database (Sem-ODB) technology to efficiently store and retrieve GOES-8 atmospheric data. Combining newly developed technologies and algorithms with the broadcast capabilities of the World Wide Web, HPDRC and NASA RAC make this vast source of information available to the general public and fellow scientists around the world.