CoAuthors

Michael Shannon (University of Colorado Boulder, United States); Benjamin Hamlington (Old Dominion University, United States)

Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR) altimeter ocean data viewers have been online since 1996. Major updates of the processing and visualization system were performed in 2002 and 2010. The most recent update consolidated the data processing codebase into MATLAB with the goal of improving the processing and gridding methods used to produce sea surface height (SSH) data products. Since the last major upgrade it has become clear that the stability of the system is at risk because of software rigidity and deprecation of functionality over time. We are in the process of rewriting the architecture (but not the algorithms) in an effort to modularize the system and add programmatic access to the data by using a three tiered networked architecture where components do not have to reside at the same location. The first tier would encompass the raw data access consisting of FTP, OpenDAP, Web Map Service, and SQL. The last three would be available through HTTPS remote procedure calls. The second tier would include the MATLAB processing refactored into distinct yet cohesive portable modules and ported to Python and a Flask (Python) based web API for interfacing with the processing and viewers. The last tier would consist of an AngularJS based web application interfacing with the Flask API to deliver a responsive mapping and plotting site to users on all platforms. The modularization mentioned above allows three major benefits to both the producers and consumers of CCAR ocean data: integration of CCAR data and services into users programs and/or services, increased ease of incorporating new data products, and the possibility of mirroring CCAR processing and viewers in whole or in part at other locations. Both SSH and reconstructed sea level data sets produced at CCAR and Old Dominion University will be hosted on the new system.