Distributed Hydrographic Spatial Data Servers

Daniel R. Martin
National Ocean Service, Coastal Services Center (TPMC)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Ocean Service's (NOS) archive of hydrographic data is a primary resource for many whom work in coastal and marine areas both inside and outside of NOAA. This data is critical to meeting both strategic goals of "Safe Navigation" and "Sustained Healthy Coast." There are several significant technical hurdles to accessing and working with the data in a digital format that can now be resolved using existing and advanced technologies with the Internet. The large file sizes (>100 million soundings), the distributed organization of the data, and the security needed to maintain data integrity all contribute to the special needs of this project. To implement these technologies NOS has begun by developing a prototype in collaboration with several partners. The result of this project should be better development and analysis tools, a migration path from file archives to a database, an integration plan to inclu! de! non-NOS data, and a distribution model that incorporates multiple data servers across the Internet into a unified structure.

BIO - Daniel R. Martin Mr. Martin has been working with Geographic Information Systems for coastal and marine applications since 1988. He has a Masters Degree in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island, where his thesis was the "Liability Issues in the Development of Electronic Chart Display Information Systems." At the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution he used GIS on several deep water research cruises including ROV surveys of the Battleship Bismark, Jason trips in the Mediterranean, and geophysical studies on the East Pacific Rise. He was Data Manager at the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Office for five years and was heavily involved with the acquisition, processing and publishing of color orthoimagery. Mr. Martin has worked as a contractor to the NOAA Coastal Services for several years where he has been the co-author on three projects funded through the NOAA Office of High Performance Computing and Communications.

Auditorium - Paper Wednesday - 1:20 - 1:40 P.M.