The Earth Observer--March/April, 1995 Vol. 7, No. 2

JPL Physical Oceanography DAAC Distributes TOGA Data Set Collection

Chris Finch (cjf@seafloor.jpl.nasa.gov), Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The JPL PO.DAAC announces the availability of TOGA data sets on CD-ROM. The Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere (TOGA) CD-ROM is a set of Compact Disks-Read Only Memory (CD-ROMs) that contain 15 data sets that, together, meet most of the TOGA project data requirements. The following is a quotation from the TOGA International Implementation Plan:

"The highest priority requirement for TOGA is a consistent high-quality decade-long series of data describing the relevant components of the climate system."

The purpose of the TOGA CD-ROM set is to make selected TOGA data sets easily available to a variety of users. The users will be predominantly ocean scientists, but will also include scientists from the meteorological and climatological communities.

A primary goal of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) is to serve the needs of the oceanographic, geophysical, and interdisciplinary science communities that require physical information about the oceans. By producing and distributing such a product, the PO.DAAC will be providing data of interest to its primary user community.

Background

TOGA, a part of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), is a ten year project (1985 1994) to study the coupled ocean-atmosphere system. The scientific objectives of TOGA, as stated in the TOGA International Implementation Plan, are:

To gain a description of the tropical oceans and the global atmosphere as a time-dependent system, in order to determine the extent to which this system is predictable on time-scales of months to years, and to understand the mechanisms and processes underlying its predictability.
To study the feasibility of modeling the coupled ocean-atmosphere system for the purpose of predicting its variations on time-scales of months to years.
To provide the scientific background for designing an observing and data transmission system for operational prediction if this capability is demonstrated by coupled ocean-atmosphere models.

To achieve these goals, TOGA measured atmospheric and oceanographic variables for the ten year period and is performing modeling studies of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system aimed at prediction of the system.

The TOGA CD-ROM project is an effort to distribute both in situ and model data from the WCRP TOGA project. In 1990, the NASA Ocean Data System (NODS, the former name of the PO.DAAC) undertook the TOGA CD-ROM Pilot Project. The International TOGA Project Office (ITPO) arranged for the transfer of 9 data sets containing observations and model results to NODS at JPL, which were then assembled into a CD-ROM. The final result, JPL Publication 90-43, TOGA CD-ROM Description (Halpern, et al.), was distributed to the TOGA research community by the ITPO. This is referred to as the Pilot CD-ROM.

In April of 1991, a TOGA CD-ROM Review was held at JPL. Information gathered by the ITPO from a questionnaire sent out with the data contained many favorable comments and constructive criticisms. As a result of this meeting, it was decided that the JPL PO.DAAC should propose to the ITPO to publish a TOGA CD-ROM set that covers the entire TOGA project period, from 1985 to 1994. The following guidelines for the development of the TOGA CD-ROM were established:

All data sets on the Pilot CD-ROM would be included, plus additional data sets and additional parameters to be provided by the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
ASCII and gridded binary code (GRIB) would remain the only data formats used.
Additional software should be developed, preferably in the "C" language, for enhanced data manipulation and visualization.
At least part of the software should be portable to as many hardware configurations as possible.

The following additional guidelines were established at the PO.DAAC:

Maintain the highest possible compatibility with the Pilot CD-ROM.
Maintain the integrity and individuality of each data set.
Fit the data for 1 year on a single CD-ROM.
Enhance data format consistency and usability wherever possible.

This plan expanded the number of data sets to 14. The actual number of data sets on the CD-ROM is 15, which includes 3 data sets not in the original plan. The additional planned data sets which did not make this edition should be included in future versions. Unfortunately, the goal of software portability has not yet been met, but will be addressed in future releases of TOGA CD-ROM data and software.

The TOGA CD-ROM Package

The TOGA CD-ROM Package consists of a set of 6 CD-ROMs containing in situ and numerical model data for the years 1985 through 1990 formatted according to the ISO-9660 standard, one CD-ROM containing application software for visualizing and extracting data on a PC-compatible system, a document that describes the data and software, and two documents describing the ECMWF model. Macintosh-compatible software of limited functionality (data extraction only) is also included on the software CD-ROM.

TOGA Software

PC-Compatible TOGA CD-ROM Interface Software--The TOGA CD-ROM Interface Software is designed to locate, view, and extract data of interest to the investigator based on time, location, parameter, or data set. The graphical user interface allows the user to browse through the data contained on a CD-ROM and select files for viewing. The user can also browse through lists of data files created by either searching the CD-ROM for data files matching specific criteria or by selecting the files manually. The menus may be traversed with the mouse or the keyboard using the key with the underscored letters in the menus.

Macintosh TOGAextract Software--The TOGAextract program is designed to locate and extract data of interest to the investigator based on time, location, parameter, or data set. TOGAextract has no facility with which to view images of the data, but can output "raw", 8-bit images of the gridded data sets (CAC, ECMWF, FSU, GEOSAT, GPCP, ISCCP, LODYC, NCAR, and ORSTOM). ASCII output can be obtained from all data sets.

Other Supplied Software--The following other software packages are supplied with the TOGA CD-ROM: OPCPLOT, oceanographic charting software for the worlds oceans, produced by USGS Minerals Management Service; PCSHOW, software for viewing images on the PC, developed by NCSA; IMDISP, more software for image display on the PC, developed at the JPL Planetary Data System; ATLAST, PC software to plot and examine oceanographic section data, developed by Peter Rhines; NCSA Image for image display on the Macintosh, developed by NCSA; Imagic, also for image display on the Macintosh, developed by Charles L. Norris and William J. Emery; and OceanAtlas, a Macintosh version of ATLAST, developed by John Osbourne and James H. Swift. Documentation files are included with the software, when available, which more fully document the software.

For more information on the TOGA data product, contact:
JPL PO.DAAC User Services Office
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mail Stop 300-320
4800 Oak Grove Dr.
Pasadena, CA 91109
telephone: 818-354-9890
FAX: 818-393-2718 (Attn: User Services Office)
e-mail: podaac@shrimp.jpl.nasa.gov

References

Collins, D.J., 1991: Physical Oceanography Version 0 Distributed Active Archive Center Science Support Plan. JPL Internal Document D-9247, 43 pp.

Finch, C.J., 1994: Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center TOGA CD-ROM Users Guide, JPL Internal Document D-11538, 126 pp.

Halpern, D, H. Ashby, C. Finch, E. Smith, and J. Robles, 1990: TOGA CD-ROM Description. JPL Publication 90-43, 43 pp.

ITPO, 1991: Report of TOGA CD-ROM Project Planning Meeting, International TOGA Project Office, 11 pp.

ITPO, 1992: TOGA International Implementation Plan, Fourth Edition, International TOGA Project Office, 73 pp.

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