An open geospatial consortium standards-based arctic climatology sensor network prototype

Abstract

We have constructed a prototype Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards-based Arctic Climatology Sensor Network Prototype (ACSNP) in response to recent developments in sensor technology and Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) wireless communications in Barrow, Alaska for the National Science Foundation (NSF). The OGC standards enable increased, interoperability, scalability, and extensibility for geospatial information at reduced cost. Our approach for the prototype is to integrate established technologies to create near-real-time geographic information networks (GINs). We linked a variety of meteorological and image sensors to a wide area wireless network in Barrow, Alaska. The network is a TCP/IP-based 700 Mhz WipLL network consisting of a 16 kilometer diameter local cloud as well as more distant fixed and mobile Iridium Open Port Units, that allow for global connectivity, at other remote research stations and on polar class ice breakers. Sensors linked to these wireless networks transfer their data to the Department of Energy (DOE) building in Barrow. The building houses two automatically populated mirrored File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers running Microsoft Server 2003 within a virtualized environment. The data are automatically harvested from the remote site over redundant 4 X T-1 satellite links to the central data center in Cincinnati, Ohio where it is formatted to comply with the OGC database initiatives to create an OGC-compliant geodatabase within Microsoft SQL Server 2008. The final web publication is the result of a three part system; geodatabases, web services and web applications. We use ESRI's ArcGIS Server technology for retrieval and publication utilizing ESRI's compliance with OGC web services. These web services may then be embedded within OGC compliant clients, such as ESRI's ArcGIS Desktop and Google Earth for analysis and web applications. The Arctic Climatology Sensor Network Prototype is accessible at OpenSensorMap.com.