Interactive Scientific Visualization for Climate and Ocean Data
This project builds the open web tools — climate atlases, Web GIS sites, and map interfaces — that let anyone explore four-dimensional ocean and climate data in a browser.
Olmo Zavala-Romero Eric P. ChassignetJorge Zavala-HidalgoAgustin Fernandez-Eguiarte
Goals
Develop open, accessible tools for exploring and communicating complex geospatial and four-dimensional environmental datasets. This research line connects climate atlases, self-contained Web GIS platforms, and interactive map interfaces so scientists, educators, and decision-makers can analyze, compare, and share continental, oceanic, bioclimatic, and socioeconomic information through the web.
Methods
The line began with the Digital Climatic Atlas of Mexico (DCAM), which integrated GIS, WMS map servers, interactive digital cartography, and high-resolution georeferenced layers for Mexico and Central America. It evolved into OWGIS, an open-source Java application that auto-generates self-contained Web GIS sites from XML configuration and serves data through OGC standards from GeoServer and ncWMS/NetCDF backends. OWGIS 2.0 extended the platform with HTML5 mobile interfaces and COMPASS-based styling for desktop and field use. Current work applies these visualization principles to ocean circulation, marine litter pathways, and ML-driven environmental datasets in the PULSE Lab.
Key findings
The 2010 Digital Atlas of Mexico (Eos; doi:10.1029/2010eo140001) showed that online multimedia cartography can make climate, bioclimatic, and socioeconomic information readily accessible through preconfigured and user-configured georeferenced maps. OWGIS (Environmental Modelling & Software, 2014; doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2014.08.029) demonstrated that XML-configured Web GIS sites can publish 4D NetCDF environmental data with animations, vertical profiles, transects, and downloads—powering DCAM (>2000 layers) and Deep-C Gulf of Mexico displays. OWGIS 2.0 (2014) added responsive HTML5 mobile interfaces while retaining desktop visualization for classroom and field applications.