Enhanced Management of and Access to Ocean and Coastal Mapping Data

Evan J. Robertson (1), Barry W. Eakins (1), Susan McLean (2)

Abstract
NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) - a newly established organization combining the National Geophysical Data Center, National Oceanographic Data Center, and National Climatic Data Center - is currently engaged in a two-year effort to enhance data ingest, description, archive, discovery, and delivery of ocean and coastal mapping (OCM) data. Through the use of Hurricane Sandy Supplemental funding, NCEI has developed a map viewer focused on the New York-New Jersey region that supports discovery and access to multiple types of bathymetric data. This integrated viewer implements new tools to aid user discovery of archived data, including National Ocean Service (NOS) hydrographic survey soundings and products, multibeam bathymetry from the academic and NOAA fleets, coastal bathymetric lidar data, and digital elevation models. The updated map viewer enables bundled delivery of multibeam bathymetry and NOS soundings through the NCEI Extract Service (NEXT). This service utilizes a tabbed graphical interface which allows users to refine their data request by selecting or deselecting specific datasets - simplifying the user experience while increasing the breadth of data access. NOS survey products remain available on a per survey basis through links within the graphical interface. Once these data discovery and delivery tools are refined, they will be expanded globally through the NCEI bathymetry map viewer. The inclusion of additional OCM data types available at NCEI (e.g., trackline bathymetry, water column sonar), with each having its own tab for refined data selection, is planned for future updates to NEXT.