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What is WestMap?
WestMap is the Western Climate Mapping
Initiative, a collaborative effort being undertaken by the WestMap Consortium. The WestMap Consortium is a group of stakeholders from public
and private sectors who share a common interest in regional climate variability
and fine-scale mapping of this climate.
Climate can vary dramatically
across short distances and over small elevation changes as can the response to
such variation. Through the investigations of the NOAA Regional Integrated Science and
Assessment (RISA) programs and climate services outreach efforts such as
the Regional Climate Centers, it has become quite apparent
that stakeholders are increasingly requiring:
1) finer-scale climate data time
histories
2) Intuitive, efficient interactive
applications tools that do not require extensive expertise or special software to use
3) Knowledge support resources
to better understand and manage interactions between climate and their areas of responsibilities.
Stakeholder CommunityThe intended stakeholder
community for the WestMap Initiative
includes such entities as:
All of these stakeholders groups, and many more, are asking for fine-scale spatial climate time series and the ability
to acquire specialized time histories within user-specific
spatial configurations
What
is the WestMap Climate Mapping & Analysis Toolbox?
The WestMap toolbox
is an interactive web-based interface developed in response to findings that
stakeholders from a wide range of sectors require new forms of data, intuitive tools, and support resources to understand climate variability and to
be able to incorporate this understanding into specific planning and management
efforts. Specifically, stakeholders ask
for lengthy time series of fine-scale (~1-4 km) gridded climate data that
can be aggregated to user-specified domains, and accompanying user-friendly
resources.
Three Primary Interwoven Segments
1) data development and
operations
2) error assessments, data
analyses and diagnostics
3) data access,
visualization and educational resources.
How was
the toolbox constructed?
Several specific programming languages have been used to generate both
the web site and the products that the website will deliver. PHP (PHP:
Hypertext Preprocessor) andjava_script are the main technologies behind
creating dynamic, user-friendly web pages.
PHP is used to generate the web pages, site security and retrieving and
processing form data (such as user feedback). java_script is used in mouse-over effects, map labels that follow the
mouse, and the drop-down menus for site navigation to start (it will
undoubtedly be used throughout the site).
The portions of the site pertaining to “on-the-fly” map and data
requests are in design phase but will likely involve PHP,java_script or Java,
and open source webGIS software, modified for use here. A dedicated server is devoted to generating the “canned” products
and the user-requested, “on-the-fly” maps, graphs and data. Software utilized to generate these maps and
retrieve information from the PRISM database is a combination of C, FORTRAN,
perl, unix/linux scripts and potentially graphical software such as GrADS or
NCL (NCAR Command Language).
Development design is not limited to the languages listed to allow for flexibility
in design, development, and operations.
What types of climate time series are available through this site?
The initial fundamental data is monthly PRISM
temperature (maximum, mean, minimum) and precipitation at 4km resolution.
Period of record is 1895-present. Currently, WestMap supports gridded PRISM climate data for the Western United States. The interface has been designed to allow expansion of this domain to the continental United States in the future.
Where do I go if I need help?