24-10-2012, 04:53 PM
Using a Web Browser for Environmental and Climate Change Studies
ABSTRACT
A new web browser for viewing and manipulating meteorological data sets is located on a web server at NASA, Langley
Research Center. The browser uses a live access server (LAS) developed by the Thermal Modeling and Analysis Project at
NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. LAS allows researchers to interact directly with the data to view, select,
and subset the data in terms of location (latitude, longitude) and time such as day, month, or year. In addition, LAS can
compare two data sets and can perform averages and variances, LAS is used here to show how it functions as an internet/web
browser for use by the scientific and educational community. In particular its versatility in displaying and manipulating data
sets of atmospheric measurements in the earth’s radiation budget (ERB) or energy balance, which includes measurements of
absorbed solar radiation, reflected shortwave radiation (RSW), thermal outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), and net radiation
is demonstrated. These measurements are from the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) experiment and
the surface radiation budget (SRB) experiment.
ABSTRACT
A new web browser for viewing and manipulating meteorological data sets is located on a web server at NASA, Langley
Research Center. The browser uses a live access server (LAS) developed by the Thermal Modeling and Analysis Project at
NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. LAS allows researchers to interact directly with the data to view, select,
and subset the data in terms of location (latitude, longitude) and time such as day, month, or year. In addition, LAS can
compare two data sets and can perform averages and variances, LAS is used here to show how it functions as an internet/web
browser for use by the scientific and educational community. In particular its versatility in displaying and manipulating data
sets of atmospheric measurements in the earth’s radiation budget (ERB) or energy balance, which includes measurements of
absorbed solar radiation, reflected shortwave radiation (RSW), thermal outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), and net radiation
is demonstrated. These measurements are from the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) experiment and
the surface radiation budget (SRB) experiment.