OGC Announces Another Government Agency Chooses OGC Standards

Business Wire, May 1, 2008

WAYLAND, Mass. -- The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.[R] (OGC) announced that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) program Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) is implementing a number of OGC standards. IOOS is a multidisciplinary system that will provide data and information on the oceans and Great Lakes, at both local and national scales, for use by a wide variety of decision makers.

"NOAA is proud to lead this national effort to link ocean observations in an easy-to-use standard format that provides accurate and timely information so people can make informed business and recreational decisions," said Zdenka Willis, director of the NOAA Integrated Ocean Observing System Program. "NOAA and our partner organizations will use the integrated data to improve forecasts of severe weather and natural hazards, enhance pollution tracking models, and create a more complete picture of our ocean planet."

NOAA will begin the effort by establishing interoperable access to online databases maintained by the National Weather Service (NWS) National Data Buoy Center (NDBC), the National Ocean Service (NOS) Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) and the National Environmental Satellite Data Information Service (NESDIS) CoastWatch Program. This will be accomplished using web service interface and encoding standards developed by the OGC.

"We are pleased to support NOAA in its effort to improve access, integration and use of important ocean observations collected and managed by many organizations," said OGC President and CEO Mark Reichardt. "The use of interoperable standards to study the ocean ecosystem will help to yield a range of environmental, social and economic benefits."

The standards being used are part of OGC's Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) suite of specifications, which enable diverse network-connected sensors and sensor systems to be queried and controlled by remote users. For IOOS, NOAA data providers will implement OGC's Sensor Observation Service, Geography Markup Language (GML) and Observations and Measurements (O&M) specifications to provide data on temperature, salinity, water level, currents, winds and waves.

The OGC[R] is an international industry consortium of more than 350 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available interface specifications. OpenGIS[R] Specifications support interoperable solutions that geo-enable the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. The specifications empower technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org.