Abstract
How Can GIS Technology Help Meteorology? Experiences from COST-719 Track: Climate, Weather and Atmosphere Author(s): Frans Wel, Antonio Perdigao Twenty European countries are participating in a COST-project dedicated to the use of GIS in climatology and meteorology. GIS technology is becoming more interesting to our community because of developments in space-time modeling and open standards. Still, GIS is mostly used as a visualization tool for weather data whereas analyses are carried out by dedicated software, for example, for interpolation. This is disappointing as the openness of current GIS software allows for functional and dedicated extensions. Moreover, specific data formats are no longer the main impediment for the use of GIS; HDF, NetCDF, and XML are increasingly supported. Currently, emphasis is put on the development of Internet services using map server technology. The ability to seamlessly integrate different data sources in a browser-based mapping client can help a meteorologist issue severe weather warnings and serve numerous people who would like to use weather data in their applications. Frans Wel Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) R&D Observations PO Box 201 De Bilt , Utrecht 3730 AE NL Phone: +31302206822 E-mail: Frans.van.der.Wel@knmi.nl Antonio Perdigao Instituto de Desenvolvimento Rural e Hidráulica DCIG Av. Alfonso Costa 3-7º Lisbon , Lisbon P - 1949002 PT Phone: +351-21-8442381 Fax: 00351218442411 E-mail: perdigao@idrha.min-agricultura.pt |
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