Track: Application Development
ArcView GIS Is a Weather Processing System
Scott T. ShipleyIra A. Graffman , This paper is an expansion of an earlier work involving ArcInfo and AML, presented to the Esri International Users' Conference in May, 1996, and available on-line at http://www.Esri.com/base/common/userconf/proc96/TO300/PAP292/P292.HTM.
Most GIS users do not realize that ArcView GIS is also a sophisticated weather processing system (WPS). ArcView GIS is competitive with several state-of-the-art WPSs after reconfiguration for "look and feel" and some software additions. Important changes include the transformation of weather data to "GIS negotiable" formats (especially shapefiles), the acquisition of satellite images in standard projections, and modifications to support scene animation. GIS provides tremendous capabilities to analyze, transform, and visualize meteorological data. Existing modeling and analysis software are rapidly assimilated as extensions with data translators, and these extensions can be modified over time to work directly with GIS negotiable formats.
Scott T. Shipley
Hughes STX Corporation
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