IWICOS - Integrated Weather, Sea Ice and Ocean Service System

The overall objective of IWICOS is to develop a prototype marine information system that will provide a single-entry access to integrated meteorological, sea ice and oceanographic (met-ice-ocean) products in electronic form, and to demonstrate this prototype for a group of users working in fisheries, sea transport, exploitation of marine resources in Northern European waters, or whose work is related to sea ice monitoring on a scientific or pre-operational basis. Results from user requirements studies, conducted before and during the project, have been used to extract and synthesise recommendations for facilities and features needed in the IWICOS System.

A generic system architecture with three main subsystems: Production, Brokering and Presentation, has been defined based on these recommendations. This architecture supports a service chain where multiple producers can deliver data and information products through a common broker. Within this architecture, each producer can maintain separate (legacy) production systems, which can run on various computer platforms. Producers can also retain internal formats up to the point where products are submitted to the broker for advertisement to potential customers and to an in-house server for Internet distribution. Then, the products must be standardised. First, through adhering to a standard metadata specification, and secondly, through making the observed, derived or predicted met-ice-ocean parameters available in a standard data format. The IWICOS metadata specification ensures that all products are described in a consistent and self- describing manner, which can be queried and processed by computer algorithms. This specification is developed using XML Schema, a widely accepted standard for metadata definition, supported by a number of public domain and commercial tools for preparation and validation of metadata. The core elements of the IWICOS system are standardised formats (BSQ, GRIB, Shapefile and XML), a common metadata definition, a producer server, a broker and façades that allow different client software to interact with the system.

Different End-User Systems provide customised display and analysis facilities for target end-user groups, and consist of a Client and Façade subsystem. Some of these are thin clients that rely on having a server generating all data and information in a form ready for presentation. Others are thick clients, which download full (or partial) data sets and products, and contain tools for both analysis and presentation. A third category is a so-called balanced client, which include some analysis and presentation tools, but still uses a server for certain types of processing such as map drawing. The Façade may be used to tailor data to a specific client, e.g. by reducing its size by compression before transmitting it via a low-bandwidth connection, or to perform format conversion before transmission.