Efficient Access to Climate Products using ACIS Web Services

Abstract

espite the proliferation of in situ, modeled, and remotely sensed climate data over the last decade, users of these datasets outside of the research community cite numerous hurdles to the effective use of these data in decision making (e.g., These reviews describe many climate datasets as large, covering geographic domains of little interest to users having a need for only a small subset of these data. The studies mention a range of data formats that complicate the use of data from different networks. Gridded datasets, as well, are stored in a variety of data formats and projections. Based on decades of experience, the Regional Climate Center (RCC) Program has found that end users are often frustrated by the onerous tasks of downloading and parsing large volumes of irrelevant data, reformatting files, and recreating commonly used analyses. These steps introduce potential errors to the data stream and are inefficient uses of human and financial resources. The World Bank recently labeled data that are "hard to use" as a barrier, stating, "Developers tend to use data they can easily access and understandwhich may not be the most current, comprehensive or robust data available" (http://data.worldbank.org /news/climate-data-meeting-discussion).