Platform Type Standards for Marine Data:

Background

In January, 2008, the IOC and JCOMM convened a workshop entitled the IODE/JCOMM Forum on Oceanographic Data Management and Exchange Standards (IOC Workshop Rept. 206), to consider selected principal issues on establishing marine data standards, with the goal of furthering marine data interoperability. In particular the aim of the workshop was to get broad agreement and commitment to adopt a number of standards related to ocean data management and exchange, thereby assembling not only the agreed conditions by which we operate, but in fact enact these agreements in the participants' respective organizations.

Standards Recommendation

Mr. Parner (ICES) and Mr. Lowry (UK BODC) led both the Platform Name and Platform Type discussions, which are summarized and concatenated below. In view of the fact that no positive selection of a standard was made, and the very open-ended way that the discussion ended, this article and the companion article Platform Name Standards for Marine Data are both considered incomplete at this time, and will be amended and updated as further material is developed.

Mr. Lowry defined the term “platform” as “Vehicles, objects, structures or organisms capable of bearing sensors, instruments or tools for the collection of physical, chemical, geological or biological samples”. A “platform instance” is a physical manifestation of a platform. A “platform category” is a term used to label a group of platform instances that possess a common set of attributes.

They then considered the platform lists available for discussion:

• Global Change Master Directory Platform Keywords - In actuality this is a satellite list, and all vessels are consigned to the single entry SHIPS
• International List of Voluntary Observing Ships WMO No. 47 See the Code Tables for Data Files to find the WMO ship type codes used to classify voluntary observing ships
• MDG77 Format Specification - Format for geophysical survey data.
• SeaDataNet Platform Classes "L061"- Classes of vehicles, objects, structures or organisms capable of bearing instruments or tools for the collection of physical, chemical, geological or biological samples.
  • SeaDataNet Platform Class Categories "L062" - Higher level categorisation of the platform classes listed in the L061 vocabulary above
• ICES-SeaDataNet Ship Codes
• World Ocean Database and USA NODC Ship Codes

Both speakers noted strengths and weaknesses in these systems, and made it clear that no easy consolidation or reconciliation of them is at hand.

Mr. Lowry proposed the following way forward:

• Repair L061 (vocabulary of SeaDataNet platform classes);
• Open up L061 content governance using the SeaVOX facilities of SeaDataNet
• Establish mappings to lists in heavy community use (MGD77, WMO, USNODC)
• Establish mappings to platform instance lists (e.g. GCMD) to establish semantic bridge to metadata populated using instances