OGC Seeks Participants for Ocean Science Interoperability Experiment Phase II

The Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. (OGC(R)) will launch the second phase of an Interoperability Experiment on ocean science interoperability at a meeting ( http://www.oostethys.org/oceansie2) on March 20, 2009. The initiators of the experiment seek participation by other organizations interested in interoperability among information systems used in ocean research.

In December 2006 OGC members started Oceans Science Interoperability Experiment Phase I (Oceans IE Phase I) to investigate use of services implementing the OpenGIS (TM) Web Feature Services (WFS) and Sensor Observation Services (SOS) Interface Standards for representing and exchanging point data records from fixed in-situ marine platforms. (See the final report at http://www.oostethys.org/outreach/working_folder/ogcreport/ogc-oie-20080822.pdf/view).

Oceans IE Phase II will address issues that arose in Phase 1, including: an encoding standard for trajectories (of, for example, autonomous underwater vehicles); long time series services; services involving complex systems; and services that are event based (e.g. tsunami sensors within +/-12 hrs of a tsunami) and others.

Potentially, the participants will submit to the OGC Technical Committee change requests for existing OGC standards to influence evolution of these standards. The Interoperability Experiment is not expected to result in new OGC standards.

The OGC members acting as initiators of Oceans IE II are:

• Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA)
• Texas A&M University – Academy for Advanced Telecommunications and Learning Technologies (TAMU)
• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
• Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)
• Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GoMOOS)

Organizations that wish to participate and that can meet the Requirements for Participation (see Oceans Science Interoperability Experiment Activity Plan ( http://www.oostethys.org/oceansie2) must notify the OGC before March 18, 2009 of their desire to participate.

Contact Carl Reed at creed@opengeospatial.org for further details.