Mapping NOAA Data

At  NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) , we know data. We are the Nation's leading authority for environmental data and manage one of the largest archives of atmospheric, coastal, geophysical, and oceanic research data in the world. While it is important to store scientific data for posterity, it is even more valuable to make data available in products that people can use. Without products, data are just numbers. 

The NCEI archive contains more than 35 petabytes of data, equivalent to about 400 million filing cabinets worth of documents. But what good are all of these datasets without a purpose? At NCEI, we make data useful. One of the way we do that is with maps. NCEI uses  mapping products  to provide access to vast amounts of data in a visual way. 

Maps aggregate and organize raw data into a user-friendly format that display a variety of data types in the same geographic location. This allows you to see trends, gaps, and diversity among regions. Most maps produced by NCEI are interactive, allowing you to view data layers, zoom in and out, and specify search parameters. 

We invite you to learn more about NCEI as we journey from the depths of the sea to the surface of the sun using a few of our mapping products.

We start our data journey more than 20,000 leagues under the sea. For most of history, what lay below the ocean surface was mostly a mystery. In the early 1800s, ocean depths were measured by sounding poles (similar to large rulers), and later by lead lines (ropes with numbers marked along them and lead weights attached).

Surveyors lowered the line into the water, and when the weight reached the bottom, they marked the measurement on the line. These measurements were added to a chart that created a "picture" of the ocean or lake floor.

Over time, the tools used to collect bathymetric data advanced tremendously, giving scientists a clear view of the seabed.

Scientists create bathymetric maps to illustrate the depth and shapes of underwater terrain, just as topographical maps represent three-dimensional features of above-sea terrain.

NCEI compiles, archives, and distributes  bathymetric data  from coastal and ocean areas, as well as the Great Lakes.

Bathymetric data have a range of uses. Nautical charts are based on data acquired during bathymetric surveys. These charts guide mariners, much as GPS guides motorists, ensuring safe and efficient maritime transportation. 

Bathymetric surveys alert scientists to changes in our environment, such as ongoing and potential beach erosion, sea level rise, and land sinking. 

Knowledge of the seafloor's shape is crucial for understanding ocean circulation patterns that influence ocean atmosphere processes, which distribute heat between the tropics and the poles—a key component of Earth's climate system.

Though the ocean floor can seem like a dark and desolate place, it is a welcoming home to deep-sea corals, which live at depths greater than 164 feet (50 meters). 

Scientists have discovered deep-sea coral habitats on continental shelves, slopes, canyons, and seamounts, yet their full geographic extent is still unknown. NOAA's  Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program (DSCRTP)  studies and provides the scientific information needed to conserve deep-sea coral ecosystems and manage human activities around them.

One of the efforts of DSCRTP and its partners is site characterization, which describes the biodiversity, habitats, populations, communities, and ecological processes of a particular area. Using diving robots, camera systems, and seafloor-mapping sonar, scientists explore, study, and compile a summary of each site. 

As we journey from the bottom of the ocean toward its surface, we are taking the vertical highway known as the water column, or the volume of water from the ocean surface to the ocean floor. 

Though we often think of the ocean as its own independent entity, it greatly impacts life on the surface. Sea-surface temperatures, waves, and tides impact coastal regions and beyond. Storms, tsunamis, and tropical cyclones form over, or within, the ocean, often causing damage at the shoreline and beyond. 

One such cataclysmic event was the  Great Alaska Earthquake and Tsunami . 

On the morning of March 28, 1964 (UTC), without warning, the largest recorded earthquake in U.S. history struck Alaska's Prince William Sound.

The devastating 9.2 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami ravaged coastal communities and took over 139 lives.

The aftermath of the Great Alaska Earthquake and Tsunami led to the creation of the NOAA National Tsunami Warning Center. This center monitors and warns for tsunami threats 24/7 throughout the year. Today, more than 50 years since the Great Alaska Earthquake, the Tsunami Warning Centers issue tsunami warnings in minutes, not hours, after a major earthquake occurs. They also forecast how large any resulting tsunami will be as it crosses the ocean.

An effective tsunami warning system relies on the free and open exchange and long-term management of global data and science products to mitigate, model, and forecast tsunamis. NCEI is the global data and information service for tsunamis. Global historical tsunami data, including more information about the Great Alaska Earthquake, are available via the  Natural Hazards Map Viewer .

Over the deep ocean, tsunami waves may only be a few inches high. As the waves travel toward the coast, they grow exponentially and can become many feet tall, reaching far inland and leveling whatever is in their path. How tsunami waves behave—how far and fast they travel—is mostly influenced by the ridges and valleys of the ocean floor and of our coastlines.

NCEI scientists create models aimed to take the surprise out of tsunamis. These digital elevation models, or DEMs, merge land topography and ocean bathymetry to predict flooding from tsunamis, hurricanes, and other storm surge events.

Think of the DEM as the flight-simulator equivalent for tsunamis. Here's how it works:

When NCEI scientists complete a DEM, they deliver it to NOAA's Center for Tsunami Research where it is incorporated into tsunami models. These models simulate off- or near-shore earthquakes, the resulting tsunami movement across the ocean, and the magnitude and location of coastal flooding caused when a tsunami reaches the shore.

Armed with these simulation results, NOAA's Tsunami Warning Centers are then able to forecast flooding in the event of an earthquake-generated tsunami. State and local emergency managers also use DEMs to map potential flooding areas from the extent of storm surge.

In addition to tsunamis, weather and climate disasters such as floods, tropical cyclones, severe storms, drought, wildfires, and winter storms claim countless lives and cause billions of dollars in damages in the United States every year. It is NCEI's job to chronicle these disasters and document their impacts to the Nation.

The costliest of these weather disasters in the United States are tropical cyclones, but what may come as a surprise is that drought follows closely behind as the second costliest, according to NCEI's  Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters . 

Drought is a hazard of nature. We can't see it ignite, like a fire, or predict where it is likely to touch down, as we can a tornado. Like its natural hazard cousins, however, drought can leave a trail of destruction.

Most of the United States experience drought at least occasionally. Depending on its severity and duration, drought can devastate crops and forests, lead to shortages of food for livestock and wildlife, increase the risk of wildfires, and have a negative effect on local and regional economies. 

The USDA uses the  U.S. Drought Monitor  to generate disaster declarations and eligibility for low-interest loans. The Farm Service Agency uses it to help determine eligibility for their Livestock Forage Program, and the Internal Revenue Service uses it for tax deferral on forced livestock sales due to drought. State, local, tribal, and basin-level decision makers use it to trigger drought responses, ideally along with other more local indicators of drought.

Disasters such as tropical cyclones and drought aren't indicative of daily, weekly, or even monthly weather and climate patterns. To understand historic weather phenomena, such as temperature, precipitation, and snowfall, look to  NCEI's Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) .

GHCN is an integrated database of climate summaries and is the foundational dataset for studying the climate across larger geographic areas. Land-based observations are collected from instruments at locations on every continent. 

The data from GHCN are often used to understand global changes in climate.  Sixteen indicators of global change , also called "climate indicators," show trends over time in key aspects of Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and environmental conditions. Each indicator must be supported by regularly updated federal data sources, such as GHCN data and the  Billion-Dollar Disasters  tally.

Rain, wind, and storms are everyday features of weather on Earth near the surface. But beyond our atmosphere, scientists monitor phenomena all the way to the sun. "Space weather" is the name scientists adopted in the late twentieth century to refer to conditions on the sun, in space, and in the upper atmosphere of Earth.

It starts with the sun—our dynamic star that's under constant change. As the sun changes, so does the space around it. Solar flares and eruptions release enormous amounts of energy—much more energy than has been produced on Earth in all of human history—over the course of just a few minutes! These events are so powerful they can be felt across the solar system, from the sun's surface to tens of millions of miles away on Earth.

Solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and high-speed streams cause space weather-induced storms near Earth that are referred to as geomagnetic storms. These near-Earth responses to events from the sun demonstrate the far-reaching impact of the star's tremendous power. The sun's eruptions, precursors to storms, become problematic once they interact with the Earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere. Geomagnetic storms can disrupt systems on Earth, from radar to airline navigational tools.

GPS signals are susceptible to geomagnetic storms, which can change a receiver's ability to calculate an accurate position from a satellite signal. With more than 2,000 satellites in space and GPS features common in cell phones, the implications can be broad if signals are hampered. At home, our telecommunications systems, radio waves, cellular service, and power grids can all be affected by space weather. Space weather can reach Earth's immediate vicinity within a few days, but with the help of the GOES and DSCOVR satellites, we can detect and prepare for potential harm that these storms may cause.

However, not all outcomes of space weather are gloomy. Aurorae, or auroras, claim the distinction of being a natural, beautiful effect of space weather. Auroras could be considered space weather’s equivalent to the rainbow, except that the shimmering curtains of light have nothing to do with rain. They develop from the collision of charged particles from solar eruptions with our upper atmosphere.

At polar regions, the aurora borealis and aurora australis show up about half the nights in a given year. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center developed a visual prediction tool known as the OVATION Aurora Forecast Model. This model uses animation to show the latest aurora activity level. The green band that appears on the video changes colors based on the likelihood of aurora activity. The closer to red the band becomes, the more likely an aurora may appear in that area of the globe.

While the beauty of the aurora can be seen with the naked eye, what you can't see is of even greater importance to scientists as they closely monitor Earth's magnetic field. 

If you could view Earth's invisible magnetic field from space, you would see that it actually stretches far beyond the planet's surface into space. Earth's magnetosphere shields our planet from solar and cosmic radiation, like a giant force field.

As the shield is hit by space weather, it deforms and transfers energy from the cosmic environment to regions inside it. This plays a key role in determining the effects of space weather—including geomagnetic storms that can damage power grids, impact GPS, and create communications challenges for airlines, mobile telephones, and more—but which are also the cause of beautiful auroras or "polar lights."

Scientists are constantly measuring and gathering data about Earth's changing magnetic field. Using this information, it is possible to create a mathematical representation of Earth's main magnetic field and how it is changing.

One of the key tools developed to model the change in Earth's magnetic field is the World Magnetic Model (WMM). Developed by NCEI and the British Geological Survey, the WMM is a representation of the planet's magnetic field that gives compasses dependable accuracy.

Smartphone and consumer electronics companies rely on the WMM to provide consumers with accurate compass apps, maps, and GPS services. The WMM is also the standard navigation tool for the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Department of Defense, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and more.

We hope you've enjoyed your virtual journey from the depths of the sea to the surface of the sun with our mapping products. This is just a fraction of the data, maps, and other products that NCEI has to offer. Learn more about  our maps , follow us on social media, write to us at  NCEI.Info@noaa.gov , or watch  our video  to see some of the people that make NCEI work.