Direct Data Access
The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) Data Portal provides two means to extract data from its portal: (1) Direct Access and (2) 52North SOS. The following are the instructions/syntax to use the Direct Access approach.
###Data Call Instructions to get Headers
The following is a direct call syntax to get headers for GCOOS assets: Synrtax
http://data.gcoos.org/get_gcoos_assets.php?source={1}&extension={2};
where
{1} optional: can either be a blank (default) to get all assets, 'federal' to get only federal assets or'non-federal' to list only non-federal assets. {2} optional: default is 'false' and can be equal to 'true' to get additional platform information such URN, URL, URL for RSS feed, image and short text label of the platform.
Example:
- To get all assets: http://data.gcoos.org/get_gcoos_assets.php
- To get all federal assets: http://data.gcoos.org/get_gcoos_assets.php?source=federal
- To get all non-federal assets: http://data.gcoos.org/get_gcoos_assets.php?source=non-federal
To get all non-federal assets with additional platform data: http://data.gcoos.org/get_gcoos_assets.php?source=non-federal&extension=true
###Data Call Instructions to get Observation
The following is the syntax for direct data retrieval from GCOOS repository.
Syntax:
{1} westlon,southlat,eastlon,northlat, where:
westlon = longitude of western edge of bounding box expressed as a floating point number southlat = latitude of southern edge of bounding box expressed as a floating point number eastlon = longitude of eastern edge of bounding box expressed as a floating point number norhtlat = latitude of northern edge of bounding box expressed as a floating point number {2} start date formatted as YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ
{3} stop date formatted as YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ
{4} observation to retrieve
air_pressure: for barometric readings air_temperature: for air temperature readings chlorophyll: for chlorophyll readings current: for the ocean current data (speed, direction, meridional and zonal velocities) do: for disolved oxygen and concentrations relHumidity: relative humidity readings salinity: for salintity measurements turbidity: turbidity measurements water_level: water level measurements water_temperature: for water temperature data waves: wave readings winds: for winds (speed, direction and gust) {5} data source which may either be: All, ADCP, COAPS, COMPS, CenGOOS, DISL, ENP, FWRI, LUMCON, NDBC, NERRS, NOS, SCCF RECON, TABS, TCOON, WAVCIS
{6} desired output format. Only csv is currently supported.
{7} ascending sort order:
dates: sort the output by dates; provider: sort the ouput by data provider, then dates; or station: sort the output by the name of the station.
{8} QC flag: [NOTE: This feature is currently disabled until further notice.]
yes: QC flags will be exported with each data (1: good; 1: not evaluated, not available or unknown; 3: questionable; 4: bad; 9: missing data) no: this is the default and no QC flag will be exported
Example:
To access the water temperature data in the repository for all the Gulf region for the period November 01, 2008 (time: 00:00:00 UTC) to November 15, 2008 (23:59:59 UTC) and sorted by dates, the call should be: http://data.gcoos.org/get_gcoos_data.php?bbox=-98.4,21.7,-80.5,31.0&start=2008-11-01T00:00:00Z&stop=2008-11-15T23:59:59Z&obs=water_temperature&source=All&fmt=csv&sortBy=dates&qc=yes
###User Interactive Form
The Direct Access website (http://data.gcoos.org/directAccess.php) provides an interactive user interface (Figure 3) to define the coordinates or geographical space of interest, temporal coverage, specific observation, data source and output format. The inputs from this form will generate the proper syntax to extract the required data.
Figure 3. User interactive interface in GCOOS Data Portal to assist in the construction of the syntax.
NOTE: To date, only the Comma Separated Value (CSV) output format is supported.