The Power of HTML5 to Visualize and Communicate Atmospheric Remote Sensing Data
Keim, Stefan
DLR (DFD-WIS), GERMANY

- ATMOS as an example of a cross-application development -
In order to promote the use of atmospheric composition products in a wider community, DLR operates processing systems as well as spatial data services. This contribution deals with the efforts made to increase the public outreach of these products. It describes the experience gained in developing a cross-application that can deliver this data and their information to a broad audience.
A major challenge arises from the still existing fragmentation between operating systems and device types. Along with the tremendous increase in mobile IT use, this obstacle is the motivation to implement the client-side visualization software as an HTML5 web app. The HTML5 approach avoids the workload and costs of multiple native development branches. Bearing classic cross-browser-compatibility issues in mind, this first looks like a simple tradeoff. But by using powerful JavaScript libraries and abstracting from the actual device as much as possible the amount of unparalleled code can already be kept close to zero. Streamlining implementation processes by adopting the open standards of HTML5 can maximize the number of actual supported systems. And in addition, with the versatile design options of CSS3 it is possible to provide a user experience that makes it possible to satisfy the UI guidelines of common app stores.
Besides the recently developed App ATMOS, the contribution deals with the potential and limitations of HTML5 to present geographic data in a general way and addresses the adoption of WebGL to obtain cutting-edge browser-based 3D visualizations.