Data preparation for the development of a user-friendly, free, online, and interactive platform for the visualization and analysis of interdisciplinary data

The MOSAiC Expedition 2019/20 (https://mosaic-expedition.org) brought together scientists from different research institutes around the globe for a year in the Central Arctic. They collected an incredible amount of data to expand the understanding of the Arctic, its distinct features, and the consequences of a changing climate. Since January 2023, the data collected during the MOSAiC Expedition is available as Open Source in the long-term archive Pangaea (https://pangaea.de) for anyone who would like to learn and study the Arctic Ocean and its features. The M-VRE webODV Project (https://mosaic-vre.org) aims to offer an interactive online exploration, visualization, and analysis of the MOSAiC data in a user-friendly environment. In the M-VRE webODV (https://mvre.webodv.cloud.awi.de), these data are presented as Data Collections that consist of similar datasets aggregated into singular collections and Interdisciplinary Collections, where complementary datasets are aggregated into collections. However, for the MOSAiC data to be explored, visualized, and analyzed with webODV, it has to be converted from the tab file format used in the Pangaea archive to an ODV readable format. Therefore, the data is converted through a six steps process: search, filtering, download of datasets, data aggregation, metadata preparation, and data conversion into the ODV format. Although several datasets after those steps are ready to be uploaded to the M-VRE webODV, other datasets need special and individualized conversions. As a result of the data conversion process and the special conversions, the Data Collections and Interdisciplinary Collections of MOSAiC Expedition data are uploaded to the M-VRE webODV and available for user exploration, visualization, and analysis. The M-VRE webODV is since January 2023 open to the global community, and the number of available Collections is increasing.

*MOSAiC – Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate

*M-VRE webODV – MOSAiC Virtual Research Environment web Ocean Data View