Internet Application for Interactive Visualization of Geophysical and Space Data: Approach, Architecture, Technologies

The proposed software solution is a tool developed for the analysis, forecast and visualization of geophysical data, which is collected and provided by a set of spatially distributed heterogeneous data repositories via standard web protocols (HTTP, HTTPs, FTP, etc.). They include ground magnetic observatories and stations, satellites, as well as various numerical models based on geophysical standards and specifications. The technological stack is limited with the tool’s web-based implementation and represented by integrated client- and server-side technologies with specialized frameworks and APIs. Client-side implementation is represented by several markup, styling and interaction software technologies, which are HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript with geospatial ESRI ArcGIS API for JavaScript available as the RESTful resources. Django web framework based on the “Model – View – Controller” architectural model represents server-side implementation, where Python is the main programming language used for the application’s business logic. The complete Web-based GIS represents a web portal with a set of services providing a rich instrumentation for the appropriate geophysical data analysis, processing, and visualization. Each tool upon execution provides an interactive geospatial image, which is generated according to the user request parameters or by default date-time settings. The proposed web services are freely available at https://aurora-forecast.ru and https://geomagnetic.ru through the web browsers.