Communicating local relevance of ocean observations: Integrating real-time ocean sensor data visualizations, online communications, and ocean issues to engage public audiences

Abstract

As we routinely face information overload in our daily lives, infographics have become an intuitive, relatable way to communicate both online and in print. Mainstream newspapers and magazines now employ staff who are specifically dedicated to data mining and telling stories with data through data visualizations and infographics. In addition to infographics, online ‘story telling’ is another trending approach to distilling information and finding ways to make data and information relevant to target audiences. The geospatial data community is keenly aware of this trend and has developed communications tools like ESRI Story Maps that allow map makers to combine map-based data with stories creating place-based communications tools. Members of the ocean technology community are already benefiting from these new tools and are using them to communicate their research to funding agencies and the public. When presented with the opportunity to build an interface for communicating the relevance of our ocean observing data to the public in the context of El Nino, the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS) set out to combine effective infographic and story map communication tools with real-time data, essentially creating an online, dynamic map-based real-time data infographic. In this paper, we will discuss our design process, data analysis, data visualization and story integration methods. Our goal was to create a simple interface for non-science users, designed to get people exploring, spark curiosity, and encourage learning more through links to online El Nino education and communication resources. We will present the challenges associated with transforming raw data into relevant easy to understand information geared towards a public audience. With our modest example, we aim to demonstrate to other data collectors how they can use emerging data visualization and web technologies to engage audiences and communicate the relevance of their monitoring programs and sensors.