Daily weather data are collected at ground stations and sampled to a 1 sq. km. for the entire United States. The data are made available in a scientific format called NetCDF, which is essentially a hierarchical format capable of storing an arbitrary number of nested arrays. While suitable for storage and targeted analysis, NetCDF is not easily amenable to spatial query and visualization.
This is a proposal to convert the NetCDF format to a spatial database format, and then write routines and build the interface that would allow spatial selection of weather data and display them on a map as geo-referenced image.
The project would focus on creating a web-based working prototype for a specific part of the country. The prototype would be scalable to the entire country.
Plus: I already have the data; the spatial routines are pretty well established; the scientific contribution factor is high.
Minus: There is not much “new” in this proposal even though the innovation quotient in terms of improving a process is pretty high.