1 Introduction

1.1. Overview

PaleoVu is a browse and visualization tool for paleoclimate data. Currently two types of data are supported; georeferenced, and mapped time-slice.

1.1.1. Georeferenced Data

PaleoVu supports an ever-growing list of georeference data categories, which are as follows: Calcium Carbonate, Coral, Documentary, Ice Core, Lake Level, Modern Isotope, Paleobiological, Paleoceanographic, Pollen, Sea Level and Tree Ring. Georeferenced data can be point, stratigraphic/time-seried, or documentary in nature. Georeferenced point data describes a single occurrence of a geophysical property such as elevation or the modern environment. Georeferenced stratigraphic data describes a sequence of layers. Stratigraphic data may or may not have a geochronology associated with it, if it does it is also a time-series, for example: an ice core has specific depths associated with each layer but may or may not have a specific date assigned to each layer.

Each Georeference Data Catagory is made up of a group of data sites. Characteristics shared by all georeferenced data sites follow:

  • They are site specific, meaning each has a latitude and longitude specified as part of the data.
  • They pertain to a specific category of paleoclimate data: Calcium Carbonate, Documentary, Ice Core, etc.
  • Data is quantitative or qualitative (e.g.. warmer or colder). Note: There can be more than one data site of the same category at the same geographic location.

Browse capabilities follow:

  • Query for a subset of all data sites available. For example you can query based on a geographic region, particular categories of paleoclimate data, and category-specific attributes.
  • Search based on specific metadata about a site.
  • Sort based on metadata such as, contributor, site name, etc.

Visualization capabilities follow:

  • Data site markers on underlying map image.
  • Spreadsheets of variable data and metadata about each site.
  • Plots - single or multiple variable, move, zoom in/out, resize, delete, copy, tile, cascade, ranges, interpolation, auxiliary graphs, transpose, axis labels, and point tool.
  • Export Capabilities - data can be exported to a number of popular formats: Spreadsheet, NetCDF, flat ASCII Files, etc.

1.1.2. Mapped Time-Slice Data

Mapped time-slice data or image data is an analysis of data for a particular time interval over a specific geographic region.
Each time-slice data set pertains to a category of mapped time-slice data. Examples of time-slice categories follow:

  • climate reconstructions: precipitation, temperature, sea surface temperature.
  • paleoclimate data: Foraminifera, pollen.
  • model simulation: temperature, precipitation, sea-level pressure.
  • geography: topography, bathymetry (including paleo reconstructions).

Browse and Visualization Capabilities:
Time-slice data sets can be viewed, zoomed, unzoomed, and scrolled. Legend information is also available.

1.2. Portability

PaleoVu runs on Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. All data is portable and is stored in NetCDF.

1.3. Getting Technical Support

1.3.1. Providing Information To PaleoVu Technical Support

The following information needs to be supplied in order to receive technical support:

  1. Your name, organization name, voice phone number, FAX phone number, email address.
  2. The hardware and windowing system (and version number) on which you are running PaleoVu.
  3. The version number of PaleoVu that you are running.
  4. Are you reporting a bug or a suggestion?
  5. A description of the bug or suggestion.

1.3.2. Contacting PaleoVu Technical Support

There are four ways to send electronic/written questions to Technical Support:

  1. FAX (303-497-6513) - Send to the attention of PaleoVu Technical Support
  2. Electronic Mail (paleovu@ngdc.noaa.gov)
  3. Write to:

Ed Gille, PaleoVu Technical Support Manager,
NGDC/NOAA
325 Broadway, E/GC
Boulder, CO 80303
Phone support is also available. Phone Ed Gille, PaleoVu Technical Support Manager at (303-497-6146). This telephone service is available Monday through Friday, 9:00 to 5:00 MST.

Conventions:
You will find the following typographic conventions throughout this guide:

CAPITALS
Dialog box and window titles you will see while running PaleoVu.
Bold
Boldface words are literals and represent titles, fixed file names, key-words, and menu item names. Also, anything that you must type exactly as it appears.
Italic
Special terms used in this guide. Also placeholders for information you must provide. For example, if you are asked to type filename, you would type the actual name for a file instead.
Typewriter
Presentation of text file contents.