Ocean Data View (ODV) is a software package for the interactive exploration, analysis and visualization of oceanographic and other geo-referenced profiles, time-series, trajectory or sequence data. ODV runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and UNIX (Solaris, Irix, AIX) systems. ODV data and configuration files are platform-independent and can be exchanged between different systems.
Use ODV to produce:
- property/property plots of selected stations,
- scatter plots for sets of stations,
- color sections along arbitrary cruise tracks,
- color distributions on general isosurfaces,
- temporal evolution plots of tracer fields,
- differences of tracer fields between repeats,
- geostrophic velocity sections,
- animations (3MB),
- interrupted maps.
ODV can display original data points or gridded fields based on the original data. ODV has two fast weighted-averaging gridding algorithms as well as the advanced DIVA gridding software built-in. Gridded fields can be color-shaded and/or contoured. ODV supports five different map projections and can be used to produce high-quality cruise maps. ODV graphics output can be sent directly to printers or may be exported to PostScript, gif, png, or jpg files. The resolution of exported graphics files is specified by the user and not limited by the pixel resolution of the screen.
The ODV data format allows dense storage and very fast data access. Large data collections with millions of stations can easily be maintained and explored on inexpensive desktop and notebook computers. Data from Argo, GTSPP, CCHDO, CORA, World Ocean Database, World Ocean Atlas, World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), SeaDataNet, and Medar/Medatlas can be directly imported into ODV. Ready-to-use versions of the WOCE data, the gridded World Ocean Atlas as well as many other important geoscience datasets are available for download.
ODV also supports the netCDF format and lets you explore and visualize CF, COARDS, GDT and CDC compliant netCDF datasets. This works with netCDF files on your local machine as well as with remote netCDF files served by an OPeNDAP server. Climate data in netCDF format are available here.
Various global or regional high-resolution coastline and topography resources can be installed via the View>Settings option. Packages for special regions of interest can be produced on request.
ODV has more than 70,000 registered users at leading research institutes worldwide.