Iwfgara: Visualizing Numerical Weather Prediction Data in an Open Source Web-based 3D GIS
2026-09-02 , Ran1

Iwfgara is an open-source web-based 3D GIS platform for visualizing numerical weather prediction data and enabling interactive exploration of atmospheric phenomena.


Iwfgara is a web-based platform that integrates three-dimensional geospatial information with meteorological data to visualize atmospheric phenomena. The system collects numerical weather prediction (NWP) datasets, including the Global Forecast System (GFS) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and forecasting data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), and processes them in near real time for visualization.

In this work, grid-based NWP data are transformed into a structure suitable for integration with a 3D GIS environment. Using an open-source 3D GIS engine, the platform enables interactive visualization of large-scale gridded atmospheric variables such as wind speed, temperature, and humidity directly in a web browser. The system also supports overlaying meteorological satellite imagery and provides vertical analysis tools for exploring atmospheric structures across different altitude levels.

This work demonstrates how open-source geospatial technologies can enable efficient web-based visualization and exploration of large-scale meteorological datasets in an interactive 3D environment.


Level of technical complexity: 3 - advanced

Jae-Hyuk Noh develops web-based platforms for visualizing numerical weather prediction data using open-source geospatial technologies. He is the creator of Iwfgara, a system that integrates meteorological data with 3D GIS to explore atmospheric phenomena interactively.