09-11, 13:00–13:00 (America/Chicago), Grand H
The Fridge application quickly connects users to elevation and satellite imagery needed for cryosphere research, using easy to navigate, online tools. Fridge utilizes a number of open source tools such as Geoserver, Airflow, Postgresql and PostGIS.
The Federal Researcher Imagery Download and Geospatial Exploration (FRIDGE) System is the Polar Geospatial Center’s (PGC) newly released web application. FRIDGE allows users to navigate Arctic and Antarctic regions, define regions and filters, and immediately retrieve derived elevation data or commercial satellite imagery.
FRIDGE is a great resource for publicly available elevation data derived from high resolution commercial satellite imagery. The interface allows users to pinpoint the area they need and retrieve the available data almost instantly from recent or historical releases of ArcticDEM or REMA. Our public DEM data is hosted by Amazon, but organized locally by Geoserver.
FRIDGE is also a resource for Federally funded researchers to request access to over 19 Petabytes of historical and modern satellite imagery. PGC maintains an on premise tape library to store and retrieve this massive amount of information.
FRIDGE utilizes a number of inter-connected open source frameworks. In the front end we use React and an open source ESRI library to allow users to dynamically navigate and filter our collection of publicly accessible and protected data sets. In the back end we use a tuned Geoserver instance to construct dynamic mosaics, retrieve previews, search the collection and filter results. Geoserver is backed by a Postgresql database utilizing PostGIS for geospatial processing.
The front-end communicates with Geoserver utilizing its provided WMS/WFS/WCS services, utilizing an on premise Keycloak instance for authentication and permission handling. The back-end also consists of a Spring based application to facilitate communication between FRIDGE and our Quickbase CRM, allowing our GIS specialists to review, alter, and initiate requests before automated processing starts.
In order to process the satellite imagery, collaborate with GIS specialists, and work with PGC's internal HPC cluster, FRIDGE utilizes an Apache Airflow instance. Airflow’s built-in REST APIs allows us to easily integrate it with our hosted Quickbase CRM and back end Spring application. PGC’s GSI specialists can initiate an Airflow job from a customized dashboard and view progress or problems as they happen due to Airflow’s robust reporting infrastructure. Utilizing command line tools on our HPC, Airflow enables FRIDGE to chain together different toolsets to retrieve data from the tape system, automatically orthorectify the data, and move the data to a standardized location for researchers to access.
Connecting researchers to the data they need is one of PGC's specialties, by utilizing these powerful open source frameworks they can continue to deliver data efficiently and accurately, while still allowing for specialists to provide guidance and support.
