Sensing Real-Time observatories in marine sites: a proof-of-concept

Managing real time data collected by a network of heterogeneous sensors from marine sites needs to face challenges such heterogeneity, quality check, harmonization, description of sensors, etc. This is the purpose of the proof-of-concept described in this paper; it tests the suitability of OGC Sensor Web Enablement services, exploiting in particular the Sensor Observation Service (SOS) and the associated SensorML and O&M standards. Two Italian marine observatories have been included in the proof, both belonging to CNR ISMAR; they are the oceanographic Platform "Acqua Alta" and a weather station in Venice (Italy). They measure multiple real time parameters and distribute them by OGC SOS. The multilayer architecture and the service approach adopted enable decoupling of components; in particular, the proof shows that each Institution hosting a sensor station is allowed to store observations and deliver them to multiple independent clients, in a standard, interoperable way, well recognized and accepted at European and global scale. The proof has been implemented and tested in three scenarios to retrieve and display descriptions of stations, sensors and measurements available; to retrieve and display observations of one parameter selected from multiple sensors; to retrieve observations of all parameters collected from sensors of a specific station.