An Ontology for Marine Observables (originally An Ontology for Instrument Platforms)

Citation

Bermudez, LE, Raskin, R, Arko, R, Graybeal, J (2006), An Ontology for Marine Observables, Eos Trans. AGU, 87 (36), Jt. Assem. Suppl., Abstract IN42A-04

Abstract

In August 2005 the Marine Metadata Initiative (MMI) held a workshop to coordinate the mapping of science domain vocabularies. The sensor team at the workshop identified that there was not an existing comprehensive ontology for sensors used by the marine science community. However, they identified that the best starting point for the creation of such ontology was Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) instrument keywords or the Semantic Web for Earth and Environmental Terminology (SWEET) sensor ontology, which is based on the former one. In the process of such endeavor the team found that GCMD top categories presented a mixture of domain and measurement types, many sensors would fit into more than one class, and there is a mixture/overlap of instruments and platforms concepts. Some of the previous problems were discussed in the workshop and a first draft of the ontology was created, which then was refined by the ontology team of the Marine Metadata Initiative. The ontology and lessons learned of creating such ontology will be presented.

Authors (no particular order): Bermudez, L., Raskin R., Arko, R., Graybeal J., Lowry, R.