Learning About WOW Data

The WOW project provides a rich assemblage of information for analysis. Some might even say too much data. The streams of data coming from the RUSS units provide an opportunity to compare temporal trends, geographic differences, correlations among variables, and the potential for graphing and interpreting 2, 3, and 4 dimensional data. In any event, this page will explain available methods of data analysis, from the mundane to the sublime. Keep in touch, as we will continue to update this page with state-of-the-art methods for data exploration, analysis, visualization, and interpretation.

An animated tutorial: Using WOW Data with Excel is now available. It demonstrates how to create graphs using the weekly RUSS data spreadsheets (requires Flash plug-in).

Weekly RUSS Data:

Every four to six hours, the RUSS units collect raw data on several different parameters including: temperature, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, pH, % oxygen saturation, and electrical conductivity. These readings are then posted to our website on a weekly basis for access by students and teachers across the country. Using any simple spreadsheet program, this data can be transformed into graphs to help visualize the change of each parameter over time versus depth. Currently, data are available in three different formats:

1. Current weekly RUSS data comes in two forms, HTML and Excel. Webpage (HTML) data lists the data collected during the chosen week on a simple webpage. This form is recommended for easy access for people who do not have a spreadsheet program or for those who may have difficulty downloading through a firewall. The weekly data is also available in Excel spreadsheet files.
2. Archived data files are compressed files containing a complete listing of the data collected by the RUSS on the specified lake. The data is stored as comma separated values (csv files) which can be read by spreadsheet and database applications.

Online Tools for Data Visualization

The WOW project is dedicated to bringing innovative ways to learn about the scientific world. The following tools are interactive visualization programs that can be used online to view specific types of data, manipulate variables, or even see changes over time. As time goes by, we will be adding and changing the available tools so make sure to check back often! To use these program, all you need is a browser that runs Java version 1.1 applets. Netscape and Internet Explorer versions 4 and higher have this capability. If you are behind a firewall the standalone Profile Plotter and Color Mapper programs may be unable to communicate with our data server. The DVTools versions use a different method to get the data and should not have any trouble with firewalls.

1. Profile Plotter is a program that displays interactive line graphs. Users can choose from a number of different variables to plot and then run the program to see how those variables change over time. Simple plotting of a variable versus depth can show how the location of the thermocline varies with time and can illustrate events such as spring and winter turnover or even year to year variability. This program is meant to be used with current RUSS data and runs online.
2. Color Mapper is a visually appealing program which takes data and creates color maps combined with line plots for any 2 RUSS parameters for any lake. It steps through individual data profiles to create animations as per the Profile Plotter.
3. DVT Toolkit is a collection of programs -- it includes the Profile Plotter, the Color Mapper, and a third program, the Depth vs. Time Plotter (DxT). The DVT Toolkit can be run on-line, or downloaded and run without an Internet connection.

Environmental Data

1. Weather Data - Changes in weather, such as passing storms, often have an effect on lakes which can be seen in RUSS data. Current weather and archived weather information is available for all active RUSS sites.

Maps

Lakes are never as simple as merely measuring the water and its contents. So in order to help link the water world with the world around it, WOW has made two types of maps available for your use.

2. Geographic Information System (GIS) maps are a visual 2D representation of various parameters of a lake. The simplest of these, and the most commonly used, is lake depth versus area.
3. Landuse Maps can be used to hypothesize possible sources of influence on a lake, such as from agricultural run-off. They are typically color coded and show how the land surrounding the lake is being used. For example, the land may be used for agricultural, residential, commerical or industrial purposes; or it may be forested or grassland or wetland.

Lake Trends

Many types of data are needed to characterize the ecology of lakes and streams and a variety of techniques are available for best presenting them. This section includes graphs of various parameters plotted over time or versus depth and tabular summaries of other parameters, such as water chemistry, secchi transparency, chlorophyll, etc.

1. Surface trends - these are time course plots of RUSS parameters, averaged for each day and for the upper 3 meters of the water column.
2. Heat and oxygen budgets - these are time course plots of whole-lake heat and oxygen. The lakes are divided into 3 layers using morphometry (depth contour) data.
3. Water chemistry - this section contains spreadsheets with all nutrients, major ion, chlorophyll, secchi depth, and other non-RUSS data collected for WOW.
4. Morphometry - spreadsheets with surface area and volumn data for each 1 m thick layer of tabulated.
5. Other - a smorgasboard of tables, plots, images and possibly anecdotes.

 

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