Dr Harsh Vardhan launches ‘Digital Ocean’ -the first of its kind digital platform for Ocean Data Management developed by INCOIS of MoES

New Delhi: The Minister of Earth Sciences, Science & Technology, andHealth & Family WelfareDr.Harsh Vardhan inaugurated the web-based application “Digital Ocean (www.do.incois.gov.in)” developed by INCOIS of M/o Earth sciences , during a Virtual Meeting held in New Delhi today. Dr. M. Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences; Dr. Vipin Chandra, Joint Secretary, MoES; Dr. T. Srinivasa Kumar, Director, INCOIS and several senior functionaries from MoES and INCOIS attended the function.

Addressing at the event, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that Digital Ocean is a first of its kind digital platform for Ocean Data Management. “Digital Ocean is a big step towards Prime Minister’s vision of Digital India ie to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy”, Dr. Harsh Vardhan stated. He further added “In coming times, that nation will be powerful which has the gold mine of data and the capacity to process and interpret it meaningfully.”

The Minister explained that the ocean is a storehouse of infinite knowledge and ‘Digital Ocean’ helps to share this knowledge about the ocean with a wide range of users including research institutions, operational agencies, strategic users, academic community, maritime industry and policy makers. Dr harsh Vardhan lauded that Digital Ocean also provides free access to information to the general public and the common man.

Highlighting the benefits of Digital Ocean, the Minister said, “It will play a central role in sustainable management of our oceans and expanding our ‘Blue Economy’ initiatives. Further, the Digital Ocean will be promoted as a platform for capacity building on Ocean Data Management for all Indian Ocean Rim countries.”

Dr. Harsh Vardhan disclosed that today we are looking at a large number of possibilities for harnessing the wealth of the ocean like the Deep Ocean Mission, research on alternate sources of energy, its mineral wealth, source of food among others. Deep Ocean Mission will help to explore the power of the ocean which will be reflected through data. “The sharing of this data will become critical factors in achieving better outcomes for strengthening our economy.It will contribute to our vision of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat”, the Minister elaborated.

He appreciated INCOIS for having adopted & developed various State of the Art technologies, for timely dissemination of near-real time ocean information and advisory services including potential fishing zone advisories, ocean state forecast, Tsunami early warning among others.

Secretary, M/o Earth Sciences, Dr. M. Rajeevan said that Digital Ocean is the result of the need felt to organize data from various sources and to provide quality data management. Digital Ocean will help improve our understanding of working of oceans, he said.

Director INCOIS, Dr. T. Srinivasa Kumar said that Digital Ocean is a new state of the art data platform and is the first such platform to provide ocean data related services at one place.

INCOIS has adopted and developed various state-of-the-art technologies and tools through sustained and focussed oceanographic research for the timely dissemination of ocean information and advisory Services that includes Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) advisories, Ocean State Forecast (OSF), High Wave Alerts, Tsunami early warnings, Storm Surge and Oil-Spill advisories, etc.

Digital Ocean platform is a first of its kind platform for ocean data management (www.do.incois.gov.in). It includes a set of applications developed to organize and present heterogeneous oceanographic data by adopting rapid advancements in geospatial technology. It facilitates an online interactive web-based environment for data integration, 3D and 4D (3D inspace with time animation) data visualization, data analysis to assess the evolution of oceanographic features, data fusion and multi-format download of disparate data from multiple sources viz., in-situ, remote sensing and model data, all of which is rendered on a georeferenced 3D Ocean. User Management component of Digital Ocean allows authentication of users, their roles and privileges of access to different data sets, categorization of data as per the data sharing guidelines, metadata management, mail management, usage statistics, system statistics, monitoring of observing platforms and addition of new data streams, etc.Digital Ocean will serve as a one stop-solution for all the data related needs of a wide range of users.