A geographic information system (GIS) based application Ocean Data and Information Systems (ODIS) was designed, developed and implemented at ESSO-INCOIS for easy dissemination of data and data products. It is an open source platform for publishing spatial data with interactive mapping applications on the web. MySQL serves as the backend database. This article presents storage, organisation details and data visualisations pertaining to oceanographic data. ODIS is set as an end-to-end system comprising acquisition of data from heterogeneous oceanographic platforms, processing and integration, quality controlling and disseminating for research and development.

We are living in the digital era and data driven decisions with advanced analytics and visualisation features are becoming an integral part of all walks of life. In ocean sciences abundant marine meteorological and oceanographic data from a variety of ocean observing systems are fed into models to improve the quality of weather and ocean state forecasts. Well-organised data in an integrated environment will support the usage and help in better understanding of oceanographic processes. This article presents the development of Digital Ocean, a single platform that efficiently integrates heterogeneous ocean data and provides advanced visualisation and analysis to facilitate the improved understanding of oceans through a multi-disciplinary approach.

The Indian Ocean tsunami, triggered by the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake on December 26, 2004, caused approximately 2,30,000 casualties and widespread damage to infrastructure in several Indian Ocean rim countries. In fact, the 2004 tsunami was one of the strongest and deadliest ever recorded in terms of magnitude, which put into perspective the need to set up an early warning system for tsunamis in India. Following the 2004 tsunami, the Indian Tsunami Early Warning System (ITEWS) was established to provide early warnings on impending tsunamis triggered due to earthquakes in the Indian Ocean. This article describes various components of ITEWS, the decision support system and the bulletins. It also discusses issues, challenges and future developments.

Tropical storm forecast models conventionally use static sea surface temperature (SST), assuming its temporal changes are not significant in forecast. However, oceanic processes such as upwelling, currents and eddies, significantly modulate SST even at short time scales. Such changes have the potential to influence the planetary boundary layer. Eminent climate scientists, Morris A Bender and Issac Ginis have shown that inclusion of initial conditions with oceanic mesoscale features can improve hurricane/cyclone intensity forecasts. Scientific evidence thus supports better forecasts with coupled forecast systems and several forecast centres across the globe depend on such systems. In line with the international efforts, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and two of its institutes, ESSO-INCOIS and ESSO-IMD, established a state-of-the-art coupled forecasting system for cyclones arising in the Indian Ocean in collaboration with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of USA. In the present article, we explore the relevance of the system and its performance in achieving this goal.

ESSO-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (ESSO-INCOIS) has for a while been providing innovative services such as fishing zone advisories, ocean state forecast and tsunami early warning. Further in 2012, in order to build capacity in the field of ocean services and operational oceanography, the Ministry of Earth Sciences set-up an International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOocean) at INCOIS. The benefits were also envisaged to reach the Indian Ocean rim countries and other developing nations. In 2015, ITCOocean was recognised as a Regional Training Centre (RTC) by the Ocean Teacher Global Academy (OTGA) of the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE). The centre has state-of-the-art infrastructure, academic curriculum, administrative units, international hostel facility and expert faculty from the field of oceanography. The initiative was appreciated by Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission which led to its recognition as Category 2 Center (C2C) in 2017 under the UNESCO. It is therefore now a pioneer institute in the field of operational oceanography, offering various certificate programmes ranging from days to weeks and will eventually look to provide diploma programme in the field of operational oceanography.