Michael J. Calidonna

Extensible Markup Language As a Weather Tool Michael J. Calidonna

This thesis is a proof of concept work that will extend the Core Mapping Application Program Interface (CMAPI) components to include weather data. The CMAPI project is headed by Air Force Research Lab (AFRL)/ Information Directorate Information Handling Branch (IFEB) at Rome labs in Rome, New York. This work extends the CMAPI project in two distinct areas. The first goal is to figure out how to overlay and display weather data on a dynamically linked Internet platform. This was accomplished by incorporating existing data from the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) into the CMAPI program in a static environment. The other goal is to learn about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and how it can contribute to characterizing structured data (i.e., weather data output from AFWA). Once this tool can be exploited, a dynamic interaction between the CMAPI program and all AFWA products could be developed. The overall goal is to make it easy for the system, and the application of that system, to ingest and manipulate data.