Web Mapping Services

Our Web Mapping Services (WMS) provides raster data to GIS clients. SDMI-GINA provides a variety of interfaces to the WMS and are always interested to explore expanding the options for access data in the WMS services. Let us know if you would like a new tiling scheme, or alternative interface to any of our WMS feeds. SDMI-GINA might be able to assist in making your own WMS feeds available or perhaps your own WMS feed.

Examples of the data available in the WMS can be found in our Data Gallery.

The WMS URLs:

• BDL
  • http://wms.alaskamapped.org/bdl?
• BDL Extras
  • http://wms.alaskamapped.org/extras?
• NOAA Nautical Charts
  • http://wms.alaskamapped.org/charts?
  • http://wms.alaskamapped.org/charts_nc? (includes collar information)

For more convenient loading, see these ESRI layer files.

You can use the layer files above for ESRI ArcMap or you can manually add the WMS URLs. We suggest the use of layer files; for manual loading of the WMS see our guide: Using the SDMI OGC Web Services in ESRI ArcGIS (pdf).

For more information about Web Mapping Services (WMS), the Wikipedia has a excellent overview. A more detailed overview and the specifications for the WMS service is available from the OGC’s website.

Please let us know if you have any problems or questions! Forum posts are appreciated and will help us to share solutions. Alternatively, please email us at [email protected], if you prefer.

Helpful Hints/Notes about WMS usage:

1. If you can, set the image type of your WMS client uses to request JPEGs rather than PNGs. JPEGs are smaller so they will take less time in transit and will thus load faster.
2. If you are unable to change the image format to JPEG, then consider using our JPEG only service. The URLs for these services are http://wms.alaskamapped.org/jpeg/bdl for the Best Data Available layer and http://wms.alaskamapped.org/jpeg/extras for our Extras service.
3. If you are intending to use one of the WMS to print to a large format medium, consider using the online mapviewer to make an extract of your area of interest and using that instead of the WMS – this will be faster and more effective.
   
   
   

Web Feature Service

This service provides a Web Feature Service that allows access to information about the data available though SDMI’s WMS. This includes information about all of the data holdings in SDMI, including license information, resolution, coverage, and a method for obtaining the original data if the license allows. The URL for the service is http://wfs.alaskamapped.org/inventory. More information on how to use the service can be found in our WMS and WFS tutorial .

Please let us know if you encounter problems or have questions.

Web Coverage Service

Our Web Coverage Service provides raw data values to GIS clients and is serving a number of elevation data sets. The Wikipedia article on WCS provides a useful overview of the WCS protocol. A list of the datasets can be found in our Data Gallery. This service is currently in a testing phase and we would appreciate feedback as to its usefulness.

The URL for the service is http://wms.alaskamapped.org/wcs .