Ontologies

Ontologies for Earth system science

Controlled vocabularies are convenient for associating measured parameters with standard names. Ontologies expand the capabilities of controlled vocabularies by providing more descriptive semantic power. For example, ontologies enable descriptions such as: 1) for “surface” temperature, express the actual height above the ground; 2) for “Deviation from the average”, describe the actual climatology the average is based upon; 3) for web services, provide service descriptions and limitations.

This 1-hour presentation gives an overview on how to build and extend ontologies using the OWL language. It describes the SWEET 2.0, including its concepts of science, data, and services. SWEET 2.0 differs from 1.1 in being reorganized for easy expansion by domain specialists wanting to extend the content.