Overview

The NOAA Platform Awareness Dashboard (N-PAD) website is used to present NOAA and other government or military personnel with an overview of the current positions for all NOAA owned, operated or sponsored Aircraft, Ship, and Unmanned Maritime Systems.

This site is not meant to act as a data repository nor provide in depth analytics regarding the history, performance or mission of any platform. Various other sites (SDAT, ERDDAP, NCEI, etc) are available to fulfill those needs and overlap has been kept to a minimum.

Logging into the system

Access to this system is restricted to those user with current valid government or military email addresses.

If you work for NOAA you must use the ICAM system to authenticate, no need to register or create an account.

If you do not work for NOAA then you must register using your *.gov or *.mil email address. A confirmation email will be sent to you which you must use to validate your registration prior to your account being enabled. If you do not receive the confirmation email you may request another be sent.

Login image

Logging out of the system

In the upper right corner, next to the zoom control (if applicable) you'll notice a button with a sign-out icon. Clicking on this will log you out of the system. Keep in mind if you're using SSO (such as NOAA ICAM) this may be a federated logout and could log out you of the other sites using that SSO provider as well.
Log off button image

Understanding the map

The map is the main interface used to visualize the positions of the various assets.

To pan around simply left click and drag your mouse. Each checked tracked item will show on the map with it's last know position. Click on an item/icon to get more information about it.
Item details image

When accessing the site via a mobile device panning is done with your finger. Touch your screen and drag to move the map.
Zooming
In the upper right corner of the map you'll notice a control which allows you to zoom in and out on the map. Click the "+" to zoom in, click the "-" to zoom out. You may also double click your mouse on the map to zoom into that location. Your mouse wheel can also be used to controls the zoom.
Zoom control image

When accessing the site via a mobile device the zoom control will not appear. Instead you can use the typical two finger actions to zoom in and out (pinch your screen, etc).
Scale Bar
In the lower left corner of the map you'll notice a control which tells you, based upon your current zoom level, the scale of your screen/map to real world distances.
Scale bar image

When accessing the site via a mobile device the scale bar will not appear.
Toolbar

In the upper left corner of the map you'll notice the "N-PAD Control Pane" which is your main interface to the map screen.

This control pane is a window which you can drag around the screen or collapse by clicking the "-" sign on the top right.

When accessing the site on a mobile device the control pane will initialized in a collapsed position to keep it out of your way due to limited screen size. To expand it click the "double window" icon which replaces the "-" sign.

Control window image

At the top of the control pane you'll notice a toolbar with various buttons.

  • Expand and Collapse lists of items
    Expand and Collapse Items
    Clicking the button with the down arrows will expand all groups below.
    Clicking the button with the up arrows will collapse all groups below.
  • Check and Uncheck all items
    Display all/none
    Clicking the button with the checked checkbox will check all items and display everything on the map.
    Clicking the button with the unchecked checkbox will uncheck all items and clear everything from the map.
  • Persist / save checked items or reset to default
    Persist / Save Checked Items
    Clicking the dropdown (3 vertical dots) will show two options.
    Clicking the save button save your current selections to a cookie on your machine. The next time you visit the site (on that machine) your selected items will be re-selected.
    Clicking the reset button will clear your selections and return to the default state (everything selected) along with removing the cookie.
Show / Hide Tracked Items

Under the toolbar in the main control pane window there are groups of assets which are tracked by this website. These are mainly

  • Fleet - The large NOAA Ships
  • Aircraft - The large & small NOAA Aircraft
  • Gliders - Wave Gliders mainly recorded via IOOS
  • SailDrones - Sail Drones mainly recorded via PMEL

Each category of tracked item can be expanded by clicking on it (eg click "Fleet" to see the fleet items). Once expanded you can see all items which have recorded data within the last year for (or in coordination with/supported by) NOAA.

By default every item in each category is checked. When an item is checked it's latest reported position is displayed on the map. To hide/remove an item from the map simply uncheck it.

Tracked Item in a List image
Attributions