In order to interact with the GulfTOPP system, there are a few things you'll want to know:

Setting up an account

We have provided authorized users with pre-set username and passwords.  We will be adding functionality to the system to allow you to update and manage your password in the future.

Accessing Data

You can access data in the GulfTOPP system by either clicking on the Data Access tab above, or by clicking the "Maps" button in the Data Access box on the right side of each page.  Once there, if you are not logged into the system, you will need to click the log in button in the upper-right portion of the page to access your data.  Once you are logged in, the map will display data from the last 365 days on those datasets to which your unique username and password provides access.

Interacting with Tracking Tag Data

There are two navigation systems you can use to access data in the map view:  

To the left of the map, the data are organized heirarchically by animal group - species - deployment year - tag number.  You can add or remove tracks from the map by clicking on the species name or the year; at the level of individual tags a right-click will bring up tag metadata and a menu of options, including adding that individual tag to the map, downloading the data, etc.  At any given time, the tags displayed on the map are shown in blue in the left navigation menu.  We are working now with different interface options; this page will be updated as changes are made.

Below the map are tools to access data by place and time.  To give an example of how this might be used, begin by clicking the "choose species" button on the left, and check the species you want to view.  Select a region of the map you are interested in, either by manually clicking, dragging, and zooming in and out; or by holding down the "shift" key and drawing a box on the map.  Select a time range by either sliding the time sliders to the starting and ending dates, or by selecting exact dates from the pull-down menus.  Finally, click the "Show tracks in region" button, and all of the tracks that met your criteria (i.e., these species passing through this region during this time period) will be displayed.

Note that the time interface below the map, and the tag interface to the left, are tied together.  In the example above, for example, once you've clicked the "Show tracks in region" button, the tags displayed on the map will also be shown in blue in the left navigation.  Likewise, should you decide to add an additional tag in the left menu, the time range below the map will be updated to reflect the new time span of the data being displayed.

Interacting with Tracks on the Map

When tracks are displayed on the map, clicking anywhere on a track will make it bold, and a bubble containing track metadata and other options will be displayed.  When your cursor is placed on the end point of a track, a series of black dots appear on the track.  These are estimated daily locations - and by clicking on an individual location you can bring up depth/temperature profiles for that date (and two days before and after).  By clicking on the "Show sst on xxx" or "Show chla on xxx" labels, you can add an SST or chlorophyll-a layer, from that specific date, on to the map.

Interacting with Acoustic Tag Data

Many of the principles outlined above also apply to acoustic tag data.  In the left navigation, acoustic tags are prepresented the same way as other tags, and offer the same functionalty.  However, we have not yet added time-based functionality to these datasets.  On the map itself, the acoustic receivers are represented by red, yellow, blue or green circular icons (the colors simply indicate how many locations are grouped together in a given view).  When an individual listening station is in view (a green icon), clicking on it brings up a bubble containing metadata about that station, as well as links to either map all the tags that passed that receiver, or to simply list the tags detected at that receiver, along with the dates and times of detection, etc.

This is a Work in Progress

At some point this notice might go away, but I doubt it.  After more than a decade of working with these kinds of datasets, the only known constant is change.  There will always be new questions you will want to ask, and new ways you'll want to expore your data.  When you have questions, or requests, or complaints, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we'll do our best to help you do whatever it is you want to do.