Introduction:

The WFAS Interactive Map is a prototype project by the Fire Behavior Research and Fire Modeling Institute work units at the Missoula Fire Sciences Lab to develop the methods necessary for delivering nationwide observed and 24-hour forecast fire danger maps to the public through a compact web mapping program.  The new interface complements the existing static national maps and will provide more system flexibility by allowing users to define their own area of interest, link to weather station data in a tabular format, and perform searches for map features.  This user's guide provides information on the functionality of the interactive web interface.  Note: J2SE Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.3 or greater is required.  The latest Java JRE may be obtained from http://www.java.com.

Choose GACC:

The Choose GACC dropdown menu allows the user to select and zoom to a specific Geographic Area Coordination Center's spatial extent.  The GACC boundaries are not visible by default but can be turned on by clicking the appropriate box in the legend (see legend section below).

Choose Map:

The Choose Map dropdown menu allows the user to select either the observed or the forecast fire danger class map for display.  The adjective fire danger class and weather station layers will automatically change accordingly in the legend.  Only reporting station locations are indicated with a marker on the maps.

Tools:

An "active" or currently selected tool will be represented by a depressed button and red text. 

The Zoom In, Zoom Out, Pan, and Identify tools belong to a group, meaning that only one of the buttons can be selected at one time.  The identify tool is active by default.

    Click this tool and then click or drag a box on the map to zoom in.

    Click this tool and then click on the map to zoom out.

    Click this tool and then click and drag the mouse on the map to pan (move) to another location.

    Click this tool and then click or drag a box around map features (e.g., weather stations) to select and display attribute data about the feature(s).  Only Weather Stations, Geographic Area Coordination Centers, and County Boundaries are identifiable.  Clicking on other features (e.g., State Boundaries) will not display attribute information about the feature.  Furthermore, a layer must be visible in order to identify features in it (see legend and layer control below).

Hyperlinking - Clicking on a single weather station will hyperlink to that stations observed and forecasted attribute data in a separate web page.  Selecting multiple weather stations will open a table containing the selected stations' attribute data, where the user can then select an individual station and then click the Link button to open that station's attribute data in a new web page.

Zoom to feature - Clicking the On Map button in the attribute table will zoom to the selected feature on the map.

    This tool acts as a toggle.  Click it to turn rollover labeling on or off.  With rollover labeling on and the identify tool selected pop-up labels will appear as the mouse pointer moves over an identifiable feature (i.e., Weather Stations, Geographic Area Coordination Centers, and County Boundaries).  Rollover labeling is associated with the active layer (see legend and layer control next).

Legend and Layer Control:

 

The map legend displays the layers on the map and their symbology.  The active layer is highlighted and marked with an arrow, as Weather Stations - Observed is shown here.

Click the check box to turn layers on  or off  .

Click the right arrow to expand or down arrow to contract a layer's symbology.

A layer will be greyed out, as shown here with Geographic Area Coordination Centers and County Boundaries, when the layer is not visible.

indicates that a layer is not visible because of a scale dependency (e.g., the user needs to zoom in to a smaller spatial extent before the layer will become visible).

indicates that a layer is being downloaded.

Index Map:

The index map shows the current area being displayed in the main map with a red rectangle, the western United States as shown here.  It also provides the user with another map navigation tool by clicking and dragging the rectangle around a specific area of interest.

Searching:

Attribute data within layers may be searched to locate specific records and display them in a tabular format.  The Weather Stations, Geographic Area Coordination Centers, and County Boundaries layers are searchable.  Only one layer, the active layer, can be searched at a time and the layer must be visible.  The search label displays the name of the active layer (e.g., Geographic Area Coordination Centers) and search field (e.g., GACC).  If a layer is not searchable it will display "Not searchable" in place of the search field.  The search fields are station name (STN_NAME), GACC name (GACC), and county name (NAME) respectively.

A user may search for the full or partial name.  For example, searching for "south" in the GACC layer would result in Southern, Southern California, and Southwest.  Search criteria are not case sensitive.

Individual records can be highlighted in the Attribute Data window and zoomed to on the map by clicking the On Map button.  The Weather Stations layer also supports hyperlinking by clicking the Link button.