Tools:
-lat/lon converter see http://maps2.nris.state.mt.us/topofinder1/LatLong.asp

Data sources:
http://www.opendap.org/data/datasets.cgi?xmlfilename=datasets.xml&exfunction=none
http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/
http://ferret.pmel.noaa.gov/NVODS/servlets/search

NASA http://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/services/dods/ 

for a complete listing of data sources

Long-term archive MODIS AQUA/TERRA SOLAR BANDS

-http://g0dup05u.ecs.nasa.gov/OPENDAP_DP/long_term/MOGA/

examples: -http://g0dup05u.ecs.nasa.gov/opendap-bin/nph-dods/OPENDAP_DP/long_term/MOGA/MYD02SSH.004/2002.10.06/MYD02SSH.A2002279.0000.004.2004034135620.hdf.html
-http://eil.bren.ucsb.edu/products/MODISproducts/MODIS/index.html

-http://g0dup05u.ecs.nasa.gov/OPENDAP_DP/long_term/MOGT/


ITC data sources:
-MSG/SEVIRI 2004-06-02 - now (2005-03-25 - 2005-06-30 12.00h!)
-http://x6.itc.nl:8080/thredds/catalog/

Below you can find some data sources per theme:

OCEAN

General:
US Navy: http://www.usgodae.org/
NASA: http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/services/dods/modis_ocean.shtml
ECMWF: http://www.ecmwf.int/research/EU_projects/ENACT/ocean_analyses/index.html

SST
AVHRR Pathfinder V5,   4km Level 3, 1985- present, Daily/8-day/Monthly, 
-http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov:2031/DATASET_DOCS/avhrr_pathfinder_sst.html
-http://dods.jpl.nasa.gov/dods-bin/nph-hdf/pub/sea_surface_temperature/avhrr/pathfinder/data_v5

Long-term archive MODIS AQUA/TERRA SST
-http://g0dup05u.ecs.nasa.gov/OPENDAP_DP/long_term/MOOA
-http://g0dup05u.ecs.nasa.gov/OPENDAP_DP/long_term/MOOT

Sea-level products (alimeter, etc.)
-http://opendap.aviso.oceanobs.com/
-http://www.vterrain.org/Elevation/Bathy/index.html
-http://cola8.iges.org:9090/dods/navytopo.info
-ETOPO2 is a 2-minute (~1.6km) global dataset which can be downloaded freely
    * the data is noisy, rough, and patchy, but it's still (as of 2005) still the best freely available global bathymetry set
    * see a comparison of ETOPO2 to other datasets
-GLOBE is "GLOBE" data is 30 sec or about 1 km resolution.
-see http://geon.unavco.org/unavco/Converter/NGDC_topo_data_conversion_notes.html for conversion

Sea-color products:
-http://mersea.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ (MODIS/SeaWIFS)

Sea-currents:
The 'Ocean surface zonal currents' is the  eastward and westward flow while the Ocean Surface Meridional Currents data is the velocity in the north south flow.  The zonal and meridional  surface currents  anomaly data is calculated sing the climatological mean.

Relative velocity is derived using surface currents, winds, topography and SST while  absolute velocity is derived using the mean dynamic height inferred  from the World Ocean Atlas (WOA).

The derived data is not displaying in IDV for some reason. I think it is appropriate to use as a variable surface currents anomaly data (zonal), as it also has an element of trade winds direction and velocity.


Methods and functions:

STATISTICAL
multiple variable linear regression
-http://openforecast.sourceforge.net/sample.html
-http://openforecast.sourceforge.net/docs/net/sourceforge/openforecast/models/MultipleLinearRegressionModel.html