Together with the BfG, the NTS Portal was developed in the REFOPLAN 3720 22 201 0 from 2019-2023. The NTS portal can be accessed via https://ntsportal.bafg.de after prior activation.
The NTS Portal is a database and analysis platform for NTS data from rivers in Germany provided by the UBA and the BfG. It enables data from different laboratories to be combined and analysed together. Information on the methods can be found in UBA Texte | 144/2021 . Currently, NTS data from two matrices, suspended particulate matter from the Environmental Specimen Bank (2005 onwards) and water from the BfG's daily monitoring station, are being analysed. Further environmental matrices are to be integrated in the future.
The dashboard can be used to search and filter data as well as display time series and maps.
The NTS portal provides the following analytical information, among others:
- Chromatogramms
- Mass spectra of features (MS and MS/MS spectra)
- Time series
- Mass spectrometric information
- m/z retention time dot plot
The NTS portal is horizontally scalable and allows database fields and data to be added at a later date. It is based on an ElasticSearch database and uses Kibana as a data analysis and visualisation service (dashboard). An NTS feature consisting of retention time, intensity and mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) is stored as a JSON (text-based format) document, which enables the data to be read, but also facilitates the construction of a new database. For identification, the so-called DataBase Assisted Screening (DBAS) is used in which measured features are identified via a database. This database (Collective Spectral Library) consists of retention times and MS² spectra of reference substances. This database is continuously expanded to increase the number of reliable detections.
