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NASA NTRS2022

A Long-Lived Lander for Venus Surface Insitu Science

Earth’s sister planet, Venus, continues to hide important scientific clues about our solar system, terrestrial planets around other stars, and about our home planet as well. Venus was the first planet human-built spacecraft have flown by, several missions have orbited around it and many short-duration landers operated have landed on it, yet there are still many important and basic science questions that need answering about this mysterious body. This fact exists because the planet poses significant challenges to acquiring the needed data when relying on tradition planetary spacecraft design approaches. This presentation will provide a short background, description, and status of a project that is taking a novel approach to meet some of the Venus challenges and prepare NASA to address the key science questions about its climate, surface, and eventually interior.

Venus↗
NASA NTRS2000

EOSDIS: Archive and Distribution Systems in the Year 2000

Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) is a long-term NASA research mission to study the processes leading to global climate change. The Earth Observing System (EOS) is a NASA campaign of satellite observatories that are a major component of ESE. The EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is another component of ESE that will provide the Earth science community with easy, affordable, and reliable access to Earth science data. EOSDIS is a distributed system, with major facilities at seven Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) located throughout the United States. The EOSDIS software architecture is being designed to receive, process, and archive several terabytes of science data on a daily basis. Thousands of science users and perhaps several hundred thousands of non-science users are expected to access the system. The first major set of data to be archived in the EOSDIS is from Landsat-7. Another EOS satellite, Terra, was launched on December 18, 1999. With the Terra launch, the EOSDIS will be required to support approximately one terabyte of data into and out of the archives per day. Since EOS is a multi-mission program, including the launch of more satellites and many other missions, the role of the archive systems becomes larger and more critical. In 1995, at the fourth convening of NASA Mass Storage Systems and Technologies Conference, the development plans for the EOSDIS information system and archive were described. Five years later, many changes have occurred in the effort to field an operational system. It is interesting to reflect on some of the changes driving the archive technology and system development for EOSDIS. This paper principally describes the Data Server subsystem including how the other subsystems access the archive, the nature of the data repository, and the mass-storage I/O management. The paper reviews the system architecture (both hardware and software) of the basic components of the archive. It discusses the operations concept, code development, and testing phase of the system. Finally, it describes the future plans for the archive.

Behnke, Jeanne↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Preserving NASA Historic and Current Mission Data and Adding Value to These for Future Researchers

The NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) has been actively involved in many aspects of ensuring the long-term preservation of NASA earth science data and knowledge. This involves both the recovery and preservation of early NASA meteorological and other earth observation data, as well as preserving the more recent Earth Observation System (EOS) mission data sets which continue or have reached their end of lifetime. The GES DISC adds value to these preserved data by adding metadata and making the data available online to future researchers. The early NASA meteorological and earth observation data sets from the 1960s and 70s were originally archived on magnetic tapes, and visualizations of these data were preserved on 70-mm film. As these media have aged, their contents have been at risk of permanent loss. NASA has given the task of preserving these early data sets to the GES DISC and making these data sets easily available to the public. The data from these early missions are potentially useful to climate researchers as these are some of the only global measurements made at their time. These old data on magnetic tapes and film strips do not contain easily readable metadata, and so to add value the GES DISC has added digital metadata to them so that the data are searchable and findable. The GES DISC is also involved in preserving the data and knowledge from the EOS era missions. The GES DISC follows the guidelines developed for the preservation of data as specified in the NASA EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Earth Science Data Preservation Content Specification (423-SPEC-001) document. To date, the GES DISC has consulted with the data science teams from the following missions: UARS, Earth Probe TOMS, Aura HIRDLS, and SORCE, in order to properly preserve their data and accompanying documentation. The GES DISC is also currently working with the EOS science teams from TRMM, AIRS, MLS, OMI and additional missions to ensure that the relevant documents and data sets are properly archived for future researchers. A standardized procedure for mission data preservation following 423-SPEC-001 makes preservation among the many NASA EOSDIS data centers uniform, so that these could be transitioned easily to a common EOSDIS preservation repository. This presentation will give an overview of the preservation and recovery of the old NASA historical data sets archived at the GES DISC, as well as the data and documentation preservation efforts of the EOS era missions.

James Johnson↗
NASA NTRS2008

Accessing and Utilizing Remote Sensing Data for Vectorborne Infectious Diseases Surveillance and Modeling

Background: The transmission of vectorborne infectious diseases is often influenced by environmental, meteorological and climatic parameters, because the vector life cycle depends on these factors. For example, the geophysical parameters relevant to malaria transmission include precipitation, surface temperature, humidity, elevation, and vegetation type. Because these parameters are routinely measured by satellites, remote sensing is an important technological tool for predicting, preventing, and containing a number of vectorborne infectious diseases, such as malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, etc. Methods: A variety of NASA remote sensing data can be used for modeling vectorborne infectious disease transmission. We will discuss both the well known and less known remote sensing data, including Landsat, AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer), MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission), ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer), EO-1 (Earth Observing One) ALI (Advanced Land Imager), and SIESIP (Seasonal to Interannual Earth Science Information Partner) dataset. Giovanni is a Web-based application developed by the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center. It provides a simple and intuitive way to visualize, analyze, and access vast amounts of Earth science remote sensing data. After remote sensing data is obtained, a variety of techniques, including generalized linear models and artificial intelligence oriented methods, t 3 can be used to model the dependency of disease transmission on these parameters. Results: The processes of accessing, visualizing and utilizing precipitation data using Giovanni, and acquiring other data at additional websites are illustrated. Malaria incidence time series for some parts of Thailand and Indonesia are used to demonstrate that malaria incidences are reasonably well modeled with generalized linear models and artificial intelligence based techniques. Conclusions: Remote sensing data relevant to the transmission of vectorborne infectious diseases can be conveniently accessed at NASA and some other websites. These data are useful for vectorborne infectious disease surveillance and modeling.

Kiang, Richard↗
NASA NTRS2000

New Millennium EO3

The New Millennium Program (NMP) is a NASA technology program that focuses on the validation of advanced spacecraft and instrumentation technologies in space. This program specifically seeks technologies that could significantly benefit future space and Earth science missions by enabling new science capabilities and reducing life cycle costs. These technologies must also require a validation in space to mitigate risks to the first science users, and provide cross-cutting benefits to both NASA's Earth and Space Science enterprises. The NASA Office of Earth Science (OES) directed the NMP to focus the third Earth Observing mission, E03, on innovative measurement concepts that would facilitate remote sensing observations from orbits beyond conventional low-Earth orbit (LEO). These orbits include geosynchronous orbits, highly elliptical orbits, mid-Earth and high-Earth orbits, and other unique vantage points such as L1 and L2. To maximize the input from the Earth science community, a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) was released to solicit innovative measurement concepts for this NMP flight. Because the NMP is a technology validation program, rather than a conventional science program, the NRA required that these measurement concepts employ revolutionary technologies and/or measurement strategies that will enable future science missions from orbits beyond LEO. Another requirement was that a validation in space was needed to reduce real or perceived risks of this concept to future science users. The proposals submitted in response to this NRA were peer reviewed by the NASA OES. The measurement concepts selected through this process will be summarized in this presentation. The E03 measurement concept NRA did not solicit complete mission concepts or flight hardware. Instead, the selected investigators will join integrated project formulation teams to define the mission for the demonstration of the measurement technique and participate in mission design trades and implementation planning. The teams will define and document the measurement approach, the required technologies, the validation plan, the scalability of the design to future science missions, and the infusion path for the completely validated instrument. During this project formulation phase, the specific technologies required to implement each measurement concept will be solicited through an open technology solicitation, and the technology providers will be added to the integrated teams. Once a complete candidate mission concept has been formulated for each measurement concept, these concepts will be subjected to a comprehensive review. The Associate Administrator of the OES will use the results of this review to select a single concept for the E03 flight opportunity. That mission concept will enter its implementation phase, which is expected to last for less than 36 months before launch. During this phase, and after launch, the implementation team will work with the NMP to document and disseminate the information gathered during the flight qualification testing and operations of the measurement concept and its component technologies. This information will be archived and published, where appropriate, to encourage the rapid infusion of these validated technologies into future space and Earth science missions. I

Li, Fuk K.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Towards a coherent remote sensing data policy

Access to space-based remote sensing data is critical for earth science and the study of global change. This article summarizes a variety of U.S. government earth science data policies and problems. The authors examine current efforts to develop data policies for the next generation of U.S. remote sensing programs, noting likely problems based on past experiences. They argue that the goal of U.S. earth science data policy should be to provide the widest possible dissemination of data. Setting such a goal permits the development of a simple, coherent data policy that serves scientific, commercial, and U.S. government interests.

Shaffer, Lisa R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

VEDA Visualization Exploration & Data Analysis

Why? - Interdisciplinary science depends on large amount of Earth science data and computational resources - Working with these datasets is non-trivial - Big data science requires advanced distributed computing knowledge What? VEDA is an open platform that brings key Earth science datasets next to open source tools for data processing, analysis, visualization, and exploration in a managed and more accessible computing environment.

Manil Maskey↗
NASA NTRS2006

The Critical Need for Continued Data Collection and Development of Future Thermal Satellite Sensors

There is a rich and long history of thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing data for multidisciplinary Earth science research. The continuity of TIR data collection, however, is now in jeopardy given there are no planned future Earth observing TIR remote sensing satellite systems with moderately high spatial resolutions to replace those currently in orbit on NASA's Terra suite of sensors. This session will convene researchers who have actively worked in the field of TIR remote sensing to present results that elucidate the importance of thermal remote sensing to the wider Earth science research community. Additionally, this session will also exist as a forum for presenting concepts and ideas for new thermal sensing systems with high spatial resolutions for future Earth science satellite missions, as opposed to planned systems such as the Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer (VIIRS) suite of sensors on the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) that will collect TIR data at very coarse spatial resolutions.

Quattrochi, Dale A.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA’s Advance Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program

NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) develops early-stage technologies to enhance scientific understanding. ESTO’s technologies can be reliably and confidently applied to a broad range of science measurements and missions, as well as facilitate practical applications to benefit society at large. As the lead technology office within the Earth Science Division of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, ESTO is focused on the technological challenges inherent to space-based investigations of our planet's dynamic, interrelated systems. Through flexible, science-driven technology strategies and a competitive selection process, ESTO-funded technologies have supported numerous Earth science missions as well as commercial applications. From next generation sensors and instruments to communication and information systems, ESTO technologies enable many NASA missions and data services. The Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program is one focal area of ESTO. AIST innovates information system technologies that enable the development of new observing systems as well as agile science investigations through data analytics and artificial intelligence tools and algorithms. AIST utilizes an end-to-end development approach with the goal of infusing mature technologies into future missions, measurements, and analysis. One thrust of AIST is data exploitation and analysis using an analytic center framework to make observational data and model output more accessible and usable to scientists conducting specific investigations as well as to extract higher-level science content and information from the data. The framework accelerates scientific discovery by harmonizing the data, tools, and computational resources. NASA’s upcoming Surface, Biology and Geology (SBG) mission is one such mission whose data architecture will leverage many of the technologies developed through the AIST program. This talk will highlight current and future program development goals.

Laura Rogers↗
NASA NTRS2023

Information Systems Technology for NASA Earth Systems Digital Twins (ESDT)

The term “Digital Twin” was first used in 2002 for product lifecycle management. Since then, Digital Twin concepts have been proposed in various domains until very recently for Earth Science. For NASA’s Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program, an Earth System Digital Twin (ESDT) is defined as composed of three components: 1. A Digital Replica, i.e., an integrated picture of the past and current states of Earth systems 2. Forecasting capabilities, providing an integrated picture of how Earth systems will evolve in the future from the current state 3. Impact Assessment capabilities, providing an integrated picture of how Earth systems could evolve under different hypothetical what-if scenarios. Developing such a vision will require technologies related to: integrating continuous observations from various disparate sources; developing frameworks that builds on inter-connected models; improving the speed and accuracy of integrated prediction, analysis and visualization capabilities (e.g., by using machine learning); and utilizing causality and uncertainty quantification to improve our understanding of the evolution of Earth Science systems as a function of their interactions with other Earth and human systems. In addition, AIST is also investigating interoperability standards to federate multiple Digital Twins, as well as computational resources required by those systems.

Earth Science Remote Sensing; Information Systems↗
NASA NTRS2018

NASA IceCube: CubeSat Demonstration of a Commercial 883-GHz Cloud Radiometer

On April 18 2017, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's IceCube 3U CubeSat was launched by an ATLAS V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on board a Cygnus resupply spacecraft, as part of NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative. Onboard IceCube was an 883 GHz radiometer tuned to detecting ice content in clouds, marking the first time such frequency was used from low-Earth orbit. IceCube successfully demonstrated retrieval of ice water path, generating the first ever global cloud ice map at 883 GHz. Its success provides valuable lessons on how to approach a severely resource-limited space mission and provides great insight into how this experience can be applied to future high-risk, "non-class" missions for NASA and others. IceCube marks the first official NASA Earth Science CubeSat technology demonstration mission. The spacecraft was completed in about 2.5 years starting April 2014 through launch provider delivery in December of 2016. The mission was jointly funded by NASA's Earth Science Technology Office, after competitive selection, and by NASA's Earth Science Directorate. IceCube began its technology demonstration mission in June 2017, providing a pathway to advancing the understanding of ice clouds and their role in climate models; quite a tall order for a tiny spacecraft.

Radiometer↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Experience in Visualizing Satellite Data With AR/VR Technologies at NASA's GES-DISC

The Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES-DISC) at NASA plays a crucial role in archiving and disseminating vital Earth science data. In this project, we leverage immersive visualization technologies to reshape engagement with and comprehension of the intricate datasets of our planet. Through the adoption of immersive technologies, we are enhancing established methods, offering novel, intuitive experiences in visualizing and interacting with Earth science data. Our goal is to contribute to the ongoing evolution of data interaction, pushing the boundaries of what's possible in data interpretation and education.

Visualization↗
NASA NTRS2000

STS-97 ISS Science Payloads Briefing

John Un, International Space Station (ISS) Lead Increment Scientist, gives an overview of the STS-97 Endeavour mission payload (PV Module P6) and Expedition 1 crew. He describes the research and experimentation to take place on the ISS in the following fields: (1) Life Sciences, (2) Microgravity Research, (3) Commercial, (4) Space Sciences, and (5) Earth Sciences. Observations of Earth include images of the Aral Sea in central Asia and fires in Mongolia. Mr. Un then answers questions from the press.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2011

Hurricane Data Analysis Tool

In order to facilitate Earth science data access, the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data Information Services Center (GES DISC) has developed a web prototype, the Hurricane Data Analysis Tool (HDAT; URL: http://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/HDAT), to allow users to conduct online visualization and analysis of several remote sensing and model datasets for educational activities and studies of tropical cyclones and other weather phenomena. With a web browser and few mouse clicks, users can have a full access to terabytes of data and generate 2-D or time-series plots and animation without downloading any software and data. HDAT includes data from the NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), the NASA Quick Scatterometer(QuikSCAT) and NECP Reanalysis, and the NCEP/CPC half-hourly, 4-km Global (60 N - 60 S) IR Dataset. The GES DISC archives TRMM data. The daily global rainfall product derived from the 3-hourly multi-satellite precipitation product (3B42 V6) is available in HDAT. The TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) sea surface temperature from the Remote Sensing Systems is in HDAT as well. The NASA QuikSCAT ocean surface wind and the NCEP Reanalysis provide ocean surface and atmospheric conditions, respectively. The global merged IR product, also known as, the NCEP/CPC half-hourly, 4-km Global (60 N -60 S) IR Dataset, is one of TRMM ancillary datasets. They are globally-merged pixel-resolution IR brightness temperature data (equivalent blackbody temperatures), merged from all available geostationary satellites (GOES-8/10, METEOSAT-7/5 & GMS). The GES DISC has collected over 10 years of the data beginning from February of 2000. This high temporal resolution (every 30 minutes) dataset not only provides additional background information to TRMM and other satellite missions, but also allows observing a wide range of meteorological phenomena from space, such as, hurricanes, typhoons, tropical cyclones, mesoscale convection system, etc. Basic functions include selection of area of interest and time, single imagery, overlay of two different products, animation,a time skip capability and different image size outputs. Users can save an animation as a file (animated gif) and import it in other presentation software, such as, Microsoft PowerPoint. Since the tool can directly access the real data, more features and functionality can be added in the future.

Liu, Zhong↗
NASA NTRS2020

NASA Global Satellite and Model Data Products and Services for Tropical Meteorology and Climatology

Satellite remote sensing and model data play an important role in research and applications of tropical meteorology and climatology over vast, data sparse oceans and remote continents. Since the first weather satellite was launched by NASA in 1960, a large collection of NASA's Earth science data is freely available to the research and application communities around the world, significantly improving our overall understanding of the Earth system and environment. Established in the mid-80s, the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC), located in Maryland, USA, is a data archive center for multidisciplinary, satellite and model assimilation data products. As one of the 12 NASA data centers in Earth Sciences, GES DISC hosts several important NASA satellite missions for tropical meteorology and climatology such as the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission and the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA). Over the years, GES DISC has developed data services to facilitate data discovery, access, distribution, analysis and visualization, including Giovanni, an online analysis and visualization tool without the need to download data and software. Despite many efforts for improving data access, still quite a number of challenges remain, such as finding datasets and services for a specific research topic or project, especially for inexperienced users or users outside the remote sensing community. In this article, we list and describe major NASA satellite remote sensing and model datasets and services for tropical meteorology and climatology along with examples of using the data and services, in hope that may help users better utilize the information in their research and applications.

tropical meteorology and climatology, data, servic↗
NASA NTRS2016

NASA ESTO Lidar Technologies Investment Strategy: 2016 Decadal Update

The NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) recently updated its investment strategy in the area of lidar technologies as it pertains to NASAs Earth Science measurement goals in the next decade. The last ESTO lidar strategy was documented in 2006. The current (2016) report assesses the state-of-the-art in lidar technologies a decade later. Lidar technology maturation in the past decade has been evaluated, and the ESTO investment strategy is updated and laid out in this report according to current NASA Earth science measurement needs and new emerging technologies.

Valinia, Azita↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Making NASA GES DISC Level 2 Data GIS Analysis Ready

There are many valuable data hosted by NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) for GIS applications in the areas of extreme weather events, climatic anomaly, and public health. However, using NASA Earth Science Data poses some challenges for GIS users. Many of these users are not experts in Earth Observation and have little knowledge about NASA's Earth science data. In the GIS community, GeoTiff is the most widely used raster format, whereas NASA's data is primarily in complex multidimensional netCDF and HDF formats. This complexity makes it difficult for GIS users, especially those who are unfamiliar with these formats. Although GIS software like ArcGIS has made progress in processing multidimensional netCDF data, certain issues still remain, particularly with level 2 data. In this study, we use TROPSpheric Monitoring instrument (TROPOMI) level 2 data as an example to demonstrate how to make such data GIS analysis ready. The process involves: 1. Creating a feature layer from the TROPOMI level 2 data. 2. Converting the feature layer to a gridded raster dataset. 3. Mosaicking gridded raster datasets into a raster dataset covering the entire desired extent. 4. Generating a symbology with a GIBS-specific style that aligns with the visual standards and requirements of GIBS. 5. Publishing image services. By performing these preprocessing and transformation steps, NASA level 2 data can be made compatible and ready for use within GIS software for various spatial analysis and visualization tasks.

Geographic Information System↗
NASA NTRS2017

NASA ESTO Lidar Technologies Investment Strategy: 2016 Decadal Update

The NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) recently updated its investment strategy in the area of lidar technologies as it pertains to NASA's Earth Science measurement goals in the next decade. The last ESTO lidar strategy was documented in 2006. The current (2016) report assesses the state-of-the-art in lidar technologies a decade later. Lidar technology maturation in the past decade has been evaluated, and the ESTO investment strategy is updated and laid out in this report according to current NASA Earth science measurement needs and new emerging technologies.

Valinia, Azita↗