In this issue EDITOR’S CORNER - Earth Observing System · 2017. 1. 26. · tragic end to Space...

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thObserving System

THE EARTH OBSERVER

January/February 2003, Vol. 15, No. 1

In this issue ...Meeting/Workshop Summaries

Investigators Working Group (IWG)

Minutes ............................................ 3

ASTER Science Team Minutes ....... 20

HDF Workshop VI Minutes ............. 26

Other Items of Interest

SORCE Launch ............................... 16

Kudos ............................................... 29

NASA Partners with USDA on Varietyof Products ................................... 34

Regular Features

Earth Science Education ProgramUpdate ......................................... 30

EOS Scientists in the News ............. 32

Science Calendars ............................ 35

The Earth Observer Information/Inquiries ........................ Back Cover

Continued on page 2

EDITOR’S CORNER

Michael King

EOS Senior Project Scientist

I’m sure you share the same sense of loss and solemn reverence as I do over thetragic end to Space Shuttle mission STS-107 on February 1. The loss ofColumbia and its crew is a major setback to the tremendous contributions theShuttle program has made over the past several years, and will have significantimpacts across NASA. At this point it is uncertain what these impacts will be,but it is certain that the same inspiration, dedication, and passion thatembodied the crew of Columbia will remain in the Shuttle program, the EarthScience Enterprise, and throughout NASA. These characteristics are evident inthe outstanding progress our program has made in recent years, and there aremany new and exciting missions planned for the near future.

Two new Earth science missions were successfully launched recently. The Ice,Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) was successfully launched onJanuary 12 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a Boeing DeltaII rocket. ICESat is the benchmark EOS mission for measuring ice sheet massbalance, cloud and aerosol heights, as well as land topography and vegetationcharacteristics. A minor performance issue with the Laser Reference System onthe spacecraft’s Geoscience Laser Altimetry System (GLAS) has been resolved,and the ICESat Science Team is currently conducting calibration and validationactivities.

The ICESat mission will provide multi-year elevation data needed to determineice sheet mass balance as well as cloud property information, including polarstratospheric clouds common over polar areas in winter. It will also providetopography and vegetation data around the globe, in addition to topographiccoverage over the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) was placed into orbit by

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a Pegasus XL launch vehicle on January25. The SORCE spacecraft and itsinstruments are exceeding our initialexpectations, and there have been nosignificant glitches. The instrumentshave begun taking excellent sciencemeasurements, and initialinvestigations of the data areunderway. Solar observations from theTotal Irradiance Monitor (TIM),Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM), theXUV Photometer System (XPS), andstellar observations from the SolarStellar Irradiance ComparisonExperiment (SOLSTICE) areproceeding nominally.

SORCE instruments will provide state-of-the-art measurements of incoming x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared,and total solar radiation. Themeasurements provided by SORCEspecifically address long-term climatechange, natural variability andenhanced climate prediction, andatmospheric ozone and UV-B radiation.These measurements are critical tostudies of the sun, its effect on ourEarth system, and its influence onhumankind.

Congratulations to the ICESat andSORCE Science Teams on theiroutstanding performance in bringingthese two important EOS missions tofruition. Congratulations also to JimWatzin, currently the ICESat ProjectManager, who will assumeresponsibilities as the new ProjectManager for the NPOESS PreparatoryProject (NPP) once the ICESat missiontransitions to mission operations.

An EOS NRA titled, “Earth SystemScience Research Using Data andProducts from Terra, Aqua, andACRIM Satellites” was released onJanuary 30, 2003, with Notices of Intent

due February 28. Proposals are due byApril 15, 2003. This NRA includes twocategories of proposals: “EOSAlgorithm Refinement Proposals,”and”“Science Data Analysis andModeling Research Proposals.”Research accomplished within theseprojects will significantly contribute tothe science and applications enabled byEOS and its entire complement of Earthscience satellites.

Finally, I’m pleased to announce amajor redesign of the EOS ProjectScience Office web site at eos.nasa.gov.While the content and functionality ofthe site remain relatively unchanged,its design and navigation have beengreatly improved. The EOSPSO website has had over a million hits fromover 54,000 unique visitors since it wasredesigned and went online in earlyJanuary. In addition to frequent access

ICESat successfully launchedon January 12 fromVandenberg Air Force Base.The Boeing Delta II rocketcarried it into space, where thesatellite will measure Earth’sice sheet mass baalance, cloudand aerosol heights, and landvegetation.

for EOS science program referenceinformation, we’ve received 14,000orders for our educational CD-ROMand 18,000 orders for our series of fourEarth science posters since August 15 oflast year. The EOS Project ScienceOffice web site continues to be theprimary clearinghouse for up-to-dateEOS Project information, sciencereference materials, and a host ofinformal education resources.

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The Earth Observing System’s (EOS)Investigators Working Group Meetingwas held November 18-20, 2002, at theTurf Valley Resort and ConferenceCenter in Ellicott City, MD. Themeeting drew 159 participants and isthe primary forum for sharing the latestEOS science and program activities.More detailed minutes of theNovember, 2002 IWG meeting, alongwith copies of the presentations bymost of the speakers, are available fromthe EOS Project Science Office. Pleasecontact Hannelore Parrish [email protected] or (301)867-2114 for these items. The nextInvestigators Working Group meetingwill be held in the fall of 2003.Additional details on the next meetingwill be published in future issues of The

Earth Observer.

DAY ONE: November 18, 2002

Session I: ESE/EOS Mission Status—

Michael King, EOS Senior Project

Scientist, Chair

Ghassem Asrar (AssociateAdministrator for Earth Science atNASA Headquarters) presented a talkon the status of the Earth ScienceEnterprise (ESE) and EOS. Asrar lookedat three main areas: progress, promise,and vision.

In the last decade, ESE was focused onconducting a broad survey of the EarthSystem. The first Earth observation

The Earth Observing System’s (EOS)Investigators Working Group (IWG) MeetingMinutes

— Alan Ward ([email protected]), EOS Project Science Office,Goddard Space Flight Center, SSAI

launches occurred toward the end ofthis period. ESE is now moving beyondthis survey and plans to be much morefocused on using Earth Science data tomeet societal needs over the nextcouple of decades.

By the end of 2004, more than 20 Earthobserving satellites will be in orbit.Recent launches are generating excitingnew data and understanding of thehealth of our planet. More missions areplanned beyond the 2004 timeframe. Inaddition, the intriguing new concept ofmultiple spacecraft flying in tightformation — so called satelliteconstellations — should lead to evenmore comprehensive observations andunderstanding of our home planet.Asrar also stressed the importance ofinformation systems. These systemsshould provide end-to-endmanagement from satellite to users.

Asrar reminded the audience of theNASA vision and mission statement.The important phrase to stress is, “As

only NASA can.” There are certainmissions which NASA is uniquelysuited to fulfill. He also stressed thefundamental importance of education.This is a key part of the missionstatement. ESE cannot fulfill its goals ifit does not prepare the next generationof scientists and engineers. ESE seeks tounderstand how our planet is changingand what consequences these changeswill have on human civilization. Hetouched on the science priorities as

articulated in the research plan:variability, forcing, response,consequences, and prediction. Eacharea has a set of overarching questionsassociated with it.

Asrar spoke about modeling and thekey role these efforts play in fulfillingthe ESE objectives. It is an importantway to provide economic and policyrelevant information to decisionmakers. Meeting societal needs is themajor challenge ahead.

Another key issue is that of missionstransitioning from a research focus toan operational focus. As of yet, noformal process has been developed togovern the path taken from research tooperations. The discussions that areongoing concerning the developmentof the National Polar-orbitingOperational Environmental SatelliteSystem (NPOESS) are an example ofwhere these types of issues arebeginning to be discussed.

Asrar also touched briefly on the 12National Applications that have beenidentified (covered in greater detail inSession V). These are partnershipswith other domestic agencies. NASA’srole is more to serve as a consultantand provide data and expertise. Oncethe applications prove viable, thepartner agencies take control andinstitutionalize them. NASA continuesto provide data, information, andtechnical support.

Asrar ended his talk by looking towardthe future. He stressed the continuedimportance of domestic, international,and commercial partnerships, andadvanced sensor capabilities includingsensor webs, information synthesis,and the importance of improved accessto knowledge. Roadmaps are beingdeveloped to map out how various


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capabilities will be developed to enablethe NASA mission of “understandingand protecting our home planet,” fordecades to come.

Jack Kaye (Director of the ResearchDivision in the Office of Earth Scienceat NASA headquarters) spoke aboutFederal Planning for Climate Research.He began with some historicalperspective, emphasizing the U.S.Global Change Research Program(USGCRP), which for more than adecade was the major coordinatingactivity for climate change studies inthe U.S. Government. NASA has been(and continues to be) its biggestcontributor.

In the 2000 time frame, the USGCRPwas in the process of developing along-term strategy, which changedwhen President Bush gave his “RoseGarden Speech” on June 11, 2001. Inthis address, the President announcedthe creation of the Climate ChangeResearch Initiative (CCRI). Thedirective was that the CCRI shouldexamine the “key gaps” in ourunderstanding of climate change,emphasizing the near-term provision ofscientific information to enableimproved policy and decision making.On February 14, 2002, the Presidentdelivered another speech in which heemphasized the U.S. commitment toimprove our knowledge of the climatesystem and defined a multi-tieredinteragency coordinating structure thathas been put in place to helpimplement the CCRI together with theprior USGCRP in an integrated fashion.This structure will also help implementthe associated National ClimateChange Technology Initiative.

Kaye then went on to discuss some ofthe highlights of the integratedUSGCRP and CCRI as defined in the

draft U.S. Climate Change ScienceProgram Strategic Plan. [Editors Note:The CCRI was extensively reviewed ina major stakeholder meeting heldDecember 3-5, 2002, in Washington,DC.] CCRI will accelerate the highestpriority science and provide answers todecision makers. He reviewed thestructure of the CCRI. The focus is onthree main areas: emerging scientificissues, observations and monitoring,and decision-support. The emergingscientific issues, all of which arerelevant to ESE, are the impact ofaerosols on climate, carbon in NorthAmerica, and feedback issues relativeto clouds and water vapor and also toPolar Regions. He touched briefly onissues associated with climate qualityobservations, monitoring and datamanagement, and ended by verybriefly showing information on parts ofthe more disciplinary-oriented themechapters. For each question that isposed, the state of knowledge isreviewed, illustrative researchquestions are given, research needs aredescribed, and products and expectedpayoffs are listed.

Upcoming EOS Mission Status Reports

The series of talks that followed was anupdate on EOS Missions that areplanned for launch in the near future.

Gary Rottman (Laboratory forAtmospheric and Space Physics [LASP]at the University of Colorado) and BobCahalan (Goddard Space Flight Center[GSFC]) gave a joint update on theSolar Radiation and ClimateExperiment (SORCE). Launch iscurrently planned for the end ofJanuary. SORCE will measure bothTotal Solar Irradiance (TSI) and, moreimportantly, spectral irradiance overmost wavelengths. A brochure has justbeen released that details the science of

this mission. The spacecraft operationsand data analysis system are bothlocated at LASP. Rottman also reportedthat the instruments and spacecraft areall ready to go. Launch will be at theKennedy Space Center at CapeCanaveral, Florida. [Editors Note:SORCE was successfully launched onJanuary 25, 2003. Kudos to the SORCEteam!]

Bob Cahalan continued the report onSORCE and discussed cooperation withother agencies and between the Earthand Space Science communities atNASA. This is an effort to study long-term variability in solar irradiance.There is still quite a bit of uncertaintyin this area, and combined andoverlapping measurements withprevious missions are very importantso that the long-term record can becontinued. Cahalan reported that thereis currently a gap between the SORCEmission and the next mission that isplanned to study solar irradiance—NPOESS. A SORCE-2 mission(alternatively named Solar IrradianceGap Filler [SIGF]) is being proposed. Itmay be co-manifested with anothermission. Cahalan ended by speakingabout calibration and intercomparisonefforts that have been or will beconducted for SORCE.

Jay Zwally (GSFC) provided an updateon the Ice, Cloud, and land ElevationSatellite (ICESat) that is scheduled tolaunch on December 19 fromVandenberg Air Force Base inCalifornia. [NOTE: The launch wasdelayed from the scheduled date buthappened on January 12, 2003. Kudosto the ICESat team!] ICESat is plannedas a three-year mission but it is hopedthat the mission can be extended to fiveyears. The instrument on ICESat is theGeoscience Laser Altimeter System(GLAS), a laser with channels at 532


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and 1064 nm, respectively. Zwally wenton to give some of the technical detailsabout the GLAS instrument.

The primary objective of the ICESatmission is to study polar ice massbalance and its effects on sea-levelchange. Zwally showed some resultsfrom previous studies of ice sheetchanges, emphasized the importance ofthese questions for climate changestudies, and emphasized the need forlong-term systematic measurements ofice sheet changes. The mission’ssecondary objectives include studying:clouds and aerosols, land elevation,sea-ice thickness and roughness,vegetation canopy height, and surfacereflectivity. Zwally ended by discussingmission characteristics and dataprocessing and distribution.

Ernest Hilsenrath (GSFC) provided anupdate on Aura. Aura is the third majorEOS platform and will join Terra andAqua in orbit, hopefully, in January2004, and become part of the A-Trainsatellite formation. As its name implies,Aura focuses on studying ouratmosphere, and will take observationsof atmospheric chemistry inunprecedented detail. Hilsenrathreviewed the Aura science questions,which are derived from NASA’sstrategic questions. He then reviewedthe specific areas for which Aura willmake contributions, including:monitoring the sources anddistribution of pollution and impactson health and climate; ozone recoveryand the impact of internationalprotocols; and the roles of clouds,aerosols, water vapor, and ozone onclimate forcing.

Hilsenrath next reviewed theinstruments on Aura individually anddiscussed their status. The instrumentsare the High Resolution Dynamic Limb

Sounder (HIRDLS), the OzoneMonitoring Instrument (OMI), theMicrowave Limb Sounder (MLS), andthe Tropospheric EmissionSpectrometer (TES). He reported thatthe Aura flight operations and dataprocessing systems are on schedule,and the instrument teams’ ScienceInvestigator-led Processing System(SIPS) are in place. Finally hediscussed the proposed validationactivities, which are being planned inconjunction with NASA’s atmosphericresearch program.

Bob Murphy (GSFC) provided anupdate on the NPOESS PreparatoryProject (NPP), a mission planned tobridge the gap between the EOSmissions (Terra and Aqua) andNPOESS. Murphy discussed the maininstrumentation that will fly on NPP.The Visible Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a modifiedversion of the Moderate ResolutionImaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)that flies on Terra and Aqua. Alsoincluded will be a Cross-Track InfraredSounder (CrIS) and an AdvancedTechnology Microwave Sounder(ATMS). Furthermore, an instrument ofopportunity may also be added to theNPP suite. Candidates to fill this slotwould be either an Ozone Mappingand Profiler Suite (OMPS), as isplanned to fly on NPOESS, or anotherClouds and the Earth’s Radiant EnergySystem (CERES) radiometer, like theones currently flying on Terra andAqua. A decision on the instrument ofopportunity will likely be made in thenear future. [Editors Note: A decisionhas subsequently been made to flyOMPS on NPP].

Murphy reports that NPP will launchsome time in the first half of 2006 on-board a Delta II rocket. He alsodiscussed the ground system for NPP

and pointed out that an NRA is to bereleased in late January to form ascience team for this mission. A secondscience team will likely be assembledcloser to the launch date.

Earth System Science Pathfinder Missions

Continuing with mission updates, theattention turned to the Earth SystemScience Pathfinder (ESSP) missions.Marc Imhoff (GSFC) is ESSP ProjectScientist and introduced this series oftalks. Imhoff presented a briefoverview of the ESSP program; theseare intended to be focused missionsthat look at issues of importance toclimate change studies and supplementlarger EOS missions. They are missionsthat are built quickly and on aconstrained budget. Imhoff brieflytouched on each mission andintroduced each speaker. Since thefocus of the morning was on missionsthat had not yet been launched, theGravity Recovery and ClimateExperiment (GRACE), which is alreadyon orbit, was not discussed until laterin the meeting (see session IV).

Jay Mace (University of Utah)provided an update on CloudSat. Maceacknowledged all of the partners whoare working together on CloudSat. Healso reported that CloudSat will belaunched on the same launch vehicle asthe Cloud Aerosol Lidar InfraredPathfinder Science Observations(CALIPSO) mission to be discussed bythe next speaker. The launch isplanned for 2004. CloudSat is a missionto study the key role clouds play inclimate; it will be the first mission todeploy a 94 GHz Cloud Profiling Radarsystem in space. CloudSat is part of theA-Train satellite constellation, andinformation from the other satellites inthis formation can be combined withinformation from CloudSat to make


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synergistic measurements. Products arebeing developed that will combineinformation from the radar onCloudSat and the lidar on CALIPSO.Data from MODIS on Aqua will also beused in conjunction with radar datafrom CloudSat. Mace ended bydiscussing two test data sets thathelped to show the capabilities ofCloudSat and illustrate how the rawdata will be turned into meaningfulresults.

David Winker (Langley ResearchCenter [LaRC]) reported on the statusof the CALIPSO mission. As discussedabove, this mission launches jointlywith CloudSat and is planned for 2004.CALIPSO will make measurements ofclouds and aerosols needed for climatechange studies. Winker reviewed thethree instruments on CALIPSO. Themain instrument is the Cloud AerosolLidar with Orthogonal Polarization(CALIOP); in addition, a Wide Field-of-view Camera (WFC) and InfraredImaging Radiometer (IIR) are included.He indicated some of the uniquefeatures of the instrumentation.

Winker then went on to talk aboutinstrument specifications, flighthardware status, and accomplishmentsand issues. He showed some sampledata of the sort that CALIPSO willreturn and spoke briefly about the dataprocessing for the mission. Heindicated that a science validation planis also being developed. Finally, hespoke a bit about multi-platformsynergism. CALIPSO, along withCloudSat, is part of the A-Train satelliteconstellation.

Chet Koblinsky (GSFC) provided anupdate on the Aquarius mission.Aquarius was one of three missions(two primary missions and an alternatewere chosen, Aquarius is one of the

primary missions) selected in the mostrecent round of ESSP selections.Aquarius will study sea-surface salinityin the ocean. It is a joint venturebetween GSFC, Jet PropulsionLaboratory (JPL), and the ArgentineSpace Agency. Koblinsky reviewedwhy salinity studies are important;salinity through its effect on oceandensity impacts the vertical circulationof the oceans. The prospect of making aglobal measurement from space is verycompelling. Koblinsky next touched onthe science requirements for themission. The primary mission is thesalinity measurement, but theinstrument will also provide data thatcan be used by the hydrologycommunity to study soil moisturechanges. He acknowledged thepartners who are collaborating on thismission and the valuable contributionsof the science team. The mission shouldlaunch in 2007 on a Delta II rocket.Validation plans are being developed,along with an education plan.

Charles Miller (Haverford College)provided a status report on theOrbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO)mission. OCO was also chosen as theprimary mission in the most recentround of ESSP selections. The goal ofthe mission is the improvedcharacterization of carbon dioxide(CO2). A better understanding of theinterchange of carbon between land,ocean and atmosphere should result.Another very important result shouldbe an improved ability to distinguishbetween carbon resulting from humanactivities and carbon from naturalsources.

Miller next briefly reviewed some ofthe details of the OCO instrument. Hetouched on the spectral samplingstrategy and emphasized theimportance of designing the bands to

have maximum sensitivity near thesurface, where most of the CO2 wouldbe found. Miller also discussed some ofthe details of the spacecraft and theoperational strategy for the mission.He ended with a discussion of theplans for calibration and validation, theexpected data products, and theplanned schedule leading up to launchin 2007.

Dara Entekhabi (MassachusettsInstitute of Technology [MIT]) spokeabout the Hydros mission. Hydros wasselected as the alternate mission in thethird round of ESSP selections. Hydroswill study soil moisture and the freeze/thaw state of the surface. This is criticalinput for Numerical WeatherPrediction models, as it links the water,energy, and biogeochemical cyclestogether. Entekhabi presentedinformation on how data from Hydroswill enable important applications inareas such as national security andaviation. He also indicated that thealgorithms that will be employed arewell developed and that there is a longheritage of these types ofmeasurements. The technical approachfor Hydros is typical for a “Pathfinder”mission. This is a low risk mission witha high science return. Entekhabi closedwith a short discussion on dataproducts expected from Hydros andtheir importance to fulfilling researchpriorities within the NASA sciencecommunity.

Yann H. Kerr (Centre d’Etudes Spatialedes Biosphere [CESBIO]) presented theSoil Moisture and Ocean Salinity(SMOS) mission after giving a briefoverview of ESA’s Earth ExplorerOpportunity Missions (EEOM). Theseare essentially the ESA equivalent ofNASA ESSP missions. Kerr thus firstreviewed the missions that have beenselected as EEOM’s. Many of the


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missions chosen by ESA as EEOM’scomplement missions were selected byNASA as ESSP missions.

Kerr next focused on a specific exampleof an EEOM — the SMOS mission forwhich he is the PI. He discussed themotivation for this mission.Atmospheric models have hugediscrepancies on soil moisture, andmore data are needed to moreaccurately determine this parameter.Likewise, improved information onsea-surface salinity is important toimprove the accuracy of models. SMOSwill use an interferometry technique tomake measurements. He ended bydiscussing field-of-view issues andhow soil moisture measurements arederived.

Session II: New Integrated Science

Results from Terra and Other Data

Sources—Jon Ranson, Terra ProjectScientist, Chair

Jon Ranson (GSFC) kicked off theafternoon session by presenting aSummary of Validated Data Productsfrom Terra. All of Terra’s instrumentsare doing fine, with a few minorcorrectable issues. Ranson reports thatnearly all Advance SpaceborneThermal Emission and ReflectionRadiometer (ASTER) and ModerateResolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) products are validated. TheCloud and the Earth’s Radiant EnergySystem (CERES), the MultiangleImaging Spectro-Radiometer (MISR),and the Measurement of Pollution inthe Atmosphere (MOPITT) havereleased validated, provisionallyvalidated, or beta products. Ransonreviewed the objectives of Terra and thescience questions the mission is tryingto answer. He reported that productsare now available to fulfill theseobjectives and begin to answer these

questions. Ranson ended by brieflyshowing the new (since the last IWG)Natural Hazards section of the EarthObservatory website — earthobservatory

.nasa.gov. He also mentioned that theEOS Science Working Group plans aworkshop concerning data access andusability for April 2003.

Otis Brown (University of Miami)spoke on Radiometric Performance ofMODIS Terra and Aqua for Sea SurfaceTemperature (SST) estimation. Browndiscussed the status of the variousMODIS SST products and noted that allwould be validated as of the next codeinsertion. He also discussed activesupport for other EOS instruments andfor international SST projects. Brownwent on to discuss in situ validationdata. He reviewed how surfacevalidation data is obtained and showeda particular example. The latestvalidation results show no reallatitudinal bias, and the quality issimilar for both Terra and Aqua. Heshowed how improved SSTinformation leads to an improvedHurricane Intensity Predictioncapability. The National HurricaneCenter is interested in incorporatingMODIS information into its models.

Dennis Clark (NOAA/NESDIS) spokeabout climate quality ocean color timeseries. He began by reviewing theMarine Optical Buoy (MOBY) and theMarine Optical CharacterizationExperiment (MOCE) activities over thepast five years. He explained theoceanic color variability and why timeseries of in situ radiometricobservations are required for thevicarious calibration of satellite oceancolor observations. The MOBY systemand operational infrastructure locatedat the University of Hawaii MarineCenter and the ongoing collaborativeresearch with National Institutes of

Standards and Technology (NIST)personnel to improve the accuracy ofthe in-water radiometric measurementswere presented. Results from thepresent vicarious calibration process,conducted with University of Miamiteam members, for Terra and Aquawere presented and demonstrated thenecessity for retrospective calibrationsand reprocessing if climate quality datasets are to be achieved.

Mark Abbott (Oregon State University)spoke about ocean biogeochemistry,productivity, and fluorescence fromMODIS. Abbott characterized the 50years of records on Global OceanPrimary Production as “50 years ofeducated guessing,” because of theintense variability in light utilization byphytoplankton. He showed the MODISproductivity time series and thencompared MODIS Chlorophyll toSeaWiFS. Both products match well.The question that needs to beunderstood is how phytoplanktonturns light energy into biologicalmatter. Abbott showed the fluorescenceline height compared with shipmeasurements in situ. Fluorescenceworks better at estimating chlorophyllconcentration in productive, near-shorewaters. The next issue he wishes toconsider is whether or not theChlorophyll Fluorescence Efficiency(CFE) derived by MODIS can help toimprove the Primary ProductionAlgorithm.

Yoram Kaufman (GSFC) reported onthe use of satellites (MODIS), groundnetworks (AERONET) and aerosolmodels (GOCART) to view the aerosoleffect on climate. The attempt here is tocombine information from these threesources and study aerosols and theirimpact on climate. Kaufman’s group isparticularly interested in sorting outthe anthropogenic portion — that


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portion due to human activities.

He showed a sample MODIS aerosolproduct, which is able to distinguishaerosol amount and aerosol type byseparating out fine and coarse particles.Next, he showed a movie comparingGOCART data to MODIS data. Overtime, GOCART data begin to look verysimilar to the MODIS data. Data fromAERONET also match very well withdata from MODIS.

Kaufman also discussed how to derivea measurement based on aerosol directradiative forcing. They use data fromMODIS and GOCART to distinguishanthropogenic smoke and pollutionaerosol from dust and sea salt. Basedon this result, they can calculate aerosoldirect radiative forcing over the ocean.

Jun Li (University of Wisconsin,Madison) spoke about integration ofMODIS, HIRS, and AMSU data foratmospheric studies. MODIS data ledto considerable improvement in theaccuracy of atmospheric products. Lishowed a progression of satelliteimages that highlights how theresolution of instruments continues toimprove. Using the multispectralradiance information, clouds are wellseparated into classes. Li described thealgorithm used, which is based onstatistical followed by physicalretrieval. The new algorithm doesimprove the accuracy of the retrievals.In an attempt to further improve thedata Li has also combined the datafrom MODIS with data from theAtmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS),the Advanced Microwave SoundingUnit (AMSU), and the HumiditySounder for Brazil (HSB) on Aqua.

Dorothy Hall (GSFC) discussed the useof MODIS snow and ice maps inmodeling studies. More accurate global

scale measurements of snow-cover areneeded in order to validate the models.Additionally, it is important to measurefractional snow-cover because modelsare becoming increasingly moresophisticated.

Hall discussed the MODIS climatemodeling grid (CMG) product that hasa resolution of 0.05°, or about 5 km atthe Equator and is a daily and an 8-daycomposite product. This product isdeveloped from 500-m MODIS snowmaps. Fractional snow-coverinformation is available (1-100%) ineach CMG cell.

Hall proceeded to discuss theCatchment-based Land Surface Model(CLSM) that is coupled to a snowphysics model and can capture subgridscale snow-cover, and theEuropean Centre for Medium-RangeWeather Forecasting — HamburgVersion 5 (ECHAM-5) GCM. MODISwill contribute monthly snow-coverand sea-ice maps that will be used tovalidate ECHAM-5.

In closing, Hall stated that informationon snow water equivalent (SWE) iseven more valuable than snow-covermaps. A future product could combinethe good resolution of the MODISsnow-cover products with informationon snow water equivalent derived fromthe Advanced Microwave ScanningRadiometer for EOS (AMSR-E).

David Edwards (National Center forAtmospheric Research [NCAR]) spokeabout combining MOPITT and othersatellite data to investigate transportand ozone chemistry in thetroposphere. This was illustrated usingexamples of MOPITT carbon monoxide(CO) data in conjunction with in situ

measurements taken during theTransport and Chemical Evolution

Over the Pacific (TRACE-P) fieldcampaign in Spring 2001.

Edwards described what he referred toas the “Tropical Tropospheric OzoneParadox.” In the early part of the year,regions of high tropospheric O3 derivedfrom Total Ozone MappingSpectrometer (TOMS) measurementsover the tropical Atlantic don’t coincidewith biomass burning observed bysatellite in northern Africa. MOPITTCO data have been used to investigatetransport of emissions from these fires.Measurements from the Global OzoneMonitoring Experiment (GOME) on theEuropean Remote Sensing Satellite (ER-2) have also been used to indicate highconcentrations of oxides of nitrogen(NOx), another O3 precursor.

Edwards went on to show some otherexamples of recent MOPITTobservations. He showed images of the2002 fires in the Western U.S. Hecorrelated MODIS images that showthe smoke with MOPITT images thatindicate areas of high CO. As the firesworsen, the areas with high COconcentration increase and produceplumes that are transported longdistances. Edwards indicated thatusing MOPITT and MODIS togetheroffers the possibility of combining COand fine/coarse particle measurementsto examine the chemical origin andtransport of anthropogenic aerosol.

Anne Kahle (Jet Propulsion Laboratory[JPL]) discussed ASTER applications.Kahle ran through numerousapplications where ASTER data arebeing used and showed many colorfulexamples. Applications include studiesof: surface energy balance, geology,wildfires, natural disasters (the LaPlata, MD, tornado, floods in China),urban environmental monitoring,global land ice measurement,


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volcanoes, water quality, and forestclear cutting.

Kahle concluded by reminding thegroup that ASTER data should be freeto NASA investigators. If you are aNASA investigator and not on the listof free recipients, then please contactKahle or someone on the ASTER teamand let them know.

DAY TWO: November 19, 2002

Session III: Validation and New

Science Results from Aqua—Claire

Parkinson, Aqua Project Scientist,Goddard Space Flight Center, Chair

Claire Parkinson (Aqua ProjectScientist; GSFC) reported on Aqua’searly on-orbit progress. Aqua wassuccessfully launched on May 4, 2002,then underwent a 120-day checkoutperiod that ended on September 1.Parkinson described, in order, theturning on of each of Aqua’s sixinstruments and illustrated, for each,some of the results that have beenobtained so far by the Aqua scienceteams.

Parkinson showed early images fromAMSU and HSB, including imagery ofthunderstorms over Texas from June16, using several channels penetratingto different depths in the storms. TheAIRS Science Team has taken thesedata and those from other regions tomap precipitation rates. One excitingnew result with the AMSU/HSB data isthe use of these data to tracksnowstorms in the Arctic. Calibrationissues remain, especially in the snowrates, but the initial results areencouraging.

The Advanced Microwave ScanningRadiometer for EOS (AMSR-E),provided by Japan, was initiallyactivated in its science mode on May

24. Parkinson showed a global sea-surface temperature map created byNASDA just days after the AMSR-Ebegan operating, plus a nighttimeimage of a July 4 typhoon in the EastChina Sea. AMSR-E is providing thehighest resolution passive microwaveimagery to date, even allowing theidentification of individual sea-icefloes.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder(AIRS) began transmitting visible/near-infrared data on May 26 and themain infrared data on June 12. Theinstrument has 2382 channels, andParkinson showed an AIRS spectrumfrom off the coast of South Africa,provided to her on June 13 by the AIRSTeam Leader, Mous Chahine. Thisspectra established the successfulfunctioning of all 2378 of the AIRSinfrared channels; the four visible/near-infrared channels are alsoworking, although are not shown in thesame spectra.

The two Clouds and the Earth’sRadiant Energy System (CERES)instruments on Aqua were activated onJune 18, one day after the spacecraftreached its final, 705 km operationalaltitude. Parkinson showed globalmaps of CERES longwave andshortwave fluxes for June 22, and thenside-by-side October 1 longwave andshortwave maps centered on HurricaneLili in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Moderate Resolution ImagingSpectroradiometer (MODIS) was thelast of the six Aqua instruments to beactivated into its science mode, withthis taking place on June 24. A key firstlight image was a view of fires burningin Australia on June 24, and anotherwas a chlorophyll map for thefollowing day, from the MODIS OceanGroup. The high quality of both these

images was highlighted as illustrativeof the advances made by the MODISTeam, the MODIS manufacturer, andthe data processing system since thelaunch of the first MODIS, on the Terraspacecraft. Combining data fromMODIS on Aqua and Terra willimprove the quality of many products,and Parkinson illustrated this with twoexamples: the Bidirectional ReflectanceDistribution Function product and theChlorophyll product.

Parkinson closed by stating that all sixAqua instruments are sending backhigh-quality data, and all arecontributing to the Aqua mission goalsof enhanced understanding of theglobal water cycle, enhancedunderstanding of the Earth’s climatesystem, and improved weatherforecasting.

Roy Spencer (University of Alabama inHuntsville) spoke briefly aboutmonitoring climate variability withAqua’s AMSR-E. He gave an AMSR-Einstrument update and touched onsome of its applications. As stated inthe previous talk, AMSR-E provides thehighest spatial resolution ever obtainedby a passive microwave sensor. Thisallows for much higher resolution insea-ice, snow-cover, soil moisture, andprecipitation studies. Global images ofradio frequency interference(RFI) sources at 6.9 GHz, and of newvegetation-sensitive and soil-moisturesensitive parameters, were also shown.

Frank Wentz (Remote SensingSystems) reported on AMSR-E on-orbitcalibration and early science results.AMSR-E has a “hot load” problem,meaning that there are largetemperature gradients within the load.The team puts geophysical parametersfrom existing satellites into a radiative-transfer model, and uses simulated


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AMSR-E observations to provide anEarth calibration point. Wentz showedthe suite of ocean products fromAMSR-E, including sea-surfacetemperature (SST), wind, water vapor,cloud, and rain. He also showed someinitial validation results. AMSR-E SSTwas compared to Reynolds OptimumInterpolated (ROI) SST, and the windspeed was compared with the SpecialSensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I),TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI), andQuikSCAT. A complete daily map ofSST with no holes is produced eachday. Using this information, they canstudy SST cold wakes in the aftermathof hurricanes. They can also undertakeair-sea interaction studies. To conclude,Wentz showed an animation thatdepicted SST gradients.

Joey Comiso (GSFC) discussed newsea-ice cover results from AMSR-E,along with the scientific motivation forthese studies. AMSR-E continues thetime series of sea-ice measurementsand gives better accuracy. Comisoreviewed the characteristics of theAMSR-E instrument. He showed thegeneral consistency in the retrieved iceconcentrations from AMSR-E andSSM/I data. Clearly AMSR-E issuperior to SSM/I because of higherresolution. Comiso also showed thatAMSR-E data are more effective thanSSM/I data in masking incorrectretrievals in open ocean areas. He alsodiscussed cloud-cover effects andpresented a new Ice Temperature dataproduct that is currently obtainableonly from AMSR-E.

Tom Jackson (U.S. Department ofAgriculture) made a presentation onthe Soil Moisture Experiments (SMEX).Jackson discussed the objectives ofSMEX and noted that the next fieldcampaign is planned for 2003. It isdesigned to study agricultural crops,

multiple scales, and land-atmosphereinteraction. He discussed samplingstrategy to accommodate multiplescales. Jackson presented a shortreview of the most recent fieldcampaign, which took place June 25-July 12, 2002, in Iowa. He focused onresults from the numerous aircraftflights that took place over the studyregion, explained how AMSR-E dataare also being used, and he alsodiscussed the RFI issues. He feels thatsignificant contamination issues willneed to be resolved in order to useAMSR-E to make soil moisturemeasurements in North America. Thenext experiment in this series will takeplace in 2003. Three U.S. sites havebeen selected and a fourth site inBrazil.

Richard Armstrong (University ofColorado, National Snow and Ice DataCenter [NSIDC]) discussed theblending of MODIS and AMSR-E datafor enhanced snow-cover monitoring.Armstrong showed examples of thespectral signatures of bare soilcompared to snow. Armstrong pointedout that most existing algorithms areregional, and thus are not appropriatefor use at the hemispheric scale. NSIDChas developed an algorithm that isapplicable at the global scale. Hereported that the AMSR-E and MODISblended product, which combines theparticular advantages of optical andpassive microwave, will be developedas a research product this year and willbe available as a standard product in2003.

Moustafa Chahine (JPL) gave anupdate on AIRS/AMSU/HSBperformance and early results. To quotethe speaker, “AIRS is doingfantastically well.” AIRS will obtainimages but clearly its main focus willbe on studies of the infrared spectrum.

It is expected that fields such asnumerical weather prediction andspectroscopy will benefit from the dataretrieved by AIRS.

Chahine proceeded to discuss theimpact that the presence of clouds hason infrared retrievals. He showed thatless than 5% of AIRS footprints are“cloud free” according to AIRS clearwindow channel at 2616 cm-1, at nightin nadir viewing over oceans. Heshowed the ability of AIRS-AMSU-HSBto recover “cloud-cleared” infraredspectra in the presence of clouds in allAIRS footprints and compared resultswith spectra from cloud free regions inthe neighborhood.

George Aumann (JPL) discussed thefirst SST measurements from AIRSusing the 2616 cm-1 super windowchannel and the 2607 cm-1 weakwaterline channel. A comparison of theAIRS SST with the SST produced by theNational Centers for EnvironmentalPrediction (NCEP) shows a globalaverage cold bias of 0.4 K, close to thecold bias expected between the skinand the bulk temperature. The abilityto measure the (skin-bulk) gradientfrom space has very interestingimplications for weather forecastingand climate research.

Mitch Goldberg (NOAA) gave apresentation on initial retrievals fromAIRS. He reviewed AIRS-relatedactivities at the NationalEnvironmental Satellite Data andInformation Service (NESDIS). Therehas been excellent collaborationbetween NASA and NOAA. Goldbergdiscussed risk reduction benefits. Hestressed that assimilating AIRS data is avery high priority for the NOAA/NASA/DOD Joint Center for SatelliteData Assimilation. He then reviewedthe Numerical Weather Prediction


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(NWP) Users and the NWP AIRSProducts.

To close, Goldberg ran through a seriesof slides to show how accurate thevarious parameters in the model are.He showed that there are majordeficiencies in the NWP moisture field,which AIRS should be able to correct.

Joanna Joiner (GSFC) discussed AIRSand data assimilation. She discussed afour-step process wherein a real-timedata set is defined, radiance monitoringis performed, algorithms aredeveloped, and data are assimilatedand evaluated.

Joiner pointed out ongoing DataAssimilation Office (DAO)collaborative work with othergovernment agencies, including theJoint Center for Satellite DataAssimilation (JCSDA) and the EarthScience Modeling Framework (ESMF),with objectives that includeaccelerating the use of new satellitedata in operational numerical weatherprediction.

Bruce Wielicki (LaRC) spoke onmerging Terra and Aqua CERES dataproducts. He began by showing somedata from CERES on Aqua and thenwent over the Aqua CERES data status.The CERES instruments on Terra andAqua have been intercalibrated in orbit.

Wielicki touched on some of the CERESteam’s recent work, which includes aComparison of Observed DecadalTropical Radiation Variation withCurrent Climate Models. CERES newAngular Distribution Models (ADMs)allow for studies of cloud radiativeproperties of specific cloud types. Thenew ADM flux data have been used totest the Iris hypothesis using a widerange of ice cloud definitions, but allcases confirmed that the Iris, if present

at all, appears to be a small positivefeedback, not a large negative feedback.Major improvements were still foundto be necessary for cloud height,longwave flux, and especially for cloudalbedo.

Session IV: Validation and New

Science Results from Recent

Missions—Marc Imhoff, ESSP ProjectScientist, Goddard Space Flight Center,Chair.

Byron Tapley (University of TexasCenter for Space Research) gave anupdate on the Gravity Recovery andClimate Experiment (GRACE), the firstESSP mission on orbit. This missionresponds to over 30 years of demandsfor a mission to map the global gravityfield and study the time-variablechanges in gravity.

Tapley briefly reviewed the sciencegoals of GRACE, the mission systems,and the orbit details. He pointed outsome of the key enabling technologiesthat make the mission possible, andshowed some preliminary results fromGRACE. The GRACE satellites providehighly accurate and homogeneousgravity measurements that cover theEarth every 30 days. So far the dataobtained from GRACE provide agravity model whose accuracy forwavelengths longer than 500kilometers is an order of magnitudegreater than the pre-GRACE modelscould obtain. Two orders of magnitudefurther improvement in gravity modelaccuracy is anticipated before themission is finished.

Pat McCormick (Hampton University)showed some Meteor 3M/SAGE IIIearly results. He showed zonal meansof stratospheric aerosol optical depth(SOD) and pointed out that the SODsare the lowest ever measured. He alsoshowed ozone trend data from

SAGE II.

McCormick then reviewed the solarand lunar occultation technique asemployed by SAGE III, and describeddetails of the instrument. Lunaroccultation gives SAGE III the ability tolook at nighttime chemistry, whichSAGE II was not able to do. Thevalidation phase for SAGE III isongoing. McCormick showednumerous comparisons, and indicatedthat initial results are veryencouraging, matching very well withprevious instruments, and will be ableto continue, at least over the latitudesthat SAGE III/METEOR 3M measures,the long-standing time series of ozoneand aerosol measurements that areused to study trends.

Bruce Haines (JPL) reported on Jason-1initial data and results. Jason-1 is a jointU.S./French follow-on mission to thevenerable TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P)mission. Jason-1 was launched fromVandenberg Air Force Base onDecember 7, 2001. Haines discussed thescientific payload and the orbit ofJason-1. Jason-1 and T/P actually flewin formation for 7 months. Haines alsodescribed an experimental system thatprovides accurate (5 cm RMS) sea-surface height information from Jason-1 with 3-5 hour latency, enabling nearreal-time studies of the global ocean.

With the Jason-1 data meeting orexceeding all mission requirements, theprecise geophysical data records will bebroadly released beginning in February2003. To continue the legacy of preciseocean altimeter measurements fromspace, the Ocean Surface TopographyMission (OSTM) is planned for a 2006launch.

David Starr (GSFC) reported on theCirrus Regional Study of TropicalAnvils and Cirrus Layers-Florida Area


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Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE)field campaign in July 2002. TheCRYSTAL-FACE addresses many keyESE science questions. Six aircraft wereinvolved in the campaign with two ofthem serving as state-of-the-art satellitesimulators. Two ground sites — eastand west — were also chosen. Therewas also a very strong theoreticalcomponent, with modelers andforecasters on hand, that was wellintegrated into the daily operations.

Starr reviewed the instrumentation onthe ER-2 aircraft used during the studyin some detail and then brieflyreviewed instrumentation on the otheraircraft. Starr indicated that futureplans include involvement in theTropical Composition and ClimateCoupling Experiment (TC3) campaign(planned for EOS Aura validation) andfor a CRYSTAL-Tropical WesternPacific campaign. It is anticipated thatdata from the A-Train satelliteformation will be very helpful in thefuture campaigns.

Session V: NASA’s Earth Science

Applications Strategy and Recent

Accomplishments—Ronald Birk,Director of the Applications Division–NASA Headquarters, Chair

Ronald Birk (NASA HQ, Code YO)presented an overview of the EarthScience Enterprise ApplicationsStrategy. The strategy for applying theresults of NASA’s Earth Scienceresearch and development is based on a“systems approach.” The Earth ScienceApplications Program is establishingand/or expanding interagencyagreements with NOAA, USGS, FEMA,EPA, USDA, USGS, DHS, CDC/NIHand DOT to work to systematicallybenchmark the use of NASA results inthe decision-support tools beingemployed to deliver information

services to our nation.

Birk shared more detailed informationabout a couple of the selectedapplications. Birk then reviewed someof the expectations and gave somespecific examples where this approachhas been shown to be effective,including the areas of: Wildfiremanagement with the U.S. ForestService (MODIS Rapid Response),hurricane predictions with NOAA, andestablishing guidelines for aviationsafety with the Radio TechnicalCommittee of Aeronautics (RTCA). Thegaps in measurements supportingmodels and decision systems definerequirements for next generationscience data; the process continues.

Greg Stover (LaRC) spoke about theGeosynchronous Imaging FourierTransform Spectrometer (GIFTS), arevolutionary forecast tool. The GIFTSmission is the next scheduled NewMillennium Program (NMP) mission.Like all NMP missions, GIFTS is todemonstrate technology and point theway toward future missions. Stoverreported that GIFTS is a very highspectral resolution measurement thatwill obtain infrared measurements andsoundings at the rate of 80,000soundings a minute. Stover showedexamples of the operational mode forGIFTS. He reported that there alreadyhas been some water vapor validationand showed a simulation of the datathat will be collected. Stover ended bymentioning some specific applicationsfor GIFTS data including: flight levelwind measurements, convectioninitiation, aviation turbulence, in-flighticing, and oceanic weather prediction.

Ed Sheffner (NASA HQ, Code YO)discussed the applications objective ofa carbon management regime. Such aregime would be based on the

understanding of carbon exchangemechanisms, dynamics, and sourcesand sinks from research sponsored byNASA and other organizations.Sheffner showed a diagram of thecarbon cycle exchange and pointed outsome of the key questions anduncertainties in this process.

Carbon management was identified asa national application area within theApplications Division of ESE because itis a subject that meshes well with theNASA vision and mission. Newtechnologies are the only way to reduceCO2 in the atmosphere in the longterm. Sequestration of carbon mayreduce the rate of increase inatmospheric CO2 in the near term. Anapproach is needed that blendsdifferent responses. Sheffner discussedthe resources that NASA’s ESE canbring to this discussion. The carbonapplication area provides anopportunity for the science communityto extend its research into decision-support tools for issues of nationalimportance.

Nancy Maynard (GSFC) presented asummary of the applications of NASAEarth science data and information topublic health issues. She outlined aroadmap for moving NASA ESEobservations, data, and research resultsinto interdisciplinary research projectswith health partners whosecollaborations ultimately feed resultsinto public health users and relevantdecision-support systems.

Maynard outlined a number ofexamples of ongoing and potentialapplications of Earth science data to avariety of real and potential publichealth threats, such as infectious andvector-borne diseases including WestNile virus, malaria, Rift Valley fever,Ebola, St. Louis encephalitis, dengue


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fever, meningitis, and filariasis. Inaddition, she described other ongoingor planned applications of NASA datato important health issues such astransport of African/Asian dust,contaminant transport in the Arctic, UVradiation, air- and water-quality issues,and problems related to oceans, water,and extreme weather.

Lawrence Friedl (NASA HQ) reportedon the impacts of global monitoring onregional air-quality management.Friedl discussed overall benefits of thisapplication in terms of policy,assessment and management andshowed the 10-year roadmap forsystematically employing NASA Earthobserving systems and science resultsto serve Air Quality Management.

The observations and predictionsresulting from NASA Earth scienceresearch can be used to assess globaland regional transport of pollutants.Some other useful applications ofNASA Earth science measurementswould include improving the initiationand transport of emissions for inputinto compliance models and providingmore accurate boundary conditions forair-quality models.

Friedl ended with a discussion of theEarth Science Applications Program’sgoals and activities; there are questionsassociated with each goal. Hereviewed plans for FY ‘03 and ‘04 andpointed out that the plan is buildingtoward the availability of EOS Auraproducts. He also reviewed thepartners in this application, both withinNASA and between federal agencies.

Steve Ambrose (NASA HQ) discussedthe impacts of Earth observingsatellites on decision-support systemsserving Disaster Management, andwent over the NASA approach to

disaster management. They havesponsored Solid Earth and NaturalHazards Applications Research andhave funded ten new proposals thisyear

Ambrose reported that over 100projects are nearing completion. Hediscussed remote sensing andgeospatial technologies including OpenGIS. He also discussed some specificapplications that have benefited fromthese new technologies, including anexample where QuikScat and TRMMmeasurements have allowed forimprovement in the accuracy ofhurricane prediction and hurricanetrack.

The decision-support system beingused for this application is the NaturalHazard Loss Estimation Methodologyresident in the Federal EmergencyManagement Agency’s (FEMA)Natural Hazard Loss Estimation Modelfor the U.S. (called HAZUS). It is usedto determine the risk assessmentcaused by the impact of naturaldisasters. Ambrose also outlined theprogress that is expected over the nextdecade in this area.

Roger King (NASA HQ) spoke aboutcritical aspects of interoperability forsystems solutions using Earth scienceresults. Interoperability is at the core ofmuch of what is being shared in thissession. King defined interoperabilityas the capability to communicate,execute programs, or transfer dataamong various functional units in amanner that requires the user to havelittle or no knowledge of the uniquecharacteristics of those units.

King discussed standards that areimportant to NASA, such as Open GIS(www.opengis.org) and the FederalGeographic Data Committee (FGDC)

(www.fgdc.gov). New missions need tobe designed with these standards inmind. Quite a few products producedby the ESE are already compliant withthese standards and King listed them.King pointed out the specific exampleof HDF-EOS. NASA’s activity withthese organizations is coordinatedthrough the Geospatial InteroperabilityOffice (GIO) at GSFC.

DAY THREE: November 20, 2002

Session VI: New Findings with

Forcings and Feedbacks in the Earth

System—Berrien Moore III, Universityof New Hampshire, Chair

Kingste Mo (Climate PredicationCenter [CPC]) gave a presentation onforecasting seasonal hurricane activityin the Atlantic. Both the analoguemethod and the ensemble canonicalcorrelation prediction method are usedto forecast seasonal hurricane activityfrom August-September-October(ASO). To determine a forecast, theconditions for the three-month periodpreceding ASO — May-June-July (MJJ)— are used as input. In addition toforecasts of hurricane activity, the CPCalso monitors the atmospheric andoceanic conditions in the Atlanticassociated with the hurricane activityfrom May thru November. Satellitedata are being used for monitoringthese conditions, including data on:infrared temperature, low level winds,water vapor flux, and outgoinglongwave radiation.

J. Marshall Shepherd (GSFC) showedevidence of urban influence on rainfallpatterns. They use Tropical RainfallMeasuring Mission (TRMM) data intheir analyses and study rainfallanomalies downwind of urban centers.The particular emphasis for this studywas on Houston, Texas; however,


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Shepherd and his team are conductingstudies in Atlanta, GA; Oklahoma City,OK; Tokyo, Japan; Johannesburg, SouthAfrica; and Brasilia, Brazil.

Shepherd stated that an area is definedas an “upwind control region” and a“downwind” (urban impacted) region.For Houston, the location of thedownwind area moves throughout theyear as the prevailing wind patternschange. A rainfall anomaly downwindof Houston does show up fairlydistinctly in the TRMM data as well asin the rain gage data. Effort is nowbeing directed toward improving theparameterization of the land surface inthe Fifth-Generation NCAR/Penn StateMesoscale Model (MM5) model so itcan be used to study this urbaninfluence in greater detail.

Menglin Jin (University of Maryland)presented on assessing human impactson the climate system. To open, sheshowed a series of maps showing therather dramatic growth of the humanpopulation over the last few centuries.Jin’s work is an attempt to separatehuman induced changes from naturalchanges. She showed data thatillustrate that most urban centers are inthe Northern Hemisphere from 30 to70°. The skin temperature observedover urban areas tends to be higherthan in surrounding crop land. Also,the urban heat island influence tends tobe more significant at night and inwinter.

Urbanization also impacts surfaceproperties, tending to reduce surfacealbedo and emissivity. It also changesatmospheric properties, and impactsaerosol optical depth and otherimportant parameters. Jin showed datathat hinted that there might be aweekly cycle of optical depth thatseemed higher toward the end of the

workweek and leveled off over theweekend. Certainly, much more workis needed to reach definitiveconclusions. Future work will build onwhat has already been done.

Lori Glaze (Proxemy Research)reported on the EOS InterdisciplinaryScience Team’s (IDS) project “TheEffects of Volcanism on theEnvironment.” This IDS study focuseson four different volcanoes: Kilauea inHawaii, Masaya in Nicaragua, Poas inCosta Rica, and Stromboli in Italy.Glaze pointed out that smallereruptions that continue for extendedperiods of time (i.e., a low level ofactivity persisting for decades) areevery bit as important as big eruptionslike Pinatubo. These volcanoes arecharacterized by persistent low levelemissions (at most a few thousand tonsof sulfur dioxide per day) and there aresignificant health issues associated withthese emissions. She spoke brieflyabout activities at each of these sitesand closed by discussing some futureplans and next steps for the program.

Matthew Hansen (University ofMaryland) presented results from anintegrated study of global vegetationcover. Hansen showed a MODISproduct depicting VegetationContinuous Fields. He then showed asubset, which gave a more detailedlook at a smaller area. Tree cover is themost mature MODIS product and isone layer of the continuous fields.

Hansen discussed the problem oftrying to assess the total amount offorest cover and how continuous fieldshelp respond to this problem.Continuous fields allows for astandardized way to determine theamount of forest cover on a globalscale. The technique also allows forunbiased change studies—automated

determination of change instead of“expert” opinions. Hansen next spokeon the use of high-resolution and very-high-resolution data for these studies.Hansen ended by briefly mentioningtwo applications for high-resolutiondata: Carbon flux studies andecoregion level monitoring.

Timothy Liu (JPL) presented somerecent applications of scatterometerdata. He reported that the ADEOS IIinstrument will be identical to the onecurrently in orbit on QuikSCAT. Liureported on results from three differentstudies showing how typhoons at seacan actually enhance life throughincreasing biological productivity andtaking up carbon dioxide; theseprocesses have significant impacts onlocal fisheries and on global warming.Observations from QuikSCAT, TRMM,and SeaWiFS are combined in thisstudy. In the second study, Liu showedresults demonstrating extensive doubleintertropical convergence zones, usingdata from QuikSCATand TRMM, andpostulated two different mechanismsgoverning air-sea interaction. In thethird study, Liu reported on possibleintra-decadal trends in global windsand meridional (north-south) heattransport in the ocean driven by winds.

Max Suarez (GSFC) spoke about landsurface initialization for seasonalforecasts of precipitation andtemperature. He began by looking atthe science questions that this studyattempts to answer, the approach used,and progress to date. He referred to thistechnique as a “Poor Man’s” Land DataAssimilation System (LDAS). It is anapproach to study how soil moistureinitialization affects seasonal forecasts.Suarez gave a summary of how themodel improves with correct soilmoisture. He did a model-versus-


15

model comparison and also comparedthe model runs to actual data. He alsodiscussed some potential error sources.

Michael Jasinski (GSFC) presented anoverview of the Cold Land ProcessesExperiment (CLPX), a two-year winterhydrology experiment taking place inthe Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Thegoal is to develop the necessarydatabase and test a range of sensorseventually to put together a proposalfor an Earth System Science Pathfindermission.

Summary results were presented fromthe first two field campaigns thatoccurred in February (dry snow) andMarch (wet snow), 2002, involvingnumerous universities and agencies.Ground and aircraft efforts wereconcentrated in three distinct “meso-cell” study areas. Results werepresented from Gamma andMicrowave radiometry, radarpolarimetry, and radar interferometryand how they compare to snow depth,snow density, and snow grain size inthe three meso-cell regions.

Two additional campaigns are plannedfor February and March 2003. Fielddata will be analyzed in conjunctionwith AMSR-E observations obtainedfrom the Aqua platform. AdditionalCLPX information can be obtainedfrom: www.nohrsc.nws.gov/~cline/

clp.html.

David Noone (California Institute ofTechnology) spoke on the influence ofarctic sea-ice on the tropospheric andstratospheric circulation, the polarvortex, and ozone: an IDS approach toclimate change. Noone showed modelresults that contrast Arctic conditions inthe summer and winter. He alsoshowed results from a generalcirculation model simulation to

indicate how the climate responds tosea-ice removal. He also discussed theinfluence of variability in both thetroposphere and stratosphere. Aweaker polar vortex, as predicted bythe model, is coincident with reducedmeridional overturning in thestratosphere. Noone ended byemphasizing the important role thatEOS data are playing in this analysis.The long time series of sea-ice andozone data are very important in thistype of analysis because of the subtlenature of the climate system response.

Jean Dickey (JPL) presented on recentEarth oblateness variations: causes andimplications. She discussed the conceptof Postglacial Rebound (PGR), which isthe result of the Earth’s response to theweight of glacial ice that accumulatedduring the last ice age being removed.This PGR phenomenon has been themain cause of the general downwardtrend in oblateness (departure from aspherical shape) that persisted until1997, where research indicates thatoblateness is beginning to increase.

Dickey reviewed a number of possiblesources for this reversal in oblateness.Ocean bottom pressure studies revealthat the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceancould be making a significantcontribution to the observed departurefrom linearity. Most of remainingnonlinearity is accounted for by sub-polar glacier changes. Data from theGRACE mission are eagerly anticipatedand are expected to contribute much toour understanding of climate.


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The SOlar Radiation and ClimateExperiment (SORCE) satellite wassuccessfully launched on Saturday,January 25, 2003, from Kennedy SpaceCenter (KSC) in Cape Canaveral,Florida. SORCE is one element ofNASA’s Earth Observing System(EOS), and is measuring solar radiationat the top of the Earth’s atmosphere.This mission is a joint effort betweenNASA and the Laboratory forAtmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)at the University of Colorado, Boulder.LASP has full programmaticresponsibility for this 5-year mission tofurther understand the influence of theSun on the Earth system.

In near-perfect weather, SORCE waslaunched Saturday, January 25, from aPegasus XL rocket provided by Orbital

Sciences Corporation. The Pegasus wascarried to 40,000 feet and dropped byan L-1011 aircraft carrier, also fromOrbital. With the plane approximately120 miles southeast of Cape Canaveralover the Atlantic Ocean, the KSCOperations Center gave the commandto release the Pegasus and it went intoa 5-second free-fall before the first ofthree stages ignited. Stage 2 ignited 90seconds later, and Stage 3 completedthe launch into orbit by igniting about 7minutes later. Spacecraft separationoccurred at 3:24 p.m. Eastern StandardTime. It was a perfect launch with nounexpected events.

The first signal from SORCE camethrough within seconds of separationvia the NASA Tracking and Data RelaySatellite System (TDRSS). A high datarate contact was successful about 20minutes later through a ground stationin Hartebeesthoek, South Africa. Theinitial checkout and verification afterlaunch showed the spacecraft to be inexcellent shape. Within the first hour ofthe launch, SORCE was in Sun pointingmode, the solar arrays were deployed,and all systems were operating well.

The weeks following the launch werefilled with commissioning activities for

the spacecraft and instruments. Duringa three-week out-gassing period toreduce self-contamination, theinstruments were sequentially poweredup and tested. Instrument andspacecraft safety were given the highestpriority during activation. By the endof February, all instrument doors wereopen, and science operations hadbegun. The first science data areexpected to be released approximatelytwo months after the launch or by lateMarch.

Mission and Science Operations

The SORCE satellite is orbiting theEarth every 96 minutes, or 15 timesdaily. Ground stations at WallopsIsland, Virginia and Santiago, Chile areproviding the communication links tothe satellite two times each day. For thenext five years, and hopefully muchlonger, LASP will continue to operateSORCE from its Mission OperationsCenter (MOC) in Boulder, Colorado.The MOC provides the computerhardware and software necessary toconduct real-time spacecraftoperational activities, includingcommand and control of the satellite,mission planning, and assessment andmaintenance of spacecraft andinstrument health. The scienceoperations from the MOC includeexperiment planning, data processingand analysis, validation, anddistribution of the finished dataproduct.

Within 48 hours of data capture, allinstrument science data and spacecraftengineering data are processed toderive Level-3 science data products instandard geophysical units (W/m2 orW/m2/nm). The Level-3 data consist ofdaily and 6-hour average solarirradiances, with higher time resolutiondata available to meet secondary

The SORCE (SOlar Radiation andClimate Experiment) SatelliteSuccessfully Launched

— Gary Rottman, [email protected], Laboratory forAtmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado

— Tom Woods, [email protected], Laboratory for Atmosphericand Space Physics, University of Colorado

— Robert Cahalan, [email protected], NASA Goddard SpaceFlight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland

— Vanessa George, [email protected], Laboratory forAtmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado

The L-1011 and the Pegasus climbing to 40,000feet — the elevation required for the drop.


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science objectives, such as studying thepassage of bright faculae and darksunspots across the visible surface ofthe Sun. All validated data (both Level0 and Level 3) are delivered to theGoddard Space Flight Center EarthSciences Distributed Active ArchiveCenter (GDAAC) for distribution andlong-term storage.

The SORCE instruments are takingTotal and Spectral Solar Irradiance (TSIand SSI) measurements, which are usedto produce two principal data products.The spectral solar irradiance data fromSORCE are delivered as a file for eachday of observations. The Total SolarIrradiance (TSI) data are a muchsmaller size and, to maximize ease ofuse to end-users, each delivered TSIproduct contains daily science resultsfor the entire mission. Updates to TSIdata occur monthly.

Science data processing is performedautomatically within 24 hours of datareception, and a preview release ofscience data is made available to thepublic within 48 hours, followingpreliminary data inspection.Appropriate corrections for some time-dependent processes (such asinstrument degradation correction)

require in-flight calibration data fromseveral months into the future;therefore the daily production ofscience products beyond provisionalquality will lag by a period of severalmonths. This results in two streams ofdata being created on a daily basis: theprovisional stream of preview data thatare available within 48 hours, and asecondary stream of finished validateddata that supersede the preview data afew months after the initial previewrelease. The preview SORCE data aresent to the Goddard DAAC within 48hours of reception, and the finishedvalidated data products are sent to theGoddard DAAC approximately fourmonths after initial data reception. AllSORCE data products can be accessedvia the DAAC web site atdaac.gsfc.nasa.gov/DAAC_DOCS/

gdaac_home.html.

Science Objectives

NASA’s Earth Science Enterpriseincludes a space-based componentconsisting of a constellation of satellitesto monitor the Earth system fromspace. These sustained andcomprehensive observations includethe measurement of solar irradiance asthe dominant direct energy input toland, ocean, and atmosphere. TheSORCE observations will facilitate abetter understanding of the Sun and itsimpact on the Earth. The SORCEmission is:• establishing a data set of Total

Solar Irradiance (TSI) to continue along-term record, with an absoluteaccuracy better than 100 ppm (1σ)and a relative accuracy betweenmeasurements of 0.001% (10 ppm)per year;

• establishing a data set of solarspectral irradiance from 1 nm to2000 nm (excluding 31-120 nm,which is not covered by SORCE

instruments, but covered by theTIMED SEE instrument) with anabsolute accuracy of 2% to 5% inthe ultraviolet, and 0.03% in thevisible to near infrared; and

• improving our understanding andgenerating new inquiry bystudying how the variable solarirradiance affects our atmosphereand climate, and how and whyvariability occurs at the Sun. Thisknowledge will then be used toestimate past and future solarbehavior and climate response.

SORCE Instruments

All of the instruments onboard SORCEwere developed, built, calibrated, andtested at LASP, and were reviewed indetail in the May/June 2002 issue ofThe Earth Observer. They are the TotalIrradiance Monitor (TIM), the SpectralIrradiance Monitor (SIM), two SolarStellar Irradiance ComparisonExperiments (SOLSTICE), and the X-ray Photometer System (XPS). TIM,SIM, and SOLSTICE are measuringsolar irradiance and the solar spectrumto help scientists understand the Sun’srole in climate change. The XPSmeasures high-energy radiation fromthe Sun as a prime indicator of solaractivity, such as flare events.

SORCE provides precise dailymeasurements of the TSI with the TIMinstrument, as well as the spectral solarirradiance (SSI) at wavelengthsextending from the far ultraviolet to thenear infrared with the SOLSTICE, SIM,and XPS instruments. TIM monitorschanges in incident sunlight to theEarth’s atmosphere via an ambienttemperature active cavity radiometer.Using a new development thatincorporates state-of-the-arttechnologies in its ElectricalSubstitution Radiometers (ESRs), TIM

The Pegasus is dropped and goes into a 5-second free-fall before igniting


18

measures TSI to an absolute accuracy of100 ppm, where 100 ppm = 0.0001.

The newly developed SIM instrumentincorporates an entirely differenttechnique to make the first continuousrecord of the top of the atmospherespectral solar irradiance in the visible/near-infrared region. It uses a prism asthe self-calibrating, single opticalelement and a miniature absolute ESRas the primary detector. Thisinstrument has a measurementrequirement of 0.03% absolute accuracyand a precision and long-term relativeaccuracy of 0.01% per year. The SIMinstrument measures spectralirradiance from 200 to 2000 nm.

There are two identical SOLSTICEinstruments on SORCE to measurespectral irradiance from 115 to 320 nm,with a spectral resolution of 0.1 nm.These instruments are an evolution andrefinement of the Upper AtmosphereResearch Satellite’s (UARS) SOLSTICE,and they observe bright blue stars as along-term calibration standard.Previous solar measurements show thatfar-ultraviolet irradiance varies by asmuch as 10% during the Sun’s 27-dayrotation, while the bright 121.6 nmhydrogen Lyman-α emission may varyby as much as a factor of two during an

11-year solar cycle.

The XPS instrument measures the veryenergetic EUV and soft x-ray flux,where the solar variability exceeds afactor of two. Its precision and relativeaccuracy requirements are, therefore,on the order of ±10%. It measuresbroadband spectral irradiance from 1 to34 nm, and is designed similar to theXPS on the TIMED (Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics andDynamics) satellite. The XPS extendsthe solar XUV irradiance measure-ments with improved accuracy, spectralrange, and temporal coverage. Thesolar XUV radiation is emitted from thehot, highly variable corona on the Sun,and these high-energy photons are aprimary energy source for heating andionizing Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Understanding the Sun

The SORCE research and datacollection are very important forongoing and future EOS science. Thereis much that we will learn about theEarth’s radiation and energy balancethrough continuous TSI measurements.However, global energy balanceconsiderations alone likely do notprovide the entire story, and how TSIvariations are distributed inwavelength will be critically important

in understanding the Earth’s responseto solar variations. The Sun has bothdirect and indirect influences on theterrestrial system, and SORCE’scomprehensive total and spectral solarmeasurements will provide therequisite understanding of thisimportant climate system variable.

SORCE Data Validation

A SORCE Instrument and DataValidation Workshop will be held April28-30 to review the initial data comingfrom the instruments. This meeting willconcentrate on the first results andplans to refine data processing andvalidate the irradiance data. Foradditional information, please contactVanessa George at LASP, vanessa.george

@lasp.colorado.edu.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the followingindividuals for their contributionstowards a successful launch of theSORCE satellite.

• LASP, University of Colorado,

SORCE Team Members: JerryHarder, Greg Kopp, GeorgeLawrence, Bill McClintock, TomSparn, Mike Anfinson, RickKohnert, Tim Holden, and theentire engineering staff.

• NASA Goddard Space Flight

Center: William Ochs, SORCEProject Manager; Douglas Rabin,SORCE Deputy Project Scientist;Debbie Dodson, Mission BusinessManager; and Cary Lively, SystemEngineer.

• Orbital Science Corporation,

Dulles, Virginia: Rob Fulton,SORCE Spacecraft Manager, PhilipBurkholder, Ed Kozlosky, DaveOberg, and the entire spacecraftengineering staff.Stage 1 ignition, five seconds after the Pegasus was dropped.


19

For additional information on theSORCE Mission, visit the website atlasp.colorado.edu/sorce/ for the latestnews and updates.

(right)Tom Woods, SORCE Project Scientist at LASP,reviews preliminary data from the instruments.

(bottom)Personnel working in the LASP Mission

Operations Center at the University of Colorado,Boulder


20

22nd ASTER Science Team Meeting

The 22nd Advanced SpaceborneThermal Emission and ReflectionRadiometer (ASTER) Science TeamMeeting (ASTM) was held in Tokyo,Japan, May 21-23, 2002. The first twodays of the meeting were filled with aplenary session, splinter meetings ofeach working group (WG), and thegeneral meeting (there were 70participants including U.S. andJapanese ASTER science teammembers). On the last day, a workshopto introduce ASTER data applicationswas held (with 170 participantsincluding U.S. and Japanese ASTERscience team members and generalusers). The following are the highlightsof the discussion:

• ASTER equipment is operatingsmoothly without any problem.

• The number of ASTER scenesobtained totals approximately414,000, which covers most of theland area on Earth. In response tothis, the possibility of carrying outa second global mapping wasdiscussed at the Operation andMission Planning Working Group(OMPWG), and it was decided tomonitor observation status untilthe next ASTM in order toinvestigate the possibility.

• The U.S. side has already starteddistribution of higher-level

products, and the Japanese havealso started distribution of DigitialElevation Model/Ortho (DEM/Ortho) products in May. (Ortho isthe term used for Level 3 productswith features that can be viewedon geographic maps). AtmosphericCorrection and TemperatureEmissivity Separation (TES)products will be distributed assoon as possible.

• Both the Level 1 WG and theRadiometric Calibration WGdiscussed the issue of crosstalkcorrection. The next ASTM willaddress methods of crosstalkcorrection and optimumparameters (see summary of 23rdASTM below).

• Since the ASTER data applicationworkshop was open to the public,questions and comments wereactively exchanged in reference tothe 17 subjects presented by theU.S. and Japanese science teammembers, as well as byinvestigators of the Announcementof Research Opportunity onASTER data use (ARO) users,which led to a betterunderstanding of the ASTER data.

23rd ASTER Science Team Meeting

The 23rd ASTER Science Team Meetingwas held at the Hyatt Regency Suites

Hotel in Palm Springs, CaliforniaDecember 3-5, 2002. Palm Springs wasselected for its proximity to the SaltonSea ASTER test site. Approximately 70attendees represented U.S. andJapanese Universities and GovernmentAgencies.

Opening Plenary Session

Anne Kahle, U.S. ASTER Science TeamLeader, opened the meeting, welcomedthe attendees, and presented theagenda. H. Tsu, ASTER Science TeamLeader, expressed his pleasure to be atthe meeting and advised the attendeesthat M. Kudo and Y. Yamaguchi wouldnot be attending the meeting — Kudo-san because he was ill and hospitalizedand Yamaguchi-san because he wasbusy preparing a COE proposal. BjornEng, U.S. ASTER Project Manager,welcomed the Team to Palm Springsand presented the meeting logistics.

Woody Turner, NASA Headquarters,presented the NASA Vision Statement(noting that ‘Life’ appears in all threestatements), the NASA MissionStatement, 23 ESE research questions(broken up into five theme areas —Variability, Forcing, Response,Consequences, and Prediction), and 12Applications Themes. He said that ithas not yet been decided whether theproposals submitted in response to thisrecent Request for Proposals (RFP) willbe evaluated just on the basis of theirResearch content or for both Researchand Applications. Either way, theproposals submitted will be evaluatedfor their responsiveness to the 23research questions. Additionally, ifApplications are also part of the call,the proposals will also be evaluated interms of their responsiveness to the 12Applications Themes.

Summary of the 22nd and 23rdASTER Science Team Meetings— Andrew Morrison, [email protected], Jet Propulsion

Laboratory— Masatane Kato, [email protected], Earth Remote Sensint

Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC), Tokyo, Japan


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B. Eng reviewed the status of Level-2product validation. He said that all theL2 products have now been validatedwith the exception of the PolarClassification product, which requiresmore data to complete. Validationusing Moderate Resolution ImagingSpectroradiometer (MODIS) andMulitangle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer (MISR) data will requireupdates to the software toaccommodate the current MODIS andMISR formats. Eng asked the Teammembers to advise him of any bugs orproblems with the products. Reportscan be sent to him at [email protected].

gov. He will compile the reports in afree-form database. He asked for JPEGfiles illustrating the problems if theyare available.

Isao Sato presented an update of thestatus of the Higher Level DataProducts (HLDP), especially focusingon the ASTER Ground Data System(GDS) at the Earth Remote SensingData Analysis Center (ERSDAC). Hereported that, since the last Teammeeting, three products have beenreleased. They are the D-Stretch, andthe semi-standard DEM-Z and 3-Dorthographic data products. He saidthat they’ve recently releasedatmospherically corrected Very NearInfrared (VNIR) and Short-WaveInfrared (SWIR) radiance andreflectance data sets. Most of theHLDPs, except for Temperature-Emissivity Separation (TES), have nowbeen released from GDS at ERSDAC,and TES will be released toward theend of December. He reported the totalnumber of scenes that GDS at ERSDAChas released and presented the dailyaverages of each product. Their futureplans include producing 2-timesenlarged browse products in theInformation Management System

Webpage (IMS/WEB) (these will beavailable in December) and theproduction of crosstalk-correctedHLDPs that may be ‘optional’products.

Sato-san said that he hopes that theseproducts will be available next year. B.Eng said that JPL is planning tocrosstalk-correct L1A products toproduce corrected HLDPs on demand.The corrected L1As will not bearchived, just produced as the HLDPsare ordered. He said that the correctionis being coded up now, and that testscenes have been solicited from the U.S.Science Team members. He also invitedthe Japanese Team members to submittest scenes and reported that thesoftware will be tested soon. There wasconsiderable discussion to clarify thedifferences between the U.S. andJapanese processes. It was agreed thatthe L2 products from each side willhave some differences, and it will benecessary to compare them.

H. Watanabe presented the status ofthe GDS. He showed a chart of dataacquisition over time, which showedperiodic drops for calibrations and aslow drift downward that might beattributed to the increased scattering ofacquisition targets as the map fills in.He pointed out increases in bothvolume and quality of the datadistributed since the GDS switched tousing Sony DTF-2 tapes, and heshowed a summary of data processedand an analysis of those results,indicating that, although there was animprovement in success rate, there isstill an approximately 10% failure rate,some of that due to a bit-flip problem.

Watanabe-san reported that about 3000scenes have been distributed to payingusers, and many more than that havebeen distributed to non-paying users,

but he also noted a drop-off of nearlytwo orders of magnitude in total ordersafter a charge for all users wasimplemented on August 12.

He said that the reprocessing of data tocompensate for sensor degradation isnearly completed, but he added thatthe increased rate of change of the datais creating the problem of keeping upwith the changing calibrationcoefficients.

He then presented a list of five majorupgrades of the ASTER GDS including:

• Public release of HLDPs

• Storage tape change

• Credit card ordering by web

• Data search by IWS for data (inJapanese) with 2X browse scenesprovided

• Upgrade of IMS/WWW

Watanabe-san also reviewed what hesaw as the major troubles and theircounter-measures. Regarding theprojected lifetime of ASTER/Terra,Watanabe-san noted that the spacecraftis now 3 years old; that based on itsfuel-life history, it could last 9+ years;and that based on its pointing cyclesresource, 6 years may be possible forthe VNIR and 10 years may beprojected for the Thermal Infrared(TIR). A. Kahle noted that the pointingresource limits are only estimates, andit could last more or less than theestimate. Fujisada-san said that inter-telescope registration problems mightsignal pointing degradation, but thatno such problems have been detectedyet. Watanabe-san noted that thebiggest lifetime problem might be thebudget. He said that there is noguarantee of funding after 5 years.Woody Turner noted that the U.S.-Japanese MOU commits the U.S. to


22

provide support for as long as thespacecraft is viable.

B. Bailey presented the Land ProcessesDAAC status report. He discussedimplementation of L1A-to-L1Bprocessing and explained that theproposal is to process only the pre-January 2002 L1As. There was somediscussion on the proposal, which hasnot yet been approved by NASAHeadquarters. Bailey also presented asummary of data ingest, production,and distribution, noting a puzzlingdrop off of ingest over the last Summerthat will be studied. He also discussedthe implementation and impact of thepricing policy implemented in Augustin which most users will pay $55/scenefor L1A and L1B data and decorrelationproducts plus a $5 shipping fee (NASAand affiliated users as well as‘educational’ users will still receive thedata and data products at no charge).Finally, Bailey gave the DEMGeneration System update: Lyle Marsnoted that, based on his observations atthe most recent USGS meeting, theASTER DEM is its most importantproduct for the Geology community.

There was considerable discussionabout the extent of public knowledgeand need to advertise the DistributedActive Archive Center (DAAC’s) datapool that contains ASTER data over theU.S. and territories and is free to allusers.

It appears in the preliminary data thatthe implementation of charging forASTER scenes has resulted in areduction of orders by two orders ofmagnitude (from ~200,000 orders/month to ~2,000 orders/month). Simon

Hook suggested that the reduction isnot due to charging for the data, but tothe difficulty in paying for it. Baileysaid that too much emphasis shouldn’tbe placed on this early data and some

time should be taken to see the realimpact.

M. Maekawa, in his Science SchedulingSupport Group (SSSG) Report, showedASTER total-coverage maps and 0%-20% cloud coverage maps for the globe,the U.S., and Japan from launchthrough November 20, 2002. The totalglobal-coverage map included 518,264scenes, while the 0%-20% cloud-coverage global map included 214,154scenes. He broke down the observationachievements by km2, number ofscenes and percent satisfied for DataAcquisition Requests (DARs), ScienceTeam Acquisition Request (STAR)-Local, STAR-Regional Monitoring, andSTAR-Global Mapping andEngineering Team Request (ETR)-Observation. The Global Maprequirement has been nearly 71%satisfied. He also presented a plan for asecond round of Global Mapping (vs.attempting to complete the first GlobalMapping STAR) to best utilize theremaining ASTER resources. TheScience Team was asked to complete aquestionnaire regarding possiblychanging the sun elevation parameter(lowering it to enhance the topographiceffect, widening it to lower theminimum sun elevation angle, orkeeping it as is) for the second round.

M. Abrams summarized ASTERoutreach activities. He listed the showsand presentations that ASTER hasparticipated in during the last year andannounced the redesign of the ASTERweb site (asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov) that nowfeatures an ASTER “Image of theWeek.” He reported that the ASTERHandbook has been released and thatASTER personnel have beeninterviewed for an upcoming NASAvideo. Abrams solicited contributionsfrom the ASTER Science Teammembers and offered his help and the

support of the JPL PAO Office to getout ASTER results. Woody Turner

noted that ASTER Outreach is veryvisible and important at HQ. Mike andBjorn will forward their Quarterlies toTurner.

Prior to adjourning the Plenary Session,A. Kahle presented a list of issues sheasked the Working Groups to considerin their Splinter Sessions. The listincluded Crosstalk-Correction,Calibration Coefficient updates,Atmospheric Correction Algorithm,Global Mapping Second Round,Geometrical or other data problems,and Workshops and Special JournalIssues. A discussion of known ASTERdata problems and plans to addressthem also preceded adjournment of theOpening Plenary.

Splinter Sessions

Level-1/Geometric/DEM Working Group

(M. Abrams)

This working group met to discuss thestatus of the Level-1 ASTER data.Fujisada-san provided an update on theJapanese Level-1 software validation.No changes were developed since thelast meeting. An anomalous scene wasfound with excessive, uncorrectedSWIR parallax. This was underinvestigation. Iwasaki-san showed theresults of geometric analysis of Path174 (36 scenes). Inter-telescoperegistration exceeds missionrequirements for the entire strip, andunderlines the stability of theinstrument. Crosstrack jitter of 0.4pixels was seen as a result of spacecraftharmonics. A pitch anomaly wasidentified that was also due to aspacecraft attitude “hiccup”. Fujisada-san described a geolocation error that isa function of latitude. He presentedmodel results, on-orbit measurements,


23

and a correction algorithm involving ahigher order polynomial. He proposedto ERSDAC that they incorporate thefix in a future version of the Level-1software. The U.S. side will investigatehow to pass on the information tousers. Three presentations on DEMsoftware and status were discussed.Rick Wessels described ongoingdevelopments by the Global Land IceMeasurements from Space (GLIMS)project to produce DEM software.Mike Abrams showed a beta version ofa commercial DEM generation packagethat runs as a plug-in to ENVI. Bryan

Bailey discussed the Land ProcessesDAAC (LPDAAC) status for DEMgeneration. Already 1500 DEMs havebeen produced and archived.Production is running at the rate ofabout 120/month. Nevertheless, thereis still a backlog of orders stretching forabout 6 weeks. Lyle Mars noted ageolocation error for scenes taken withextreme pointing angles, and at highaverage ground elevations. This error isinherent in the data, and only ortho-rectification could remove it. Fujisada-

san pointed out that an orthorectifiedimage product is available to usersfrom GDS.

Ecosystems/Oceanography Working Group

Report (M. Abrams)

This working group was excited to heareight presentations on scientificresearch with ASTER data. Kenta

Ogawa described estimation of landsurface window emissivity andbroadband emissivity in a part of theSahara Desert. He has developed amosaic using over 200 ASTER scenesfor his analysis. Tsuneo Matsunaga

reported on validation of a split-window algorithm to measure watersurface temperature. The results werein excellent agreement with buoymeasurements taken on Tokyo Bay.

Andy French described estimatingevapotranspiration over centralOklahoma, examining the effects ofspatial resolution, comparing ASTER’s90 m data with 1000 m derived data.

Tsuneo Matsunaga next reported onASTER Japanese Science Teammembers activities, including coral reefmapping; vegetation change in theTaklamakan Desert; water qualitymonitoring at Lake Kasumigaura; andvegetation mapping in Kyushu. Tom

Schmugge compared land-surfaceemissivity and radiometric temperaturederived from MODIS and ASTERsensors. Shuichi Rokugawa presented astudy on the relation between seashoreerosion and local environmentalchange in a Thai delta. His work tookadvantage of all of ASTER’s spectralbands to derive temperature, land use,and water quality. Michael Abrams

described a comparative study usingASTER, Earth Observer-1 (EO-1), andThematic Mapper data to measurewater penetration at Lake Tahoe. Thenew, shorter wavelength blue band onEO-1 gave better penetration thanexisting sensors. Mike Ramsey

described a new project for urbanmonitoring in Pittsburgh and SaoPaulo, Brazil.

Geology Working Group (L. Rowan)

The Geology Working Group reportsspanned a wide range of topics,including glacial studies, volcanomonitoring, lithologic mapping, andgeomorphological-tectonic studies. TheGLIMS project now involves 23regional centers, and during this pastyear ASTER data have been acquired atnumerous important glacial deposits.ASTER data were used in support ofemergency efforts in two glacier-relatedfloods in Belvedere, Italy and insouthern Russia. Significant progress

was reported for estimating velocity ofice movement in the Himalayas.

Three different investigator groupspresented updates on volcanomonitoring using ASTER data. Spectralreflectance analysis of ASTER data ofareas in Morocco, Mexico, andAustralia demonstrated the potential ofASTER data for mapping mineralogicalconstituents, and the need forimproved calibration, particularly inASTER band 9. Subtle compositionalvariations across active faults mayprove to be very useful means ofdocumenting offsets due to tectonicactivity.

STAR Committee Splinter Session (L.

Maldonado)

Japanese and U.S. Science Teammembers met to review New STARProposals. There was one new proposalpresented by Japan that is to beevaluated using the new STARtooloperated at GDS. The new STARtoolwill provide an online review processfor the respective Working GroupChairs, and Science Team Members.Proposals can be approved or rejectedafter the respective groups havecommunicated online using the newtool.

Users must still contact an associatedASTER Science Member (WG Chair orScience Team Member) in order topropose a new STAR. The ASTERmember will become the “sponsor” forthe user and will submit the requestusing his or her assigned username andpassword. Notification to the user willbe done either by the respective ScienceScheduling Support Group (SSSG),Sponsor, or WG chair. Details are stillforthcoming.

The last issue discussed concernedDARtool allocation. Japan and U.S.Science Team Members agreed to


24

appropriately address each request foran increase based upon science needs.The respective countries will review therequest and will be able to increase thetotal allocation up to three times (basedon the user category). Details are stillforthcoming.

ASTER Operation and Mission Planning

Working Group (OMPWG) / SSSG

Splinter Session (L. Maldonado)

Japan has proposed submitting arevised version of Global Map with aGlobal Map-II that will raise low-priority and Medium-priority GM-STARs accordingly. The priorities willbe based upon completion rate of GM-I. The revised version includes arequest to limit sun-angle (between 30-60 degrees) for mid-latitudeacquisitions during Autumn andSpring. Another option is to widen thesun-angle limit range (30-90 degrees).Each option has pros and cons thatneed to be further evaluated by theScience Team in the U.S. beforeagreement is reached. A decision willbe made by the end of January 2003.

The pointing-limit function, whichcontrols the total number of telescopepointing maneuvers, has been abovethe nominal operating parameters forthe VNIR telescope. The effect is areduced number of observations for theArea of Interest (AOI) requiringpointing adjustments along the trackline. The current threshold is basedupon the expected life of theinstrument and calculations derived bythe instrument engineers. Given that noother indicators that would raise aconcern for the telescope lifeexpectancy have been experienced, aGDS team member was asked tocommunicate with instrumentengineers to re-evaluate the currentallowable 20,000 lifetime pointing

values. Unless instrument engineerscan guarantee that increasing thecurrent allowable pointing limit willnot affect the life of the instrumenttelescope, there will likely be no changein the current operating parameters.

The last issue for OMPWG was toconsider a request by the GLIMS PIs toupdate current STARs in the systemand re-prioritize low-coverage areaswith those where good coverage hasoccurred. The first idea is totemporarily suspend existing STARsand replace them with the newupdated versions for a one-year period.Due to the amount of requests neededto be updated/suspended, a batchupdate tool would need to bedeveloped. Other options wouldrequire many man-hours to handleeach request individually. Due to thescheduler capacity limits, simplyadding a batch of new requests wouldnot be a viable option without beingable to suspend the equal number ofexisting STARs. Both scheduling teamsare in the process of finding areasonable method to accommodate therequest. In the interim, the ScienceTeam is evaluating the request andconsidering effects of the modificationson other high-interest areas.

Temperature/Emissivity Working Group

(A. Gillespie)

Agenda and discussion summary:• TES status update — Gillespie

validated product released 8/02with minor adjustments

• T/E separation in the TIR/MIR(MTI satellite) — Mushkin

• Status of L1B re-sampling problemdue to geometric correction —Tonooka-“noisy” stripes (2-5 K; 0.05-0.10) inTIR (worst); VNIR & SWIR also- not as obvious with bilinear

interpolation- recommendation to use bilinearinterpolation for L1B-L2 default- exact source of problem stillneeds to be established

• Anomalous behavior over warm/hot targets — Ramsey- temperature differences of 4 Kbetween TES & NEM, sourceunclear- emissivities appear to agree butmay be unrealistic

• Comparison of ASTER TES andCIMEL emissivity spectra —Matsunaga- agreement at Railroad Valley isbetter than 0.01 over 3 years- long-term variability for both ≤0.03 (band 10)

• ASTER TES follow-on activity

Action Items Summary

1 Add soil spectra to ASTER library— Simon Hook, Will Stevanov.Status: spectra are queued and willbe added to ASTERLIB at nextupdate

2 Striping in emissivity images —Shuichi Rokugawa. Status:striping results from geometriccorrection. Exact cause must beidentified. Gillespie willsummarize one hypothesis.Recommendations made to HLDPWG.

3 Final U.S. product release — AlanGillespie. Status: Validatedproducts released on schedule.Action item closed.

4 TES performance evaluation —Mike Ramsey. Status: Possibletemperature anomalies overwarm/hot targets reported.Ramsey will continuedocumentation over Soufriere andtrack down source of problem.

The group heard from B. Eng of JPL


25

and C. Cattrall of the University ofArizona regarding the inclusion ofMISR-derived aerosol and MODISproducts in the atmospheric correctionof the reflective bands of ASTER. It wasdetermined that a new look-up tablefor the atmospheric correction could becompleted within two months usingthe new aerosol models beingimplemented by MISR. The topic of anew look-up table was also discussedby K. Thome of the University ofArizona with regard to reducingartifacts in the atmospheric correctionproduct at the boundaries of the 15-kmscale of the input parameters. Cattralland Thome will investigate anappropriate method for a pixel-to-pixelcorrection. Thome also raised thedifficulties that will be encountered inthe atmospheric correction of band 9 ofASTER even after the band has beencorrected for crosstalk effects. Theuncertainty in this band will bedominated by absorption due to watervapor with 10% uncertainty in columnwater vapor leading to a 5-10% error inthe band 9 reflectance for typicalcolumn water vapor amounts andmoderate sun angles.

Further discussions in the workinggroup centered on validation results. R.

Welch showed that the ASTER polarcloud mask algorithm applied to over2000 MODIS images of various sites(including several AtmosphericRadiation Measurement [ARM] sites)showed good agreement with ground-based instrumentation and image-based assessments. Validation usingASTER scenes still awaits asignificantly larger number of ASTERscenes to be collected. H. Tonooka

completed the working group meetingwith a presentation of a modifiedatmospheric correction for the TIRbands of ASTER. This new method is

not as susceptible to water vaporvariations and was found to providemore accurate emissivity retrievalsover water than the current algorithm.Work will be done over the next sixmonths to investigate incorporatingthis new approach into the operationalalgorithm.

Radiometric Calibration Working Group/

ASTER Calibration Team Meeting (F.

Palluconi)

Both the onboard and vicariouscalibration results for 2002 wereexamined with the trends seen inprevious years generally continuing(there is some evidence the decline ingain is decreasing in the VNIR and TIRchannels). The gain of the VNIR andTIR channels continues to slowlydecline, and the SWIR gain is nearlyconstant with time. To account for thegain changes observed, the RadiometerCalibration Coefficients (RCCs) appliedin the generation of Level-1B productsfor the VNIR will be updated asindicated by the onboard lamps/vicarious calibration results and theTIR RCCS will be updated every 3months based on the onboard long-term calibration results verified by thevicarious calibration results. As the TIRradiances have been validated to theequivalent of a few tenths degreeKelvin, Tonooka-san developed aneasy to use method, which can be usedto correct existing L1B TIR data for themonth-to-month trend in instrumentgain. At 300 K, use of this methodwould reduce the error due to gainchanges to 0.2 K. This method is to bemade available to users through theASTER web sites in Japan and the U.S.An ASTER SWIR crosstalk algorithm(operating on L1A image data) is beingdeveloped in the U.S. for use ingenerating a pre-Level-2 correction,

which will allow Level-2 data productsto be corrected for this effect.

ASTER team planning continues for thedeep-space maneuver and Lunar lookin March 2003. The Lunar calibrationwill provide an estimate of thecalibration accuracy for the VNIR andSWIR bands and a stray light estimatefor the TIR bands.

Closing Plenary Session

The Closing Plenary convened mid-afternoon on December 5. The WorkingGroup Chairs summarized thepresentations, discussions, andconclusions from their respectivesplinter meetings (see above). H. Tsu

summed up the meeting by saying thatthis was a short 2 1/2 days, but a greatdeal had been accomplished. He saidthat in Japan they are beginning toconsider possible post-ASTER projects.Upcoming workshops and specialissues of journals will provide goodopportunities for planning post-ASTERprojects. However, he noted thatASTER could last 10 years or longer sothat it is not necessary to hurry, but it isnecessary to begin to think about it. A.

Kahle said that the U.S. Team would beglad to work with the Japanese on post-ASTER planning. The meeting wasadjourned at 5:00 pm.


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The sixth annual Hierarchical DataFormat (HDF) and HDF-EOS Work-shop was held December 4-5, 2002 inSan Francisco, CA in conjunction withthe Fall meeting of the AmericanGeophysical Union (AGU). Severaloverlapping sessions took placeincluding, “How to Obtain NASA EOSData,” “How to Program in HDF andHDF-EOS,” “Status and Plans for HDFand HDF-EOS,” and a poster sessionon “EOS Data Access and Manipula-tion: Tools and Techniques.”

The session on obtaining NASA EOSdata provided a full day of training onthe web-based interfaces used to selectand order NASA EOS data as well asdemonstrations of many tools designedto view or assist in analysis of HDF andHDF-EOS data. For those developingHDF or HDF-EOS products or develop-ing tools to work with HDF-EOSproducts, NASA and the NationalCenter for Supercomputing Applica-tions (NCSA) provided a full day ofhands-on tutorials in how to programwith HDF under the instruction of thedevelopers of the HDF and HDF-EOSsoftware. Attendees were also able toaddress their specific needs via one-on-one discussions with the HDF andHDF-EOS developers.

The HDF/HDF-EOS Standards sessionoccurred in parallel with the tooltraining session and featured presenta-tions on the status of HDF and HDF-EOS, and provided an opportunity for

community feedback and discussion onthe future direction of the standard.

Copies of all presentation materials areavailable on the HDF-EOS Tools andInformation web site: hdfeos.gsfc.nasa.

gov. The following HDF and HDF-EOS-related talks were presented:

Introduction and ESDIS Status and

Plans, HDF-EOS Web Site

Richard Ullman (NASA Earth ScienceData and Information System [ESDIS]Project) provided an overview of ESDISScience Data Services, including EarthScience satellite missions supported,volume of data flowing into and out ofthe archives, and a profile of the overalluser community. The Earth ObservingSystem Data and Information System(EOSDIS) Core System (ECS) hasmoved from development to opera-tional mode. Ullman highlighted twomajor areas of new capability — thoseof Data Pools and the EOS ClearingHouse (ECHO). Overviews of each areawere presented. Ullman also discussedthe features of the upgraded HDF-EOSTools and Information web site.

HDF Status and Developments

Mike Folk (NCSA) gave a briefsummary of HDF library and tooldevelopment during 2002 followed byfuture plans. Plans for 2003 includereleasing HDF5 v1.6 in the Spring(expected to include szip compression),completing work on high-level

Application Programming Interfaces(APIs) for HDF5, replacing olderviewing tools with a single viewer/editor (begun in 2002), upgrading othertools , and releasing a tool that willcompare the structure and content oftwo HDF5 files and report the differ-ences. Additional future activities mayinclude investigating using HDF datain a web environment (XML, Javaserver pages, etc.). A list of variousgroups and activities considering oralready using HDF was presented,among them were the National Polar-orbiting Operational EnvironmentalSatellite System (NPOESS) and theNational Archives and RecordsAdministration.

HDF-EOS Library Development and

Status

Larry Klein (L3 Communications, Inc.)presented a brief description of HDF-EOS2, a more detailed description ofHDF-EOS5, and a list of tools that willoperate on one, the other, or bothversions of HDF-EOS. One tool(heconvert) will convert HDF-EOS2objects to HDF-EOS5 objects. A list ofthe supported operating systems andcompilers was provided. A fewremaining issues still need to beaddressed including use of the gzipcompression method, a 2 GB file sizelimit, and that metadata are notupdated for swath stitching in theunlimited dimension.

HDF5 I/O Performance

Elena Pourmal (NCSA) gave anoverview of the HDF5 Library tuningknobs for sequential and parallelperformance. Sequential performancecan be tuned at the file level or the dataset transfer level, and Pourmal de-scribed specific instances of each. Shealso discussed application memory and

Minutes from HDF / HDF-EOSWorkshop VI— Lori J. Tyahla, [email protected], Global Science & Technology,

Inc.— Richard Ullman, [email protected], Goddard Space Flight

Center


27

file space management using tech-niques such as chunking, compression,and data shuffling. Three file-leveltuning knobs for parallel HDF5 werepresented. Several performance testswere conducted and Pourmal de-scribed both the test and the results.

Transition from HDF4 to HDF5

Robert McGrath (NCSA) expects thatfor many years, most environmentswill use both HDF4 and HDF5 dataand software. Current NASA EarthScience Enterprise (ESE) holdings areHDF4-based (Terra, Aqua, Landsat 7,etc.), but in the near future HDF5-basedholdings will come on-line (Aura,possibly others). He presented fourimportant goals for NCSA and NASA:

• support both formats and libraries;• interoperation of data and libraries;• conversion of data; and• conversion of software.

McGrath discussed the issues relevantto each goal and provided suggestionsfor users.

Strategy for Evolution of ESE Data

Systems (SEEDS)

Richard Ullman (NASA EISDIS)described SEEDS as a strategy forNASA’s ESE to maximize the scienceand applications utility of ESE data, aformulation study of best practices, aprocess for incorporating lessonslearned, and a tool for engagingcommunities of ESE data providers andusers. He listed seven formulationstudy areas and provided the schedulestatus. Ullman presented a flowdiagram of the SEEDS StandardsProcess for approving and developingstandards, and a list of the types ofstandards the process will address. AStandards Working Group whosemembers represent NASA-ESE funded

activities will guide the formulationprocess. Ullman also provided thestatus of the process as well as somenear-term study findings. AdditionalSEEDS information can be found ateos.nasa.gov/seeds.

Selecting HDF5 as the Standard for

NPOESS

Alan Goldberg (MITRE Corp.)presented the products and datadelivery requirements of the NPOESSand related issues. He also discussed aschedule with a target date of mid-2008for system operational readiness inanticipation of the first NPOESS launchin mid-2009. Goldberg listed anddescribed seven reasons that HDF5 waschosen as the standard for NPOESS.These included familiarity, maturity,capability, compatibility, availability,interoperability, and efficiency.

“Ask the Experts” Discussion

Richard Ullman, Robert McGrath, andLarry Klein led this open discussionabout the future direction for HDF andHDF-EOS.

Tool Training and Demonstrations

The workshop provided an opportu-nity for attendees to receive training onseveral data analysis and search andorder tools and to see demonstrationsof others. A few of the presentationsprovided updates of previouslyavailable tools; these includedmisr_view, the HDF-EOS-to-GeoTiff(HEG) Converter tool, the EOS ImagingTool (formerly the Polar HDF-EOS DataImaging and Subsetting Tool), HDFExplorer, and the HDF-EOS Web-basedSubsetter (HEW). Many new toolswere also presented and are summa-rized below. More detailed informationon all of the tool presentations can befound on the HDF-EOS Tools and

Information web site (hdfeos.gsfc.nasa.

gov/workshops/workshops.cfm).

HDFView

Peter Cao (NCSA) presented HDFView.This is a Java-based tool for browsingand editing NCSA HDF4 and HDF5files. HDFView allows users to browsethrough any HDF4 and HDF5 filestarting with a tree view of all top-levelobjects in an HDF file’s hierarchy.HDFView’s editing features allow auser to create, delete, and modify thevalue of HDF objects and attributes.

Algorithm Development and Mining

System (ADaM)

Steve Tanner (Information Technologyand Systems Center/University ofAlabama-Huntsville - ITSC/UAH)presented a tutorial on the ADaMsystem. The ADaM system enablesusers to mine large scientific data setsfor geophysical phenomena detectionand feature extraction. Tanner pre-sented an overview of the ADaMarchitecture, components, and dataformats. He explained what a “MiningPlan” was and how to create one usingthe ADaM Plan Builder. He thendemonstrated how the tool can be usedto identify cancerous breast cells usinga Bayes Classifier.

EOS Data Gateway (EDG)

Mark Nestler (Global Science &Technology, Inc. - GST) providedtraining on the EDG. The EDG is auser interface that enables users toaccess the data holdings in NASA’sDistributed Active Archive Centers(DAACs) and other data centersworldwide. Its primary function isdata search and order; secondaryfunctions include summary anddetailed document searches. Nestlerdemonstrated step by step how to


28

create a user account and how to builda primary data search using keywordsand using data granule IDs. He alsoshowed how to evaluate the searchresults, how to place a data order,discussed changing user preferences,discussed common errors encountered,and gave some helpful hints.

Web-based Hierarchical Ordering

Mechanism (WHOM)

James Johnson (Science Systems andApplications, Inc./Goddard SpaceFlight Center Earth Sciences (GES)DAAC - SSAI/GES DAAC) gave atutorial on WHOM. This is a datasearch and order tool to access dataarchived at the Goddard Space FlightCenter Earth Sciences (GES) DAAC.Johnson provided an overview of thelayout of the WHOM interface. Hethen showed how to locate and orderspecific data granules by beginning atthe dataset level. He also showed howto locate, subset, and download data inthe GES DAAC online Data Pool.

NASA Web GIS Server (NWGISS)

Liping Di (Laboratory for AdvancedInformation Technology and Stan-dards/George Mason University)defined NWGISS as a “suite of soft-ware making HDF-EOS data easilyaccessible to GIS data users throughOpen GIS Consortium (OGC) specifica-tions.” The server and its tools provideon-the-fly reformatting,georectification, resampling, andsubsetting capabilities as well asautomatic data ingest and catalogcreation for data providers. By combin-ing with the NWGISS MultiprotocolGeoinformation Client (MPGC), userscan assemble data from multipleproviders online that exactly matchtheir needs. Liping provided a detailedaccount of how to download and installall NWGISS components and described

four MPGC usage scenarios.

McIDAS-Lite

Dave Santek (Space Science andEngineering Center/University ofWisconsin-Madison) gave a presenta-tion on McIDAS-Lite. He providedbrief overviews of McIDAS and theInternational MODIS/AIRS ProcessingPackage (IMAPP) and showed CloudTop Pressure products generated byeach. He then discussed the featuresand input and output data formats ofMcIDAS-Lite.

HDF5 Tools in IDL

Chris Torrence (Research Systems, Inc.)presented information on the HDF5Module that is now available withInteractive Data Language (IDL) 5.6.He discussed the module’s capabilitiesand the data types it supports.Torrence also showed some sampleHDF5 code, discussed the HDF5 parserand graphical browser, and listed newfeatures in IDL5.6.

Programmable EOS Visualization

with Python

Patrick Moran (NASA AdvancedSupercomputing Division/NASAAmes Research Center) explained howthe open source Python scriptinglanguage can be used with a C++ opensource field model to produce aProgrammable Data Analysis tool thatutilizes both standard and custommodules. Moran also identified a list ofroutines (both completed and underdevelopment) that comprise anHDFEOS module.

Intel Array Visualizer

John Readey (Intel Compiler Labora-tory/Intel) gave a detailed presentationon the Intel Array Visualizer and itsfour main components: Array Viewer,Library Routines, Object Model, andActiveX Controls. He also provided

code examples written in C++, C#, andJavaScript. The current version (7.0)supports HDF5, XML, BMP, GIF, JPG,and PNG formats. It is expected thatthe next version (7.0.1) will alsosupport HDF4 and will be releasedduring the second quarter of 2003.


29

KudosThe National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has elected 77 new members and nine foreign associates. Among thoseelected was "Michael D. King, senior project scientist, Earth Observing System, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,Greenbelt, Md. for advancing our understanding of the effects of aerosols and clouds on Earth's radiation and forleading programs to improve climate prediction."

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer.Academy membership honors those who have made "important contributions to engineering theory and practice,including significant contributions to the literature of engineering theory and practice," and those who havedemonstrated accomplishment in "the pioneering of new fields of engineering, making major advancements intraditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."

The Earth Observer Staff and the entire scientific community wishes to congratulate King on this outstandingaccomplishment.

This image from MODIS, taken March 9, 2003, shows ice almost completely covering several lakes, including the largest lake—Lake Superior, at upper left.Lake Michigan, center, shows a ring of ice around its shores and at its northern end, while Lake Huron, to the east, is almost completely covered. South ofHuron, ice covers all but the northern parts of Lake Erie, while Lake Ontario, to the northeast, appears relatively ice-free.


30

Earth Science Education ProgramUpdate

— Blanche Meeson, [email protected], NASA Goddard SpaceFlight Center

— Theresa Schwerin, [email protected], IGES

Digital Library for Earth System

Education - Annual Meeting

The Digital Library for Earth SystemEducation (DLESE) is preparing for itsFourth Annual Meeting to be heldAugust 3 though 5, 2003 at theUniversity of Colorado in Boulder,Colorado, with an optional skillsworkshop on August 2. The meeting,sponsored by the National ScienceFoundation, will focus on the theme“Broadening DLESE.” Specific goals areto develop strategies to:

• Expand the number and diversityof users and contributors to DLESE

• Facilitate and encourage efforts todevelop Earth science data/toolsfor educational use

• Expand DLESE’s collection ofexcellent Earth science educationalmaterials

• Broaden the ties between researchand educational practice.

The organizers hope for strongparticipation from teachers at all levels,curriculum developers, materialsdevelopers, content/data providers,scientists, service providers, evaluators,administrators, and library creators.This meeting will provide a uniqueopportunity for these stakeholders tocollaborate and participate in DLESE’scontinuing development. For moreinformation, see: www.dlese.org/

annualmtg/2003/CallForm.html.

NASA Selects Colorado Organization

to Operate Globe Program

NASA has selected the UniversityCorporation for Atmospheric Research(UCAR), Boulder, CO, for operation ofthe GLOBE Program. GLOBE is aworldwide hands-on, primary andsecondary school-based education andscience program. A Federal interagencyprogram in partnership with collegesand universities, state and local schoolsystems, and non-governmentorganizations leads it. Internationally,GLOBE is a partnership between theUnited States and 100 other countries.

UCAR is primarily located in Boulderand the headquarters of GLOBE will bemoved to UCAR facilities there. Theprincipal investigator is Dr. JackFellows of UCAR. The key partner inthis offer, Colorado State University,will have responsibilities for GLOBE'sinformation systems and for educationincluding the development ofclassroom-ready materials. Full storyat: www.gsfc.nasa.gov/news-release/

releases/2003/h03-087.htm.

Continuing the Dream: NASA

Explorer School Program

Deadline: Applications due April 4,2003

Reaffirming its commitment toeducation, NASA is announcing a newinitiative to bring exciting learningopportunities to educators, students,and their families.

The NASA Explorer Schools Program(NES) will provide a uniquerelationship between schools and theagency to "inspire the next generationof explorers." The program is designedto provide customized, extendedprofessional development foreducators. It will also provide authenticmathematics and science experiencesfor students and their families.

Fifty NES teams consisting of 3 or 4science, mathematics, or technologyeducators and an administrator will bechosen from around the country. Theteams will have a week of intensivetraining at one of NASA's 10 FieldCenters in July.

Selected educator/administrator teamswill work with NASA specialists tointegrate agency science content intotheir curriculum through problem-solving activities and to incorporatechallenges into their mathematics andscience curriculum. Students will haveopportunities to apply science,mathematics and technology to real-world issues and problems and to learnabout the vast array of career options atNASA. To learn more about theprogram, visit explorerschools.nasa.gov.


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2002 NASA DAAC Alliance Annual Now Available

The 8th edition of the NASA DAAC Alliance Annual publication, titled “Distributed Active Archive Centers Alliance:Supporting Earth Observing Science 2002,” is now available from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)Distributed Data Archive Center (DAAC). The annual is a multidisciplinary publication designed to highlight applica-tions and research uses of satellite data archived at NASA’s DAACs.

This year’s edition of the DAAC Alliance Annual highlights research on volcanic domes, African ecosystems, thebreakup of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in Antarctica, the spread of viruses and dangerous organisms, and improving meteo-rological forecasts

Articles from the DAAC Annual are also available electronically on NASA’s Earth Observatory at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ and on the DAAC Alliance Web site at nasadaacs.eos.nasa.gov/. Researchers working withNASA DAAC data are invited to contact Laurie Schmidt, Editor, to explore possibilities for developing a future DAACarticle.

For a free copy of the DAAC Annual, contact NSIDC User Services at [email protected]. To access all articles in currentand past editions, visit nasadaacs.eos.nasa.gov/newsfeatures.html.

This MODIS image, takenJanuary 27, 2003, shows anunusually high number ofship tracks off the coasts ofFrance and Spain. Ship tracksform when very smallairborne particles emitted inthe exhaust of large shipsattract water molecules,acting as "seeds" for clouds,forming the thin, streakyclouds, in this image. Insteadof showing the past locationof the ship, like the contrailof an aircraft would, shiptracks reflect the directionand speed of the wind.


32

Ocean Surface Salinity Influences El

Niño Forecasts, January 31, KBCI-TV

(Idaho), Navakal.com (India), Spacedaily,SpaceflightNow, UPI. Tony Busalacchi,Joaquim Ballabrera, and Ragu

Murtugudde (Univ. of MD) havediscovered that by knowing the saltcontent of the ocean, they may be ableto improve predictions of El Niños.

L.A. Has Its Warmest January Ever,Jan. 31; Los Angeles Times. Bill Patzert

(NASA JPL).Warm, Sunny January Leaves County

High, Dry, Jan. 31; San Diego Union-

Tribune. Bill Patzert (NASA JPL).Pacific’s Hot and Cold Moods Dictate

Drought, Jan. 31; Denver Post. Bill

Patzert (NASA JPL).Are We or Aren’t We Facing El Niño?,Jan. 29; Los Angeles Times. Bill Patzert

(NASA JPL).El Niño’s Rain So Far a No Show, Jan.24; Pasadena Star-News. Bill Patzert

(NASA JPL).Weather Phenomenon Not Living Up

To Its Reputation So Far, Jan. 24; San

Jose Mercury-News. Bill Patzert (NASAJPL) discusses the current progress ofEl Niño.

Satellite, Shuttle Pair for Ozone

Studies, January 27; Associated Press,

CNN, Discovery.com, FoxNews, UPI.Gary Rottman (Univ. of Colorado) wasquoted in this article on the launch of

the Solar Radiation and ClimateExperiment (SORCE) satellite.

NASA Begins New Year with Interna-

tional Ozone Study, January 21; Journal

of Aerospace and Defense Industry News. -More than 350 scientists from severalcountries are working together in theArctic to measure ozone and othergases. Michael Kurylo (NASA HQ) isquoted.

NASA Dryden Personnel Help

Measure Earth’s Ozone, January 20;Antelope Valley Press. Walter Klein,NASA DC-8 mission manager (NASADryden), commented of the aircraft’sflights over desolate areas in support ofSOLVE II.

First Full-Body Scan of an Evolving

Thunderstorm, January 16; Scripps

Howard News Service, MSNBC, Reuters,

ABC News. Research from David Atlas

(NASA Goddard) is highlighted whereradars unusual created a unique “fullbody scan” that shows the innerworkings of storm clouds in the tropics.

NASA Instrument Captures Early

Antarctic Ice Shelf Melting, January14; SpaceDaily. Mark Drinkwater

(ESA), David Long (Brigham YoungUniv.), and Steve Harangozo (BritishAntarctic Survey) used data fromNASA’s SeaWinds has detected theearliest yet recorded pre-summer

melting event in a section ofAntarctica’s Larsen Ice Shelf.

Two NASA Research Satellites

Launched to Study Environment,

Space, January 13; Spacedaily. ICESatand CHIPsat satellites were launchedto study global ice and conditions inwhich stars are formed.

Tree-Ring Study Reveals Long History

of El Niño, January 6; SpaceDaily. ElNiño is not a new phenomenon,according to Hector D’Antoni (NASAAmes). His study looked 750 years intothe past using tree-ring records.

Sea Changes by Satellite, January 6;Earthwatch Radio. Watson Gregg

(NASA Goddard) said that phytoplank-ton levels fell by 6 percent globallybetween the early 1980s and the late1990s.

Expert’s Research Increases Under-

standing of Global Warming, Jan. 6;The Newport News Daily Press. Bruce

Wielicki (NASA Langley) leads theClouds and the Earth’s Radiant EnergySystem (CERES) science team tounderstand how clouds affect theEarth’s energy budget and globalclimate change.

NASA Funds New Crop of Remote

Sensing Instruments, Jan. 6; Space

News. Eastwood Im (NASA JPL) isusing radar to track hurricanes throughNASA’s instrument incubator program.

Mapping With GRACE, Jan. 4; Science

News. Michael Watkins (NASA JPL)discusses the objectives and progress ofthe GRACE mission.

The Altus Cumulus Electrification

Study (ACES), January; Unmanned

Vehicles Magazine. Richard Blakeslee

(NASA Marshall) is using data ac-quired from research flights using

— Robert Gutro, [email protected],NASA Earth Science News Team


33

winter and spring, shift the way moistair gets transported in the atmosphere,and directly affect Western U.S.precipitation and snow accumulation.

El Niño / Southern Oscillation (ENSO)marks a see-saw shift in surface airpressure between Darwin, Australiaand the South Pacific Island of Tahiti.When the pressure is high at Darwin itis low at Tahiti and vice versa. El Niño,and its sister event La Niña, are theextreme phases of this southernoscillation, with El Niño referring to awarming of the eastern tropical Pacific,and La Niña a cooling.

By better understanding the connec-tions between these processes, scien-tists can update their computer climatemodels to improve their ability toforecast future snowfall and wateravailability in the west.

For more information, please see:www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/

0210snowpack.html

A NASA-funded study uses a com-puter model to understand an observedlink between winter and springsnowfall in the Western U.S. and ElNiño Southern Oscillation. Almost 75to 85 percent of water resources in theWestern U.S comes from snow thataccumulates in the winter and earlyspring and melts as runoff in springand summer. Understanding thisconnection and using it to predictfuture snowfall rates would greatlyhelp both citizens and policy makers.

One of the missions of NASA's EarthScience Enterprise (ESE), which fundedthis research, is to better understandhow the Earth system is changing.Within this framework, NASA iscommitted to studying variability inthe water cycle, how well we canpredict future changes in the Earthsystem and the consequences of changein the Earth system for human civiliza-tion.

Lead authors Jiming Jin and NormanMiller of the U.S. Department ofEnergy's Lawrence Berkeley NationalLaboratory, Berkeley, Calif., in collabo-ration with Soroosh Sorooshian andXiaojang Gao at the University ofArizona, Tucson, find that higher andlower tropical Pacific sea surfacetemperatures (SSTs) that characterize ElNiño and La Niña change atmosphericwind patterns in the mid-latitudes in

NASA-Funded Research Looking atEl Niño Events to Forecast WesternU.S. Snowfall— Krishna Ramanujan, [email protected], Goddard Space

Flight Center

Excerpts from Release 03-25

uninhabited aerial vehicles to gain abetter understanding of thunderstorms.

Atmospheric “Waves” Reduced Ozone

Hole, December 23; Canada’s Village,

ScienceaGoGo. Paul Newman (NASAGoddard) was quoted about hisresearch. A greater number of large“planetary sized waves” in the atmo-sphere that move from the loweratmosphere into the upper atmospherewere responsible for the smallerAntarctic ozone hole this fall.

Flurry of Satellites to Monitor Earth

and Examine Galaxy, December 10;CNN, NY Times, Washington Post.

Ghassem Asrar (NASA HQ) and Jay

Zwally (NASA Goddard) were quotedabout the launch of ICESat, and Mark

Hurwitz (Univ. of California atBerkeley) was quoted about CHIPSat‚slaunch.

Earth’s Weight Watched Monthly,December 12; Nature Science Update.Byron Tapley (Univ. of Texas), James

Morrison (Univ. of Washington) andJohn Wahr (Univ. of Colorado atBoulder) are all quoted in this articleabout the GRACE satellite mission.

Typhoons Help Ocean Life, December7, Associated Press. Tim Liu (NASA/JPL) noted that NASA satellites havedetected upwellings of nutrient-richwater from deep in the ocean thatspark massive blooms of phytoplank-ton, after typhoons pass over an area.


34

NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe andAgriculture Secretary (USDA) Ann M.Veneman announced the two agencieswill join forces on a series of programsdrawing on NASA’s capabilities inmonitoring, mapping, modeling andsystems engineering to help protectthe environment and enhance Ameri-can agriculture’s ability to compete inthe world market.

NASA and USDA representativesparticipated in a workshop this week inDenver to identify collaborativeresearch and development programsfor the joint program. The workshopconcentrated on five “focus areas”identified as national priorities ofmutual interest: carbon management,agricultural competitiveness, airquality, water management andconservation, and management ofinvasive species.

“NASA is pleased to be part of thisworthwhile effort, benefiting allAmericans and humankind in general,”said NASA Administrator SeanO’Keefe. “NASA’s ability to view theEarth from the unique vantage point ofspace provides data to enhance ourability to predict climate, weather andnatural hazards, as well as to mitigateand assess the effects of natural andhuman-induced disasters. As NASAworks to understand and protect ourhome planet, the relevant and concise

information we provide will allowUSDA and other U.S. governmentagencies to make critical, accurate, andtimely decisions,” he said.

“We in USDA are very excited aboutthe possibilities opened up by this newcollaboration,” Veneman said. “Forexample, to improve our agriculturalcompetitiveness, we need a betterunderstanding of weather and climate,especially the ability to predict weatherevents with more accuracy and longerlead times. The results from NASAresearch and development of earthscience and technology could lead toweather and climate predictions andobservations that can be integratedinto local and regional support systemsused in agricultural management,” shesaid.

Participants discussed USDA policyand program needs that might befulfilled by remote sensing informationprovided by NASA; identified currentresearch and capabilities of both NASAand USDA that could help addressthose needs; pinpointed gaps inexisting knowledge and research. Theyalso outlined opportunities for collabo-rative research and development effortsbetween USDA and NASA to developproducts and solutions to servedecision makers.

Information from this week’s work-

shop will be used by a USDA/NASAInteragency Working Group in evaluat-ing and establishing new researchefforts, remote sensing systems, andmodels for decision support in agricul-tural systems. The information result-ing from the workshop will also beincorporated into the plans of NASA’sEarth Science Enterprise, which seeksto meet NASA’s mission of understand-ing and protecting our home planet.

For more information about NASA orNASA’s Earth Science Enterprise on theInternet, visit: www.nasa.gov

NASA Partners with USDA onVariety of Products— Elvia Thompson, [email protected], NASA Headquarters,

Washington

— Sandy Miller-Hays, [email protected], USDA


35

EOS Science Calendar

April 29 - 30

ASTER Users Workshop, Arcadia, CA.Contact: Michael Abrams, Email:[email protected], URL:asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/workshop

May 6 - 8

CERES Science Team Meeting, Norfolk VA.Contact: Shannon Lynch, (757) 864-2458,Email: [email protected].

May 28-29

Aqua Science Working Group Meeting,Greenbelt, MD. Contact: Claire Parkinson,Email: [email protected]

Global Change Calendar

March 31 - April 2

Challenging Times: Towards an operationalsystem for monitoring, modeling, andforecasting of phenological changes andtheir socio-economic impacts, Wgeningen,The Netherlands. Contact: Mark Grutters,Email: [email protected], URL:www.dow.wau.no/msa/epn/challengingtimes/

April 6 - 11

AGU / European Geographical Society(EGS) / European Union of Geosciences(EUG) Joint Spring Meeting, Nice, France.Email: [email protected], URL:www.copernicus.org/EGS/egsga/nice03.

May 5 - 8

Final Open Science Conference, “A Sea ofChange: JGOFS Accomplishments and theFuture of Ocean Biochemistry.”

Washington, DC. URL: usjgof.whoi.edu/osc2003.html

May 7 - 9

American Society of Photogrammetry andRemote Sensing, Anchorage, AK. Contact:Thomas Eidel, Email: [email protected], URL:www.asprs.org/alaska/2003/.

June 2 - 3

16th Annual Geographic InformationSciences Conference, Towson University,Baltimore, MD. Contact John Morgan, tel.(410) 704-2964, Fax: (410) 704-38888,Email: [email protected], URL:cgis.towson.edu/tugis2003/

June 4 - 6

Oceanology International (OI) Americas,New Orleans, LA. URL: www.oiamericas.com.

June 30 - July 11

International Union of Geodesy andGeophysics 2003, Saporo, Japan. Email:[email protected], URL:www.jamstec.go.jp/jamstec-e/iugg/index.html.

July 21 - 25

IGARSS 2003, Toulouse, France. Email:[email protected], URL: www.igarss03.com.

August 30 - September 6

Second International Swiss NCCR ClimateSummer School: “Climate Change —Impacts of Terrestrial Ecosystems.”Grindelwald, Switzerland. Contact: KasparMeuli, Email: [email protected],URL: www.nccr-climate.unibe.ch.

September 8 - 10

Sixth Baiona Workshop on SignalProcessing in Communications, Baiona,

Spain. Contact Carlos Mosquera, Email:[email protected], URL:www.baionaworkshop.org

September 23 - 26

Oceans ‘03, San Diego, CA. Contact: BrockRosenthal, Email: [email protected],Tel: (858) 454 4044, URL: www.o-vations.com.

November 10 - 14

30th International Symposium on RemoteSensing of Environment, Honolulu, HI.Email: [email protected], URL:www.symposia.org.

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The Earth Observer

The Earth Observer is published by the EOS Project Science Office, Code 900, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, telephone (301) 614-5559, FAX (301) 614-6530, and is available on the World Wide Web ateos.nasa.gov/ or by writing to the above address. Articles, contributions to the meeting calendar, and suggestions arewelcomed. Contributions to the calendars should contain location, person to contact, telephone number, and e-mailaddress. To subscribe to The Earth Observer, or to change your mailing address, please call Hannelore Parrish at (301)867-2114, send message to [email protected], or write to the address above.

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