GES DISC Top 10 Accomplishments for 2010

Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center lists noteworthy accomplishments in 2010

Montage of GES DISC accomplishments in 2010

Below we present the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) "Top 10" list of 2010 accomplishments. (The order shown below does not reflect a ranking in terms of importance or significance.)

Below the list are links to items in our News Archive related to each list entry.

THE LIST

Debut of the Data Quality Screening Service (DQSS) and Year of Tropical Convection (YOTC) System

In the summer, the GES DISC rolled out its first version of the Data Quality Screening Service (DQSS), for Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) data. DQSS is designed designed to help science users navigate and handle the often-complex quality information associated with NASA science data.

The Year of Tropical Convection (YOTC) system utilizes two implementations of the Giovanni: one utilizes Level 3 data, and the other utilizes Level 2 data. YOTC provides access to data from several different NASA satellite sensors focused on storm systems and precipitation in Earth's tropical weather zone.

GES DISC Participation in LANCE

AIRS data also were important in the GES DISC's participation in the Land-Atmosphere Near-real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) project. As its name indicates, LANCE delivers near-real-time (NRT) data to registered users from several different NASA instruments orbiting on the EOS satellites Terra, Aqua, and Aura. The GES DISC hosts AIRS Level 1 and Level 2 NRT data products and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) Level 2 data products. Services for NRT data include images served by Web Map Server (WMS), data subsetting, and format conversion. The GES DISC is a member of the LANCE User Working Group (UWG).

Data set updates and new data sets

The primary activity of the GES DISC is the archive and distribution of remote sensing data from NASA satellites and instruments. New data sets were made available from the GES DISC, including the High Resolution Dynamic Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) Version 005 Level 2 data; the Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) Collection 10 (Collection 11 is pending release); and land surface temperatures at 8-day, 1 kilometer temporal and spatial resolution from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) in support of the Monsoon-Asia Integrated Regional Study (MAIRS).

(In total, the GES DISC distributed 73.6 TB of Earth science data – approximately 11.3 million data files – in 2010).

Release of the AIRS CO2 data product

Researchers looking for a comprehensive view of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO₂) in Earth's atmosphere were highly pleased when the AIRS CO₂ data product was released, and made available both in Mirador and Giovanni from the GES DISC. The launch failure of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) made the AIRS CO₂ data a vital Earth science data product. In addition to the AIRS CO₂ data, in late October, the GES DISC also made available CO₂ data from the Japanese Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) platform, which consisted of Level 2 data generated by the Atmospheric CO₂ Observations from Space (ACOS) Project.

In related news, the GES DISC will archive and distribute OCO-II data.

Participation in the A-Train Symposium

Several staff members from the GES DISC traveled to New Orleans in October to participate in the A-Train Research Symposium, and to make presentations on A-Train related activities at the GES DISC. The exemplary support of AIRS data by the GES DISC was highlighted and complimented by the AIRS Science Team. Teachers from the New Orleans region were also made aware of the educational usefulness of Giovanni in the A-Train Symposium Teachers' Workshop.

Collaborative Energy and Water Cycle Information Services (CEWIS) Workshop

The GES DISC, jointly with NASA HQ, hosted a workshop to discuss the difficulties of combining heterogeneous data sets related to the Earth's basic energy and water cycle systems. Many of these data sets are created and held by investigators in the NASA Energy and Water Cycle Study (NEWS) program. The workshop covered important topics in the creation and analysis of energy and water cycle data, and presented a prototype merged information system based on Mirador and Giovanni.

Giovanni exceeds 100 peer-reviewed journal publications in 2010

The increasing scope and global reach of the GES DISC Giovanni system was underscored by the milestone of 100 peer-reviewed journal publications utilizing Giovanni appearing in 2010. The number will likely still increase as late-year publications are released, putting another milestone -- 300 total publications utilizing Giovanni since its inception -- in sight. Researchers say that Giovanni makes difficult-to-use data sets easy to use, enabling studies that would otherwise be nearly impossible to carry out, and allows multi-disciplinary impact of NASA remote sensing data in multifarious science endeavors.

MEaSUREs Portal Opens

The GES DISC opened its Web data portal for data generated by projects funded by the "Making Earth Science Data Records for Use in Research Environments" (MEaSUREs) program. The GES DISC will host data generated by seven MEaSUREs projects, focused on atmospheric and weather/climate related data.

Newer, stronger, faster Web server deployed

Behind the scenes, the GES DISC migrated its entire website to a new Web server. The new Web server is more robust, faster, and scalable. It is designed to better handle high traffic volumes from users and automated archiving system inquiries (which are known by the creepy name of "crawlers"). All this Web power was provided to the end-user community while enabling fast and efficient collaboration of Web site content generated by GES DISC scientists.

GES DISC data and Giovanni used to observed major geophysical events

The geophysical year of 2010 was characterized by a number of very visible and memorable geophysical events, many of which affected Earth's human population both regionally and globally. GES DISC data and visualization systems allowed insightful views into the dynamics and causes of these events, which included major wildfires and an unprecedented heat wave in Russia; heavy rains causing devastating floods in Pakistan and flash floods in the U.S. Midwest; bitterly cold weather in Europe's early winter; the disruptive yet beautiful eruption of the Eyjafjalljökull eruption in Iceland; conditions related to the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; as well as the usual ensemble of dust storms, hurricanes, droughts, pollution and annually-scheduled ozone holes.

Honorable Mentions

Ocean Color Giovanni added new data products from the Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG): Particulate Organic Carbon, Particulate Inorganic Carbon, and Photosynthetically Available Radiation.

North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) forcing data containing fifteen fields of land surface meteorology and hydrology data over the continuous United States and parts of Canada and Mexico were made available as part of ongoing GES DISC support for NLDAS and the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS).