Earth Observing System/NPP Meeting Benevento, Italy 3 – 6 October 2005 Craig Smith ACRES

1. Australian Government Geoscience Australia Earth Observing System/NPP MeetingBenevento, Italy 3 – 6 October 2005Craig Smith ACRES

2. MEETING AGENDA • STATUS OF CURRENT MISSIONS • ACTIVITY/STATUS REPORTS BY DB STATIONS • STATUS OF NPOESS PREPARATORY MISSION (NPP)

3. Meeting Host – Mediterranean Agency for Remote Sensing & Environmental Control (MARSec) - Approx 32 Staff • Linkages with University of Sannio • There were about 100 attendees at the meeting with 50 presentations. There was a large representation from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and the University of Wisconsin, a lead agency in the development of Atmospheric products from MODIS data • The topics addressed in the presentations were AQUA and TERRA Mission status, DB data, primarily MODIS, processing and applications at the DB Ground stations

5. DIRECT READOUT MISSION STATUS • The TERRA & AQUA Missions are performing soundly • A 5 year support plan for TERRA has recently been approved • All TERRA & Aqua instruments are meeting or exceeding performance specifications • NASA officials present at the meeting expressed strong support for the Direct Readout community – the role of the international DB community has not been well recognised by NASA

6. DIRECT READOUT SYSTEMS. • Presentations were made by Vendors of DB reception and raw data format processing systems • Sea Space, Orbital, ScanEx • Indicative cost for DB reception systems, 2 metre antenna, approx US $120 K • Australian company ESS, not represented at the meeting, is also a provider of DB reception systems, particularly in SE Asia. • The officially recommended Level 0 data level processing software, SeaDAS, is maintained and developed by the Ocean Biology Processing Group, NASA GSFC • Calibration lookup tables provided by the MODIS Science team have not been updated in IMAPP since Dec 2004 • ACRES will be migrating this software to the MODIS processing platform in the next few months.

7. APPLICATIONS • Hot Spot detection systems, similar to the Sentinel system, are the major applications of international DB facilities • Spain & Brazil have added bushfire modelling and alert systems to there hot spot mapping services • Ocean sediment and biological activity – MODIS data much easier to access than MERIS and comparable imagery • Statistical analysis of hot spot false alarms and improved destriping algorithms • Snow cover mapping as an input into hydrological modelling

8. APPLICATIONS • Monitoring the trends in vegetation response to changes in environmental conditions, rainfall events, woody weeds - MODIS products are being generated and customised for local applications

9. Visualization AniS A highly customizable Java applet that can be used for display of images in loops, overlays, portals, or any combination of this. McIDAS Man computer Interactive Data Access System for visualization and manipulation of atmospheric data McIDAS-Lite Free version of McIDAS. OpenADDE OpenADDE (Open Abstract Data Distribution Environment) is a remote data access protocol originally developed for geolocated data that communicates requests from client applications to servers, which then return data objects back to the client. QuizImage A package that allows you to set up quizzes or "roll over" discoveries for features in images. Multiple images, sound clips and external links are provided. SSEC Desktop Ingestor (SDI) Hardware and software system to ingest weather data from satellite broadcast. Vis5D / Cave5D System for interactive visualization of large 5-D gridded data sets VisAD Java system for visualizing, collaborating and interactively steering scientific computations. VISITview Java based software for Internet interactive training and collaboration

10. NPP Mission • Managed by the Integrated Program Office (IPO) - Dept Defence, Dept Commerce, (NOAA) & NASA • The NPOESS Preparatory Mission is scheduled for launch in March 2008 • NPP will carry 4 instruments including the VIIRS instrument that will acquire data with similar specifications to MODIS data. • NPP & NPOESS are operational missions • The NASA science teams will move from a product generation to a a processing algorithm support role • Uni Wisconsin have a contract with the NPP Integrated Program Office to develop Level 0 processing software

11. NPOESS Preparatory Project The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) is a joint NASA/IPO instrument risk reduction project. It is designed to function as a bridge between the NASA EOS program and NPOESS for the development of the following sensors: Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Its mission is to demonstrate advanced technology for atmospheric sounding, giving continuing observations about global change after EOS-PM (Terra) and EOS-AM (Aqua). It supplies data on atmospheric and sea surface temperatures, humidity soundings, land and ocean biological productivity, and cloud and aerosol properties. .

13. NPOESS Product Usage

14. NPP SUPPORT TOOLS • The NPP In-Situ Ground System (NISGS) is an Element of the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) • NISGS directly supports the Technology Insertion and NPOESS Risk Reduction objectives: • Provides technology insertion for NPOESS, which will assure that the NPOESS High Rate Data (HRD) design will be readily usable for Field Terminal users. • Enables the user community to readily transition from existing POES/Terra/Aqua DB data to NPP and NPOESS HRD data. • Emphasis on modularity for freedom of choice

15. NISGS Deliverables • Direct Broadcast Science Data Record (SDR) Algorithms for all NPP Instruments • Standalone with common interface • Technology Tools to enable ingest, pre-processing and real-time monitoring of any Direct Broadcast Data Record (xDR) • Provide version 1.0 of deliverables 1 yr prior to launch

16. VIIRS Sensor Bands

17. Comparison of MODIS & VIIRS Bands

18. MODIS/AVHRR/VIIRS Comparison 1200 1000 800 Spatial resolution (m) 600 400 200 0 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 Wavelength (nm)

20. REFERENCE DOCUMENTS • Manuals • NPP Spacecraft High Rate Data (HRD) Radio Frequency (RF) Interface Control Document (ICD) to the Direct Broadcast Stations, GSFC 429-03-02-24, May 10, 2004 (PDF) • Interface Requirements Document (IRD) for NPP Mission System to Direct Broadcast Users Interface, GSFC 429-01-02-19, December 3, 2001 (PDF) • "EOS PM-1 SPACECRAFT TO EOS GROUND SYSTEM INTERFACE CONTROL DOCUMENT", EOS PM PROJECT, GSFC 422-11-19-03, March 2002, Revision A (PDF) • "INTERFACE DESCRIPTION DOCUMENT FOR EOS AQUA X-BAND DIRECT BROADCAST", EOS Aqua Project, GSFC 422-11-19-11, June 2002 (PDF) • "Interface Description Document for EOS-PM1 X-band Direct Broadcast", TRW Communications Subsystem Manager, CDRL 2208, December 1998 draft (PDF) • Earth Observing System (EOS) Common Spacecraft Program Interface Control Document between the EOS PM-1 Spacecraft and the EOS Ground System", TRW system engineer, Document number 22262, October 1998 (PDF) • White Papers • "The Earth Observing System Direct Broadcast System", J.C. Dodge, Earth Observation Magazine (EOM), submitted March 1999 • "The Direct Broadcast Service on Office of Earth Science Satellites", C.D. Wende and J.C. Dodge, NASA-HQ, late-1998 draft (PDF) • "What is Spectrum (Frequency) Management, and Why Should We Care? A Tutorial from a NASA Office of Earth Science Perspective", C. Wende, NASA-HQ, August 1998 draft (1 MByte PDF).[If this composite PDF document does not display or print properly, then download each of the 10 parts: part 0, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9.]