MEASURES

The Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC DAAC), a NASA Earth science data center managed by the University of Alabama in Huntsville, is pleased to announce the release of the version 7 SSMI/SSMIS F08, F10, F11, F13, F14, F15, F16, F17 Ocean Product Suite from Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) in netCDF (v4) format. These data are generated by the Distributed Information Services for Climate and Ocean Products and Visualizations for Earth Research project, (DISCOVER), PI Frank Wentz, as part of the NASA Making Earth Science Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) Program. The RSS Ocean Product Suite includes the following data products for the SSMI/SSMIS instruments on the DMSP F08, F10, F11, F13, F14, F15, F16, F17 polar orbiting satellites: RSS SSM/I Ocean Products Grids Daily RSS SSM/I Ocean Products Grids 3-Day Average RSS SSM/I Ocean Products Grids Weekly Average RSS SSM/I Ocean Products Grids Monthly Average Detailed information for these datasets is available in the SSMI and SSMIS netCDF Data Products document. These data sets can be ordered from the GHRC using the Hydrologic Data search, Retrieval, and Order system (HyDRO) at http://ghrc.nsstc.nasa.gov/hydro/.

A new THREDDS data server, to supplement the OPeNDAP data server already in place, provides improved usability such as OGC-compliant web map services (WMS) to support interactive visualization requests, and a THREDDS catalog to help provide interoperability with other community tools and applications. Using THREDDS, WMS is able to produce an image for a specific time request into an aggregated dataset, i.e., treating a dataset as a single continuous entity without having to reference individual daily files. The new WMS capability for DISCOVER MEaSUREs SSMIS data is already being used in a UAH research project. The NSF-funded Northern Gulf Coastal Hazards Collaboratory is using the Event Driven Data Delivery (ED3) framework to support a visualization and situational awareness tool during storm events that affect the Northern Gulf Coast. The tool aggregates various datasets pertinent to the event using ED3. Datasets include real or near-real time observations, models and analyses of atmospheric conditions around the location of the event. Since SSMIS datasets provide information about various atmospheric conditions for the Gulf Coast, visualization of these datasets using Web Map Services will strengthen the capabilities of the tool.

Dr. Rahul Ramachandran (UAH/ITSC) represented GHRC at IGARSS in Melbourne, Australia 19-26 July. He presented “Provenance as a Guide to Understanding Science Data” in the invited session “Ensuring Credibility of Remote Sensing Data Products” convened by Drs. Hampapuram Ramapriyan and Curt Tilmes of NASA. Co-authors included Helen Conover, Michael Goodman and additional GHRC staff. Dr. Ramachandran’s other papers were “Visual Analytics Toolbox for Data-Intensive Analysis”; “Polaris: A Discovery Engine For Big Data” describing a tool prototyped at GHRC; and “Data Intensive Science In Action - A Demonstrative Use Case Using 20+ Years Of SSMI(S) Global Ocean Daily Composite Fields”, the RSS DISCOVER MEaSUREs dataset archived at GHRC.

The Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC) DAAC was featured at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) Week Of Welcome (WOW). Week of Welcome is a campus-wide set of programs and activities intended to welcome new and returning students back to campus. The event on August 19 highlighted student research opportunities at the university. UAH’s Information Technology and Systems Center (ITSC) booth showcased several projects, including GHRC's research collaboration with Remote Sensing Systems leading to develop a mountain gap winds climatology, funded by NASA's MEaSUREs program. GHRC brochures were also available at the booth. Student presenters included Shannon Flynn, who has worked on the development of the gap winds web application and has been assisting with GHRC web site improvements in search engine optimization and 508 compliance. GHRC is a joint venture between NASA MSFC's Earth Science Office and UAH's Information Technology and Systems Center.

The RSS Monthly 1-deg Microwave Total Precipitable Water netCDF guide describes the MEaSUREs product “Remote Sensing Systems Total Precipitable Water (TPW)”. This dataset is generated at Remote Sensing Systems, merging data from multiple satellite radiometers processed using RSS’s latest radiative transfer model, version-7. The dataset includes monthly files containing 1-degree gridded data for the monthly means of total precipitable water (total column water vapor), the anomalies for global mean precipitable water over Ice Free Oceans (60S to 60N) and the tropical mean for 20S to 20N. Also provided are a 20-year climatology file, and a cumulative file containing the cumulative linear trend in total precipitable water anomaly from 1988 to the current month. Satellite information used in calculating the means is included for the SSMI (8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15) and SSMIS (16, 17), AQUA10 and Windsat (Coriolis). The data are available in both netCDF-3 and netCDF-4.

Ken Keiser presented research performed by GHRC and Remote Sensing Systems for the DISCOVER (Distributed Information Services for Climate and Ocean Products and Visualizations for Earth Research) project, funded by the NASA/MEaSUREs program, at the Oceans 2014 MTS/IEEE Conference held in St Johns, Newfoundland, September 14-19, 2014. His presentation described the development of algorithms and processes that are able to automatically identify and catalog coastal mountain gap wind and associated coastal ocean upwelling events. A Regional Air-Sea Interaction (RASI) climatology of these events has been generated and will be made available to researchers and other users through the GHRC.

GHRC has published the Regional Air Sea Interactions (RASI) web site http://ghrc.nsstc.nasa.gov/rasi/, an interactive tool for investigating coastal mountain gap wind events and resulting sea surface temperature changes due to ocean upwelling. RASI provides remote access and browsing of a climatology of gap wind and coastal ocean upwelling events detected by an automated intelligent algorithm developed as part of the DISCOVER project, funded by the NASA MEaSUREs program.

GHRC has published a set of Regional Air Sea Interactions (RASI) climatology datasets containing coastal mountain gap wind events and resulting sea surface temperature changes due to ocean upwelling. These datasets were created using an automated intelligent algorithm, which identified gap wind and coastal ocean upwelling events using two satellite-based microwave datasets. The Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform (CCMP) ocean surface wind data product was used for wind data while the Optimally Interpolated Sea Surface Temperatures (OISST) data product provided by Remote Sensing Systems was used for sea surface temperatures. Data is available from 1998-2011 for three regions in Central America: Tehuantepec, Papagayo, and Panama. Users can explore these climatologies via the interactive online RASI application. The RASI algorithm, datasets and application were developed by RSS and the University of Alabama in Huntsville for the DISCOVER project, funded by the NASA MEaSUREs program.