Patrick Coronado of CISTO
traveled to Benevento, Italy, October 3-6 to chair
the International Earth Observing System (EOS)/National
Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite
System (NPOESS)/Preparatory Project (NPP) Direct Readout
Meeting 2005. Hosted by the Mediterranean Agency for
Remote Sensing and Environmental Control (MARSec),
the meeting was attended by 101 participants from 19
countries, with 54% of the participants representing
government agencies, 33% representing universities,
and 13% representing the vendor community.
Direct Readout
(DR) is the process of acquiring freely transmitted
live satellite data. As DR technologies have become
more affordable and accessible (such as with the
onset of the Internet), tools have been developed by
the remote sensing community to make satellite data
easier to acquire, process, and utilize. As a leading
member of this community, NASA supplies many of these
tools to foster global data exchange and scientific
collaboration. Live local and regional environmental
data, in turn, benefit environmental, commercial, and
public interest decision-making. DR data are increasingly
employed worldwide to better understand environmental
and meteorological events that affect, and at times
threaten, all of us. In the last two years the DR community
has made great strides in obtaining, developing, and
utilizing science algorithms for real-time and temporal
applications. At this year’s meeting, participants
presented and discussed the latest application algorithms
and systems and their impact on science, commerce, and
decision-making infrastructures. Participants also discussed
some of the numerous new DR tools, tutorials, and higher-level
data products that are now available online. |
 Image
above: Antenna tower at MARSec in Benevento,
Italy (Image credit: University of Wisconsin).
|
Topics included the following:
- The US Department of Agriculture Forest Service
supplies Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) fire products from Terra and Aqua to firefighters
to help determine resource allocation to fight wildfires
in Montana.
- Research in DR polar wind data is making it possible
for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
to factor polar wind into hurricane forecasts in real
time and improve hurricane track forecasting by 50
nautical miles.
- DR data are employed to detect fog in China to generate
road hazard alerts.
- Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the United Kingdom
makes MODIS ocean products available in real time to
guide research ships at sea and assists the local fishing
industry by detecting harmful algal blooms, locating
concentrations of phytoplankton, and monitoring water
quality.
- The University of Wisconsin supplies real-time tornado
tracking data to the National Weather Service and the
local media, and its freely distributed International
MODIS/Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) Processing
Package allows DR users to calibrate, geolocate, and
create environmental products from raw data.
All in all, there is a significant increase in data
distribution vehicles and sources, with spatial coverage
over 70% of our planet.
The last day of the meeting
was largely devoted to presentations on upcoming
continuity missions. Government agencies and corresponding
contractors detailed the planned transitions from
EOS to NPP and, ultimately, NPOESS. Highlights included
presentations on science objectives and transition
from MODIS to the Visible Infrared Imager/Radiometer
Suite and insights into the Cross-track Infrared
Sounder and the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder. Also presented were plans
for Sensor Data Record and algorithm wrapper developments
at Goddard Space Flight Center’s Direct Readout
Laboratory and discussions of how the DR community
can contribute to
NPOESS calibration and validation efforts.
http://dbmeeting.gsfc.nasa.gov
http://directreadout.gsfc.nasa.gov |
