Development of Sea Ice Data from Passive Microwave Satellite Data: Preliminary Lessons
Abstract
On 19 June 1987 the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program launched the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I), a passive microwave radiometer that provides near real-time data for operational use. A computer-based data management system installed at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) extracts polar SSM/I data and produces products suitable for immediate scientific use by the research community. This data processing and management system has been jointly developed by the NASA Ocean Data System (NODS) and NSIDC for NASA Polar Oceans Program. The premise behind this project is that data archiving, quality control, gridding, and distribution are cost-effective when managed at a central data management facility, and that such an effort provides data of interest, and in forms useful, to the polar remote sensing community and to scientists in cognate disciplines such as atmospheric and ocean sciences. The system design has changed from the initial 1984 online service concept to the 1990 model, distributing data on CD-ROM and relying on the expertise of individual investigators, and the computing resources of their home institutions, for data analysis. The evolution of the data processing and delivery system, the forces that have driven the changes, and a preliminary assessment of user response are presented in this paper.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADP007276
Entities
People
- C. S. Hanson
- R. L. Weaver
- V. J. Troisi
Organizations
- University of Colorado Boulder