MY NASA DATA Products and Parameters

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Products and Parameters
The data in MY NASA DATA comes from several different sources: satellite instruments, satellites, and research programs. Because the data are from the satellite era, the earliest date from 1984. (The first artificial satellite was launched in 1957, but it took some time for standard data products to be developed. Many early satellites used film, which had to be returned to the ground and developed into pictures. We do not have access to these.) Some products are available for quite recent times, but many lag behind by several years due to the intense work required to process them. The data sources are explained below.
Sources: Aqua: the Aqua spacecraft, second in NASA's Earth Observing System, is a spacecraft which carries 6 instruments in Earth orbit. So far, the MY NASA DATA site includes data only from the CERES instrument (whose products incorporate data from the MODIS imager). The other instruments are sounders, which look at the profile of the atmosphere from the ground up; and a microwave radiometer. Aqua was launched in May 2002, and is part of the A-train.
Aura: the Aura spacecraft, third in NASA's Earth Observing System, is also part of the A-train and carries 4 instruments that focus on the chemistry of Earth's atmosphere. Our LAS contains data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) which takes profiles of ozone, aerosols and other air quality parameters.
AVHRR: the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer. This is the primary instrument - an imager- on the NOAA polar orbiting weather satellites. It provides visible and infrared pictures that can monitor clouds and weather fronts. Polar orbiter weather satellites typically see an area once during the day and once at night. This information may be used in TV weather reports, but more often those use instruments on the geostationary weather satellites, as these stay over one spot and can provide images as often as every 15 minutes. The first AVHRR was launched in 1978. More information.
CERES: the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System instrument. This is an instrument that provides very high quality measurements of the Earth's Radiation Budget, including both longwave (Earth emitted) and shortwave (Earth reflected) radiation. There are 5 CERES instruments currently in Earth orbit, although not all are functional. The first was launched on the TRMM spacecraft on Thanksgiving Day, 1997, from Japan (on a Japanese rocket). It began experiencing electrical problems in Aug/Sep. 1998 and was turned off. It was turned on again when the Terra spacecraft was launched, and provided one more month of data in March 2000 before failing completely. Two CERES instruments are on Terra, launched in December 1999. An additional two are on Aqua, launched in May, 2002. CERES is an improved follow-on to the ERBE instrument.
CMAP: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Diagnostics Center (CDC) Climate Merged Analysis of Precipitation. The data contains monthly averaged precipitation rate values (mm/day). The values are obtained from five kinds of satellite estimates (GPI, OPI, SSM/I scattering, SSM/I emission and MSU). The enhanced file also includes blended NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis Precipitation values.
ERBE/ERBS: the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment/Spacecraft includes two Earth Radiation budget instruments, one scanning, and one non-scanning. Both measure shortwave and longwave radiation. ERBE is the predecessor of the CERES instrument. ERBS was launched from the Space Shuttle in 1984. Some of the instruments are still functioning, although the data have not yet been processed past 1999 due to an alignment issue. The non-scanner instrument is no longer pointing straight down at the Earth.
GRACE: the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment. GRACE twin satellites, launched 17 March 2002, are making detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field to conduct investigations about Earth's water reservoirs. GRACE is observing changes due to surface and deep currents in the ocean, runoff and ground water storage on land masses, exchanges between ice sheets or glaciers and the oceans, and variations of mass within the Earth.
ISCCP: the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project. This is a long-running research program that analyzes polar and geostationary weather satellite data to provide consistent information about clouds. Data are collected from the suite of weather satellites operated by several nations and processed by several groups in government agencies, laboratories, and universities. The program began in 1982 and continues today.
MCSST: the Multi-Channel Sea Surface Temperature is derived from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) - Polar Orbiting Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) using an algorithm developed by the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO). This product is interpolated weekly at near real-time.
MISR: the Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer. MISR is an instrument on the Terra spacecraft, launched in 1999. This is a unique instrument with cameras (imagers) at nine angles looking forward, straight down, and backward from the satellite. The different views make certain features of the Earth system pop out, such as smoke plumes, dust and thin clouds, and also provide some information about the altitude of the cloud top.
MOPITT: Measurements of Pollution in The Troposphere. MOPITT is an instrument on the Terra spacecraft, launched in 1999. The instrument was constructed in Canada and funded by the Canadian Space Agency. It measures how air pollution is distributed around the Earth. In particular it measures the concentrations of methane (CH4) and carbon monoxide (CO). Only the CO product has been released so far.
NOAA: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. From daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring to fisheries management, coastal restoration and marine commerce support, NOAA is a federal government agency formed to provide operational, real-time information to citizens, planners, emergency managers and other decision makers. NOAA also provides MY NASA DATA with monthly averages and climatologies of global ocean winds from satellites and models.
SeaWiFS: the the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor Project. SeaWiFS provides quantitative data on global ocean bio-optical properties. Subtle changes in ocean color represent various types and quantities of marine phytoplankton. It is thought that marine plants remove carbon from the atmosphere at a rate equivalent to terrestrial plants, but knowledge of interannual variability is needed. SeaWiFS has been collecting data since 1997.
SRB: the Surface Radiation Budget project. SRB is a research program that uses satellite data and models to infer the Radiation Budget at the surface of the Earth. The latest version of the SRB processing provides more than 20 years of historical data on this important Earth System topic.
Terra: the Terra Spacecraft, the flagship of NASA's Earth Observing System. Terra is a spacecraft, the flagship of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS), which carries 5 instruments in Earth orbit. The MY NASA DATA site includes data from three of these instruments: CERES, MISR and MOPITT. The CERES data products also include data from the MODIS imager. The fifth instrument, ASTER, is a high resolution imager which provides detailed views (15 to 90 m resolution) for about 8 minutes of the ~90 minute orbit. It is used primarily for detailed land process studies. You can find some ASTER imagery on the NASA Visible Earth website.
TOPEX/Poseidon: Launched in 1992, TOPEX/Poseidon was a joint satellite mission between NASA and CNES, the French space agency, to map sea surface topography. TOPEX/Poseidon helped revolutionize oceanography by proving the value of satellite ocean observations. For the first time, the seasonal cycle and other temporal variabilities of the ocean were determined globally with high accuracy. The mission's most important achievement was to determine the patterns of ocean circulation - how heat stored in the ocean moves from one place to another. Since the ocean holds most of the Earth's heat from the Sun, ocean circulation is a driving force of climate. The satellite stopped taking data in 2006.
TOR: Tropospheric Ozone Residual. The TOR is a research technique that uses satellite data along with models to infer how much ozone is found in the Earth's troposphere. Most ozone is in the Earth's stratosphere, where it has the beneficial effect of protecting us from the Sun's harmful UV rays. In the troposphere, ozone is a pollutant which has negative effects on plants, and human health. TOR data are available in the LAS with a gap in the mid-1990's. A climatology (average year) is also available.
TRMM: the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission spacecraft was launched from Japan on Thanksgiving Day, 1997. It carries one CERES instrument, which stopped working in March 2000. Other instruments, such as the VIRS imager and Precipitation Radar, continue to function and provide very important information for studying hurricanes. So far, the MY NASA DATA site includes only CERES data from TRMM.
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