Distribution of MODIS Data at the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC

As a part of the NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) mission, the Terra satellite was launched in December 1999 to investigate global climate changes. One of the five instruments on Terra is the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The Goddard Earth Sciences Distributed Active Archive Center (GES DAAC) is responsible for ingesting, processing, archiving, and distribution of quality climate data derived from the MODIS. Currently the GES DAAC is distributing MODIS data at a rate of about 500 Gigabytes per day. Access to MODIS products archived at GES DAAC is through the Web-based Hierarchical Ordering Mechanism (WHOM) and the EOS Data Gateway (EDG). These tools are simple to use and allow users to search, browse and order MODIS data products. In addition to these tools subscription services are currently used by the MODIS Science Team for calibration and validation purposes. This presentation will seek to answer various questions users might have regarding MODIS data and various capabilities available to users to search and order data products. Future plans of the GES DAAC for distributing data in a more efficient and timely manner will be presented. One of the plans allows users a quick way of accessing data through the Data Pool which is a large on-line cache. Data available on the Data Pool can be reviewed for fast delivery. The Data Services associated with the Data Pool such as search metadata, browse, and subset will be discussed.