Ocean Color and Sea Surface Temperature Data from the NASA GES DAAC: From Heritage to Heuristics

The Goddard Earth Sciences Distributed Archive Center (GES DAAC) has been archiving ocean color data, and distributing this data to science and application users, for nearly a decade. The GES DAAC maintains historical data sets from the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) and Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (OCTS), and active mission data sets from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) and two Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) sensors onboard the Terra and Aqua satellites. The GES DAAC therefore provides the user community the immense benefits of multi-year, multi-sensor global observations of oceanic biological and physical processes. As an example, for the first time, MODIS acquires global, simultaneous ocean color and sea surface temperature (SST) data with 1-km resolution. As remote-sensing missions evolve in terms of data quality and content, the complexity of the data product suite increases. The number of science products is expanding as a result of more sophisticated sensors and new science algorithms. Thus, the GES DAAC faces several challenges: navigating users through multiple ocean data collections, providing tools to visualize data and to reduce the volume of superfluous data acquired by users, and also to provide uninterrupted distribution of data. This presentation attempts to interweave the CZCS, SeaWiFS, and MODIS ocean data archives. CZCS and SeaWiFS ocean color products will be described in parallel with MODIS, with an emphasis on the heritage of science products. The advantages of concurrent MODIS ocean color and SST data are described, as well as current drawbacks and uncertainties. The intention of this presentation is to prepare users for the next generation of ocean remote sensing missions, provide starting points for data and tools information, and to aid in gaining expertise in science data formats and applications.