USGS Earth Explorer Client for Co-Discovery of Aerial and Satellite Data
Abstract
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation Science (EROS) Center is home to one of the largest civilian collections of images of the Earth's surface. These images are collected from recent satellite platforms such as the Landsat, Terra, Aqua and Earth Observer-1, historical airborne systems such as digital cameras and side-looking radar, and digitized historical aerial photography dating to the 1930's. The aircraft scanners include instruments such as the Advanced Solid State Array Spectrometer (ASAS). Also archived at EROS are specialized collections of aerial images, such as high-resolution orthoimagery, extensive collections over Antarctica, and historical airborne campaigns such as the National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) and the National High Altitude Photography (NHAP) collections. These collections, as well as digital map data, declassified historical space-based photography, and variety of collections such as the Global Land Survey 2000 (GLS2000) and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) are accessible through the USGS Earth Explorer (EE) client. EE allows for the visual discovery and browse of diverse datasets simultaneously, permitting the co-discovery and selection refinement of both satellite and aircraft imagery. The client, in use for many years was redesigned in 2010 to support requirements for next generation Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) data access and distribution. The redesigned EE is now supported by standards-based, open source infrastructure. EE gives users the capability to search 189 datasets through one interface, including over 8.4 million frames of aerial imagery. Since April 2011, NASA datasets archived at the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) including the MODIS land data products and ASTER Level-1B data products over the U.S. and Territories were made available via the EE client enabling users to co-discover aerial data archived at the USGS EROS along with USGS satellite datasets such as Landsat and the NASA LP DAAC datasets. Recent EE client enhancements demonstrate how USGS EROS is working to continually improve and evolve its data discovery and access systems with new features and additional archived data. This poster presents some of the challenges of managing aerial collections; including digitalization of non-digital archives, co-discovery and browse with other forms of Earth science data, and historic metadata accuracy assessment and reconstruction.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFMIN51B1584L
- Keywords:
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- 1912 INFORMATICS / Data management;
- preservation;
- rescue;
- 1999 INFORMATICS / General or miscellaneous