Terra data fusion at scale for improved Earth science products and knowledge: from Terra Level 1 data fusion to observed decadal changes over the globe

Terra is the flagship of NASA's Earth Observing System. Launched in 1999, Terra's five instruments continue to gather data that enable scientists to address fundamental Earth science questions. By design, the strength of the Terra mission has always been rooted in its five instruments and the ability to fuse the instrument data together for obtaining greater quality of information for Earth Science compared to individual instruments alone. As the data volume grows and the central Earth Science questions move towards problems requiring decadal-scale data records, the need for data fusion and the ability for scientists to perform large-scale analytics with long records have never been greater. The challenge is particularly acute for Terra, given its growing volume of data (> 1 petabyte), the storage of different instrument data at different archive centers, the different file formats and projection systems employed for different instrument data, and the inadequate cyberinfrastructure for scientists to access and process whole-mission fusion data (including Level 1 data). Sharing newly derived Terra products with the rest of the world also poses challenges.

Here, we review the successes of the Terra Data Fusion Products Team in generating solutions to these problems, including the generation of a Terra Level 1 fusion product for the mission, easy access and processing of mission-scale Terra data on the cloud, and open source data fusion tools. We will highlight decadal changes over the globe observed from the Terra Level 1 data, the impact of early-mission equator-crossing-time drift and radiometric stability in interpreting these changes, and improved knowledge of cloud properties gained through Terra data fusion. Applications of Terra Level 1 data to various cinematic productions will also be highlighted.