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NASA’s Land Atmosphere Near-real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) Usage and User Analysis: Creating a Better System that Meets User Needs Diane Davies1,2, Ryan Boller3 , Jeff Schmaltz2 , Kevin Murphy3, Shriram Ilavajhala2, Asad Ullah2 and Tilak Joshi4 1 - Trigg-Davies Consulting Ltd, 2- Sigma Space, 3- NASA / GSFC, 4- Columbus Technologies AGU session IN33C-1546 Abstract NASA’s Land Atmosphere Near-real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) provides access to near real-time (NRT) products from 4 instruments: AIRS (Aqua) and MLS (Aura), MODIS (Aqua and Terra) and OMI (Aura). LANCE leverages science processing expertise to create high quality NRT products with a maximum latency of 3 hours from observation. This poster describes known uses of LANCE data and imagery and summarizes findings from informal interviews with LANCE users, undertaken to better understand their needs. For more information on LANCE visit : http://earthdata.nasa.gov/lance LANCE Applications LANCE provides data and imagery to support a wide range of time-critical applications such monitoring and managing natural hazards and disasters such as fire, drought and floods, dust and smoke plumes as well as providing up to date sea ice conditions, and inputs for weather and aerosol forecasts and air quality measurements. Informal Interviews with Sample LANCE Users A sample of 25 users from 19 organizations were interviewed between September 2011 and Feb 2012 to better understand how LANCE data are being used and determine how LANCE could be improved to make it easier to use. The approach was to use standard questions in a semi-structured interview. Overall the consensus was very positive. Users found the NRT capability of LANCE reliable and of a good standard. Users accessing HDF files were very satisfied with the access and data latency . To help users navigate the large volume of global satellite observations, key application categories have been identified End users LANCE products are routinely used by direct users, who access data for their own purposes, and by brokers who add value to the data by combining it with other specialist knowledge and serve it to targeted end users. Direct users want data and/or imagery for a specific application or event e.g. a field campaign, or to study a specific event such as dust plumes or flood event. Direct users access data and imagery to study particular events such as these fires (shown in red) in Etosha National Park, Namibia. Source MODIS, Terra: 10 June 2012 Brokers pull products from LANCE, ingest them in to their own system, where they add value through data processing or by adding geospatial layers, before serving them to their clients. Screenshot of Worldview, which shows the entire Earth as it looked within the past few hours. The data is generally available within three hours of observation and can be compared to previous observations A large number of user-specified geo-referenced imagery subsets are available in GIS-compatible format from LANCE Rapid Response. One user commented “Subsets are invaluable…. don't underestimate need for subsets in poor bandwidth areas. These are incredibly useful” Request for More NRT Imagery Products Users accessing imagery were very satisfied with the service provided by Rapid Response and requested more similar products. • Imagery is useful for determining which data (HDF) files to download. • Low to full resolution browse is important; low resolution browse enables rapid assessment of a feature or area and high resolution imagery enable more detailed inspection. • Older imagery enables users to see how the situation has changed over time. • Users would like to be able to pull NRT products directly in to their own GIS clients / web mapping applications. Download HDF Data Approx 180 users access 1.5 TB per month Direct Users Brokers Worldview is a new tool from EOSDIS (Earth Observing System Data and Information System) that provides the capability to interactively browse full resolution imagery with country and administrative boundaries and population density data provided by the EOSDIS Socio-Economic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). NRT data can be compared to previous observations from past dates using the time slider. Arctic and Antarctic data of several products, in suitable polar projections, are also available. GIBS On the backend Worldview is supported by the Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), a new set of standard services provided by EOSDIS to deliver global, full-resolution satellite imagery in a highly responsive manner. GIBS enable interactive exploration of NASA's Earth imagery for a broad range of users. GIBS serve the imagery to any internet-enabled client. Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) FIRMS was integrated into LANCE in May 2012. FIRMS allows users to subscribe to near real time, daily and weekly fire email alerts for their area of interest. FIRMS provides MODIS fire data for viewing in Web Fire Mapper and for download in a variety of data formats. “NSF combine data from LANCE and Polarview to get ice conditions to the ships in Antarctica” Left: eMODIS NDVI product for East Africa. Produced by the USGS for FEWS-NET , using NRT data from LANCE Schematic showing breakdown of LANCE users Creating a better System User feedback has been shared with the LANCE development team and is being used to help shape ongoing developments. The most significant new development is Worldview and the Global Image Browse Services (GIBS) used to serve LANCE imagery. Over 50 LANCE products are now available through Worldview and GIBS. FIRMS approx 2000 fire alerts are sent daily LANCE Users Visible inspection for download LANCE Imagery > 50,000 visits per month Direct Users Brokers MODIS Bands 3,6,7 A Google Earth map of sea ice in the Antarctic on January 19, 2012. By combining information from MODIS Bands 3,6,7 it is possible to differentiate sea ice from clouds. Red indicate ice. Such information from LANCE is overlaid in Polarview, an earth observation portal that combines the latest satellite imagery for the poles. The data are routinely used to help ships safely plot their course through icy waters. Image credit: Paul Morin, Polar Geospatial Center URL: http://earthdata.nasa.gov/lance Contact: [email protected] Kevin Murphy - [email protected] Diane Davies – [email protected]