Earth Science Satellite Remote Sensing Data from the EOS Data and Information System

Abstract

The Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), NASA’s largest and most complex data system, was developed and is being operated by the Earth Sciences Data and Information System project (ESDIS) at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. It was conceived in the late 1980s for ground-based spacecraft operations, and for collection, processing, archiving, and distribution of Earth science data, with a focus on the EOS missions (Fig. 2.1). The development of EOSDIS started in the early 1990’s along with the beginning of the EOS program. An initial version of EOSDIS (called Version 0 and used to manage non-EOS, legacy datasets) grew to operational status in 1994. The version of EOSDIS supporting EOS missions became operational in incremental steps—first in 1997 supporting EOS instruments on TRMM, next in 1999 supporting Landsat-7 and Terra, and subsequently, the other EOS missions. For this discussion, focusing on the data themselves, the pertinent components of the EOSDIS include the EOSDIS Core System (ECS), the Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs), the Science Computing Facilities (SCFs, funded separately from the ESDIS Project), the Science Investigator-led Processing Systems (SIPS), and the various data access interfaces (Fig. 2.2). There are eight DAACs, each with expertise in one or more specific disciplines in Earth science, which archive and distribute EOS data (Table 2.1). The Land Processes Distributed Archive Center (LP DAAC) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for example, specializes in land imagery.