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Thompson, Charles K.

Publications and source records attributed to Thompson, Charles K..

The Next Generation of NASA Rapid Response: Worldview Snapshots

The NASA Rapid Response system started in 2001 by serving static subsets of Near Real Time MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) imagery acquired from the Terra satellite. Over this time, Rapid Response has been used to support near real time applications such as wildfire and sea ice mapping for hundreds of thousands of users. In 2011, the toolset expanded to include GIBS, the Global Imagery Browse Services, which provides a web map tiling service of over 700 imagery products, and Worldview (https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/), an interactive web application that showcases the products available in GIBS. This year a new application, Worldview Snapshots, has been added to complete the toolset by providing a flexible, low bandwidth method to download personalized subsets for those who do not need or cannot use a fully featured web mapping application. The original Rapid Response subset tool has been retired and we thank it for its seventeen years of service. Stop by to learn more about the next generation of NASA Rapid Response.

Rapid response system

Global Swath and Gridded Data Tiling

This software generates cylindrically projected tiles of swath-based or gridded satellite data for the purpose of dynamically generating high-resolution global images covering various time periods, scaling ranges, and colors called "tiles." It reconstructs a global image given a set of tiles covering a particular time range, scaling values, and a color table. The program is configurable in terms of tile size, spatial resolution, format of input data, location of input data (local or distributed), number of processes run in parallel, and data conditioning.

Thompson, Charles K.

AIRS Maps from Space Processing Software

This software package processes Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) Level 2 swath standard product geophysical parameters, and generates global, colorized, annotated maps. It automatically generates daily and multi-day averaged colorized and annotated maps of various AIRS Level 2 swath geophysical parameters. It also generates AIRS input data sets for Eyes on Earth, Puffer-sphere, and Magic Planet. This program is tailored to AIRS Level 2 data products. It re-projects data into 1/4-degree grids that can be combined and averaged for any number of days. The software scales and colorizes global grids utilizing AIRS-specific color tables, and annotates images with title and color bar. This software can be tailored for use with other swath data products for the purposes of visualization.

Thompson, Charles K.

JMISR INteractive eXplorer

MISR (Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer) INteractive eXplorer (MINX) is an interactive visualization program that allows a user to digitize smoke, dust, or volcanic plumes in MISR multiangle images, and automatically retrieve height and wind profiles associated with those plumes. This innovation can perform 9-camera animations of MISR level-1 radiance images to study the 3D relationships of clouds and plumes. MINX also enables archiving MISR aerosol properties and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) fire radiative power along with the heights and winds. It can correct geometric misregistration between cameras by correlating off-nadir camera scenes with corresponding nadir scenes and then warping the images to minimize the misregistration offsets. Plots of BRF (bidirectional reflectance factor) vs. camera angle for points clicked in an image can be displayed. Users get rapid access to map views of MISR path and orbit locations and overflight dates, and past or future orbits can be identified that pass over a specified location at a specified time. Single-camera, level-1 radiance data at 1,100- or 275- meter resolution can be quickly displayed in color using a browse option. This software determines the heights and motion vectors of features above the terrain with greater precision and coverage than previous methods, based on an algorithm that takes wind direction into consideration. Human interpreters can precisely identify plumes and their extent, and wind direction. Overposting of MODIS thermal anomaly data aids in the identification of smoke plumes. The software has been used to preserve graphical and textural versions of the digitized data in a Web-based database.

Nelson, David L.

Processing of Mars Exploration Rover Imagery for Science and Operations Planning

The twin Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) delivered an unprecedented array of image sensors to the Mars surface. These cameras were essential for operations, science, and public engagement. The Multimission Image Processing Laboratory (MIPL) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was responsible for the first-order processing of all of the images returned by these cameras. This processing included reconstruction of the original images, systematic and ad hoc generation of a wide variety of products derived from those images, and delivery of the data to a variety of customers, within tight time constraints. A combination of automated and manual processes was developed to meet these requirements, with significant inheritance from prior missions. This paper describes the image products generated by MIPL for MER and the processes used to produce and deliver them.

Instruments

AIRS/AMSU/HSB on EOS Aqua: first year post launch assessment

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), and Humidity Sounder from Brazil (HSB) are three instruments onboard the Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua Spacecraft. This paper discusses the science objectives and the status of the instruments and their data products one year after launch

Strow, L. Larrabee