Massive Data Set Analysis for NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder
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This paper describes a method for summaraizing data in a way that approximately preserves high-resolution data structure while reducing data volume and maintaining global integrity of very large, remote sensing data sets. The method is under development for one of Terra's instruments, the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR).
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This viewgraph presentation reviews the use of Image Tour to explore the multiangle, multispectral satellite imagery. Remote sensing data are spatial arrays of p-dimensional vectors where each component corresponds to one of p variables. Applying the same R(exp p) to R(exp d) projection to all pixels creates new images, which may be easier to analyze than the original because d < p. Image grand tour (IGT) steps through the space of projections, and d=3 outputs a sequence of RGB images, one for each step. In this talk, we apply IGT to multiangle, multispectral data from NASA's MISR instrument. MISR views each pixel in four spectral bands at nine view angles. Multiple views detect photon scattering in different directions and are indicative of physical properties of the scene. IGT allows us to explore MISR's data structure while maintaining spatial context; a key requirement for physical interpretation. We report results highlighting the uniqueness of multiangle data and how IGT can exploit it.
In previous papers we've shown how a well known data compression algorithm called Entropy-constrained Vector Quantization ( can be modified to reduce the size and complexity of very large, satellite data sets. In this paper, we descuss how to visualize and understand the content of such reduced data sets.
The research environment faced by space and atmospheric scientists in the 1990s is characterized by unprecedented volumes of new data, by ever-increasing repositories of unexploited mission files, and by the widespread use of empirical and large-scale computational models needed for the synthesis of understanding across data sets and discipline boundaries. The effective analysis and interpretation of such massive amounts of information have become the subjects of legitimate concern. With SAVS (a Space and Atmospheric Visualization Science System), we address these issues by creating a 'push-button' software environment that mimics the logical scientific processes in data acquisition, reduction, and analysis without requiring a detailed understanding of the methods, networks, and modules that link the tools and effectively execute the functions. SAVS provides (1) a customizable framework for accessing a powerful set of visualization tools based on the popular AVS visualization software with hooks to PV-Wave and access to Khoros modules, (2) a set of mathematical and statistical tools, (3) an extensible library of discipline-specific functions and models (e.g., MSIS, IRI, Feldstein Oval, IGRF, satellite tracking with CADRE-3, etc.), and (4) capabilities for local and remote data base access. The system treats scalar, vector, and image data, and runs on most common Unix workstations. We present a description of SAVS and its components, followed by several applications based on generic research interests in interplanetary and magnetospheric physics (IMP/ISTP), active experiments in space (CRRES), and mission planning focused on the Earth's thermospheric, ionospheric, and mesospheric domains (TIMED).
Objective: To develop a software application utilizing general purpose graphics processing units (GPUs) for the analysis of large sets of thermographic data. Background: Over the past few years, an increasing effort among scientists and engineers to utilize the GPU in a more general purpose fashion is allowing for supercomputer level results at individual workstations. As data sets grow, the methods to work them grow at an equal, and often great, pace. Certain common computations can take advantage of the massively parallel and optimized hardware constructs of the GPU to allow for throughput that was previously reserved for compute clusters. These common computations have high degrees of data parallelism, that is, they are the same computation applied to a large set of data where the result does not depend on other data elements. Signal (image) processing is one area were GPUs are being used to greatly increase the performance of certain algorithms and analysis techniques. Technical Methodology/Approach: Apply massively parallel algorithms and data structures to the specific analysis requirements presented when working with thermographic data sets.
At the San Diego Supercomputer Center, a massive data analysis system (MDAS) is being developed to support data-intensive applications that manipulate terabyte sized data sets. The objective is to support scientific application access to data whether it is located at a Web site, stored as an object in a database, and/or storage in an archival storage system. We are developing a suite of demonstration programs which illustrate how Web, database (DBMS), and archival storage (mass storage) technologies can be integrated. An application presentation interface is being designed that integrates data access to all of these sources. We have developed a data movement interface between the Illustra object-relational database and the NSL UniTree archival storage system running in a production mode at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. With this interface, an Illustra client can transparently access data on UniTree under the control of the Illustr DBMS server. The current implementation is based on the creation of a new DBMS storage manager class, and a set of library functions that allow the manipulation and migration of data stored as Illustra 'large objects'. We have extended this interface to allow a Web client application to control data movement between its local disk, the Web server, the DBMS Illustra server, and the UniTree mass storage environment. This paper describes some of the current approaches successfully integrating these technologies. This framework is measured against a representative sample of environmental data extracted from the San Diego Ba Environmental Data Repository. Practical lessons are drawn and critical research areas are highlighted.
Impervious surfaces, mainly artificial structures and roads, cover less than 1% of the world's land surface (1.3% over USA). Regardless of the relatively small coverage, impervious surfaces have a significant impact on the environment. They are the main source of the urban heat island effect, and affect not only the energy balance, but also hydrology and carbon cycling, and both land and aquatic ecosystem services. In the last several decades, the pace of converting natural land surface to impervious surfaces has increased. Quantitatively monitoring the growth of impervious surface expansion and associated urbanization has become a priority topic across both the physical and social sciences. The recent availability of consistent, global scale data sets at 30m resolution such as the Global Land Survey from the Landsat satellites provides an unprecedented opportunity to map global impervious cover and urbanization at this resolution for the first time, with unprecedented detail and accuracy. Moreover, the spatial resolution of Landsat is absolutely essential to accurately resolve urban targets such a buildings, roads and parking lots. With long term GLS data now available for the 1975, 1990, 2000, 2005 and 2010 time periods, the land cover/use changes due to urbanization can now be quantified at this spatial scale as well. In the Global Land Survey - Imperviousness Mapping Project (GLS-IMP), we are producing the first global 30 m spatial resolution impervious cover data set. We have processed the GLS 2010 data set to surface reflectance (8500+ TM and ETM+ scenes) and are using a supervised classification method using a regression tree to produce continental scale impervious cover data sets. A very large set of accurate training samples is the key to the supervised classifications and is being derived through the interpretation of high spatial resolution (approx. 2 m or less) commercial satellite data (Quickbird and Worldview2) available to us through the unclassified archive of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA). For each continental area several million training pixels are derived by analysts using image segmentation algorithms and tools and then aggregated to the 30m resolution of Landsat. Here we will discuss the production/testing of this massive data set for Europe, North and South America and Africa, including assessments of the 2010 surface reflectance data. This type of analysis is only possible because of the availability of long term 30m data sets from GLS and shows much promise for integration of Landsat 8 data in the future.
Research in the third and final year of this project is divided into three main areas: (1) completion of data processing and calibration for 34 of the 1981 Region B/C images, selected from the massive JPL sodium cloud data set; (2) identification and examination of the basic features and observed changes in the morphological characteristics of the sodium cloud images; and (3) successful physical interpretation of these basic features and observed changes using the highly developed numerical sodium cloud model at AER. The modeling analysis has led to a number of definite conclusions regarding the local structure of Io's atmosphere, the gas escape mechanism at Io, and the presence of an east-west electric field and a System III longitudinal asymmetry in the plasma torus. Large scale stability, as well as some smaller scale time variability for both the sodium cloud and the structure of the plasma torus over a several year time period are also discussed.
We have designed and implemented a set of highly efficient and highly scalable algorithms for an unstructured computational package, the PSAS data assimilation package, as demonstrated by detailed performance analysis of systematic runs on up to 512-nodes of an Intel Paragon. The preconditioned Conjugate Gradient solver achieves a sustained 18 Gflops performance. Consequently, we achieve an unprecedented 100-fold reduction in time to solution on the Intel Paragon over a single head of a Cray C90. This not only exceeds the daily performance requirement of the Data Assimilation Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, but also makes it possible to explore much larger and challenging data assimilation problems which are unthinkable on a traditional computer platform such as the Cray C90.
A fiber Bragg grating is a portion of a core of a fiber optic stand that has been treated to affect the way light travels through the strand. Light within a certain narrow range of wavelengths will be reflected along the fiber by the grating, while light outside that range will pass through the grating mostly undisturbed. Since the range of wavelengths that can penetrate the grating depends on the grating itself as well as temperature and mechanical strain, fiber Bragg gratings can be used as temperature and strain sensors. This capability, along with the light-weight nature of the fiber optic strands in which the gratings reside, make fiber optic sensors an ideal candidate for flight testing and monitoring in which temperature and wing strain are factors. A team of NASA Dryden engineers has been working to advance the fiber optic sensor technology since the mid 1990 s. The team has been able to improve the dependability and sample rate of fiber optic sensor systems, making them more suitable for real-time wing shape and strain monitoring and capable of rivaling traditional strain gauge sensors in accuracy. The sensor system was recently tested on the Ikhana unmanned aircraft and will be used on the Global Observer unmanned aircraft. Since a fiber Bragg grating sensor can be placed every halfinch on each optic fiber, and since fibers of approximately 40 feet in length each are to be used on the Global Observer, each of these fibers will have approximately 1,000 sensors. A total of 32 fibers are to be placed on the Global Observer aircraft, to be sampled at a rate of about 50 Hz, meaning about 1.6 million data points will be taken every second. The fiber optic sensors system is capable of producing massive amounts of potentially useful data; however, methods to capture, record, and analyze all of this data in a way that makes the information useful to flight test engineers are currently limited. The purpose of this project is to research the availability of software capable of processing massive amounts of data in both real-time and post-flight settings, and to produce software segments that can be integrated to assist in the task as well. The selected software must be able to: (1) process massive amounts of data (up to 4GB) at a speed useful in a real-time settings (small fractions of a second); (2) process data in post-flight settings to allow test reproduction or further data analysis, inclusive; (3) produce, or make easier to produce, three-dimensional plots/graphs to make the data accessible to flight test engineers; and (4) be customized to allow users to use their own processing formulas or functions and display the data in formats they prefer. Several software programs were evaluated to determine their utility in completing the research objectives. These programs include: OriginLab, Graphis, 3D Grapher, Visualization Sciences Group (VSG) Avizo Wind, Interactive Analysis and Display System (IADS), SigmaPlot, and MATLAB.
Progress and achievements in the first year are discussed in three main areas: (1) review and assessment of the massive JPL Table Mountain Io sodium cloud data set, (2) formulation and execution of a plan to perform further processing of this data set, and (3) initiation of modeling activities. The complete 1976-79 and 1981 data sets are reviewed. Particular emphasis is placed on the superior 1981 Region B/C images which provide a rich base of information for studying the structure and escape of gases from Io as well as possible east-west and magnetic longitudinal asymmetries in the plasma torus. A data processing plan is developed and is undertaken by the Multimission Image Processing Laboratory of JPL for the purpose of providing a more refined and complete data set for our modeling studies in the second year. Modeling priorities are formulated and initial progress in achieving these goals is reported.
Objective Develop a software application utilizing high performance computing techniques, including general purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs), for the analysis and visualization of large thermographic data sets. Over the past several years, an increasing effort among scientists and engineers to utilize graphics processing units (GPUs) in a more general purpose fashion is allowing for previously unobtainable levels of computation by individual workstations. As data sets grow, the methods to work them grow at an equal, and often greater, pace. Certain common computations can take advantage of the massively parallel and optimized hardware constructs of the GPU which yield significant increases in performance. These common computations have high degrees of data parallelism, that is, they are the same computation applied to a large set of data where the result does not depend on other data elements. Image processing is one area were GPUs are being used to greatly increase the performance of certain analysis and visualization techniques.
Objective: To develop a software application utilizing general purpose graphics processing units (GPUs) for the analysis of large sets of thermographic data. Background: Over the past few years, an increasing effort among scientists and engineers to utilize the GPU in a more general purpose fashion is allowing for supercomputer level results at individual workstations. As data sets grow, the methods to work them grow at an equal, and often greater, pace. Certain common computations can take advantage of the massively parallel and optimized hardware constructs of the GPU to allow for throughput that was previously reserved for compute clusters. These common computations have high degrees of data parallelism, that is, they are the same computation applied to a large set of data where the result does not depend on other data elements. Signal (image) processing is one area were GPUs are being used to greatly increase the performance of certain algorithms and analysis techniques.
Work included the analysis of the HRJ observations of the Sombrero galaxy (Fabbiano and Juda) published in Ap.J. This paper discussed the discovery of a point-like x-ray source at the nucleus of the galaxy, which is suspected to host a massive black hole. More work was done on the analysis of the Observation of M94 in support of an AXAF proposal. We have also analyzed the M81 data by adding to our observation the entire set of the archival ROSAT data. We plan to write up the results for publication. Both galaxies have nuclei optically similar to that of the Sombrero galaxy. The nucleus of M81 is a known x-ray source. The M94 data has revealed a point-like nuclear source superposed on more diffuse emission.
We seek to combine high-resolution remotely sensed data with models and ground truth measurements, in the context of a Geographical Information System (GIS), integrated with specialized image processing software. We will use this integrated system to analyze the data from two Case Studies, one at a boreal forest site, the other a tropical forest site. We will assess the information content of the different components of the data, determine the optimum data combinations to study biogeophysical changes in the forest, assess the best way to visualize the results, and validate the models for the forest response to different radar wavelengths/polarizations. During the 1990's, unprecedented amounts of high-resolution images from space of the Earth's surface will become available to the applications scientist from the LANDSAT/TM series, European and Japanese ERS-1 satellites, RADARSAT and SIR-C missions. When the Earth Observation Systems (EOS) program is operational, the amount of data available for a particular site can only increase. The interdisciplinary scientist, seeking to use data from various sensors to study his site of interest, may be faced with massive difficulties in manipulating such large data sets, assessing their information content, determining the optimum combinations of data to study a particular parameter, visualizing his results and validating his model of the surface. The techniques to deal with these problems are also needed to support the analysis of data from NASA's current program of Multi-sensor Airborne Campaigns, which will also generate large volumes of data. In the Case Studies outlined in this proposal, we will have somewhat unique data sets. For the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest (Case 1) calibrated DC-8 SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) data and extensive ground truth measurement are already at our disposal. The data set shows documented evidence to temporal change. The Belize Forest Experiment (Case 2) will produce calibrated DC-8 SAR and AVIRIS data, together with extensive measurements on the tropical rain forest itself. The extreme range of these sites, one an Arctic forest, the other a tropical rain forest, has been deliberately chosen to find common problems which can lead to generalized observations and unique problems with data which raise issues for the EOS System.
We seek to combine high-resolution remotely sensed data with models and ground truth measurements, in the context of a Geographical Information System, integrated with specialized image processing software. We will use this integrated system to analyze the data from two Case Studies, one at a bore Al forest site, the other a tropical forest site. We will assess the information content of the different components of the data, determine the optimum data combinations to study biogeophysical changes in the forest, assess the best way to visualize the results, and validate the models for the forest response to different radar wavelengths/polarizations. During the 1990's, unprecedented amounts of high-resolution images from space of the Earth's surface will become available to the applications scientist from the LANDSAT/TM series, European and Japanese ERS-1 satellites, RADARSAT and SIR-C missions. When the Earth Observation Systems (EOS) program is operational, the amount of data available for a particular site can only increase. The interdisciplinary scientist, seeking to use data from various sensors to study his site of interest, may be faced with massive difficulties in manipulating such large data sets, assessing their information content, determining the optimum combinations of data to study a particular parameter, visualizing his results and validating his model of the surface. The techniques to deal with these problems are also needed to support the analysis of data from NASA's current program of Multi-sensor Airborne Campaigns, which will also generate large volumes of data. In the Case Studies outlined in this proposal, we will have somewhat unique data sets. For the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest (Case I) calibrated DC-8 SAR data and extensive ground truth measurement are already at our disposal. The data set shows documented evidence to temporal change. The Belize Forest Experiment (Case II) will produce calibrated DC-8 SAR and AVIRIS data, together with extensive measurements on the tropical rain forest itself. The extreme range of these sites, one an Arctic forest, the other a tropical rain forest, has been deliberately chosen to find common problems which can lead to generalized observations and unique problems with data which raise issues for the EOS System.