An Epic View with NASA's Worldview

In an ever-changing world, having a global view is extremely important.  NASA has developed several website/tools where you can view and download up-to-date global remote sensing data.  NASA's Worldview is one of them.  If you are looking for a quick example of its practical value, take a look at last fall's forest fires in the western U.S.

 "Most of the 100+ available products are updated within three hours of observation, essentially showing the entire Earth as it looks 'right now'. This supports time-critical application areas such as wildfire management, air quality measurements, and flood monitoring."- NASA Worldview Website

Of note, browsing on a tablet or smartphone is supported.  There is a layered slider for time, so users can choose the year, month, and day. Selecting dates in some websites can be painful.  However, this slider is intuitive, quick, and easy to use--much more so than those pesky calendar pages some users are forced to navigate.  Users also have several base maps to choose from in addition to the rest of the layers.  There is a great "About" page and brief "Tour" available.

Global Land Surface Temperatures/Day from MODIS, 17 July 2013

A few basic social features are built-in.  The website has buttons for saving links to certain views and taking screenshots.  There are lot of different instruments and views but everything is well-labeled. A few different band combinations can be selected with one-click for easy viewing.  This is especially important for looking at vegetation and agriculture, for example. 

You can also check out recent scenes from Landsat 7 at: http://earthnow.usgs.gov/ or Landsat 8 at: http://landsatlook.usgs.gov/.  If you are interested in NASA's open data policies, a quick overview can be found at: http://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/earth-science-data/data-information-policy/

Opticks Update in October

Earlier, I wrote a little about Opticks, an open source image analysis program.  It also features python extensions for added capabilities and programmability.  The Opticks team is headed towards another release--in October.  The timeline for releases is always well laid out, as well as what has been changed, updated, or improved.  Unlike many other open source programs, new Opticks versions are released several time per year.  Opticks also has a great file importer especially since there are numerous file types out there.  So, be sure to check out Opticks!

Screenshot of Opticks - Showing the Data Importer (Click image for a larger version)

Remote Sensing and GIS That Are Out of This World!

Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona "Serpent Dust Devil of Mars"

It is easy to forget a lot of remote and direct sensing, GIS and GPS work, and measurements are not even done on Earth.  Of course, I am referring to NASA's Curiosity Rover that touched down this week and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) which has been in orbit for several years.  These are following in the footsteps of other great rovers and spacecraft that have successfully made the voyage.  However, I feel like the MRO is a bit neglected...

The MRO carries a host of sensors and instruments to map and image Mars including, A high-resolution camera in visible wavelengths (HiRISE), a wide area view camera, a weather imager in five visible and two ultraviolet bands (MARCI), an infrared spectrometer looking for signs of water, mineral deposits, etc., a radiometer, and a radar (SHARAD).

The scientific value of these instruments is beyond measure. NASA is probably one of the best agencies at making data and images available publically...Here are some neat open source resources related to this endeavour!

• Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/index.cfm?ShowLandingPage=No
• Storm Chasing on Mars Video: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/media/clips/mrotwister20120319-1280.mov
• Mars Weather Report: http://www.msss.com/msss_images/latest_weather.html
• Recent HiRISE images: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/katalogos.php
• Older Images: http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/HiRISE/hirise_images/
• Curiousity Rover: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/
• Great article by the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19186237

Open Source Image Analysis Software

One area of open source GIS that needs more software is remote sensing, imagery, and its analysis and interpretation. There is an endless amount of environmetal data from remote sensing, which is free to access, but few free programs to view and analyze them.  I will briefly discuss two software programs here, and I will post additional information on them in the coming weeks.

The first is Opticks which is a great program!  It comes with the ability to add extensions for greater functionality from its community of develpers and users.   Specifically, the extensions help perform basic and complex tasks that expedite using satellite imagery.  It also comes with the ability to run Python scripts and a wizard builder (akin to Model Builder in ArcGIS).  More and continuous updates are planned for Opticks in the near future! 

The next is MultiSpec which is a lightweight program, in terms of size, but also has great functionality.  A new version was just released in late February.

In my coming posts, I will talk more about these exciting open-source software and what they can do!