Satellite Needs Working Group Solutions

The Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG) surveys federal civilian agencies biennially to identify their high-priority Earth observation data needs. After receiving survey responses, NASA-led assessment teams collaborate with other satellite Earth science data providers NOAA and USGS to pinpoint solutions that could potentially resolve these data gaps. The implementation of SNWG solutions is overseen by the SNWG Management Office at NASA's Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team (IMPACT) and by other entities within NASA's Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program. Solutions from past SNWG survey cycles that are now operational are described below. Toggle the tabs above to view solutions that are currently in implementation and formulation.

Access to DESIS data

Background

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NASA CSDA provides U.S. Government access to the DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectroradiometer (DESIS), a hyperspectral remote sensor spanning 400-1000 nm and imaging from onboard the International Space Station. The unique orbit and highly detailed surface reflectance spectrum offers opportunities to test and develop new algorithms focused on land surface vegetation and water quality. 

Status

NASA continues to provide U.S. Government access to DESIS. Continued access to data from DESIS would be facilitated through renewal of an existing cooperative agreement with the data provider. The current ISS cooperative agreement with Teledyne Brown Engineering that provides data to the U.S. Government ends in February 2024. NASA and Teledyne Brown would need to renew this agreement to provide uninterrupted access to DESIS data across the U.S. Government. The renewed agreement would continue to provide U.S. Government scientific, non-commercial use of DESIS imagery with a resolution of 30 m, 1024 bands (at 400 km).

Societal Impact

Improved access to data products from commercial systems, reduced latency acquisitions, and improved derivation of new research and operational products will enable new opportunities for research and applications across thematic areas.

Thematic Areas

Disaster Response, Earth Surface and Interior, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Water and Energy Cycle

Relevant Link(s)

• Commercial Datasets available via NASA's CSDA program
• NASA evaluation of DESIS data

Characteristics

Satellite	Geographic Domain
DESIS-on-International Space Station	Global

Access to High-Resolution DEMs Derived from Commercial Data

Background

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Digital elevation models (DEMs) provide a high-resolution depiction of the land surface and are important to update in regions that change frequently. Volcanoes, geohazards, mining subsidence, and urban growth (plus more) all contribute to rapid changes in local topography. High-resolution DEMs have been requested in every SNWG Assessment Cycle because they provide fundamental topographic underpinning for the processes that each land monitoring agency track. Agencies in the 2020 Assessment cycle expressed the need to track changes in topography over time: dynamic topography. The proposed SNWG-2020 activity would produce and distribute two 2.0 m DEM products: a near-Global Mosaic Earth DEM and DEM strips where new data was acquired for detailed change detection. The Global Mosaic EarthDEM product would be updated annually when new data are acquired. The DEM strips are at locations where Worldview collected stereo imagery. The two data products would be made available to Government agencies as per the licensing agreement. 

Status

The NGA EOCL/NextView License allows NASA to distribute the Polar Geospatial Center 2-m EarthDEM products to U.S. Government funded researchers. EarthDEM products are available through NASA's CSDA Program to U.S. Federal employees, U.S. Federal contractors, and U.S. Government-funded researchers. This update provides access to the EarthDEM data. It does not generate the annual/global mosaics that were identified in the proposed SNWG-2020 activity. 

Societal Impact

Improved access to data products from commercial systems, reduced latency acquisitions, and improved derivation of new research and operational products will enable new opportunities for research and applications across thematic areas.

Thematic Areas

Disaster Response, Earth Surface and Interior, Land Cover and Land Use Change

Relevant Link(s)

• Commercial Datasets available via NASA's CSDA program
• EarthDEM

Characteristics

Parent Satellites	Temporal Frequency	Horizontal Resolution	Geographic Domain
Worldview-1, Worldview-2, Worldview-3, GeoEye-1, Planet Dove Classic	Varies	2 m, 4-5 m	Global

Airborne Data Management Group (ADMG)

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Background

ADMG was established within the Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team (IMPACT) to facilitate faster access to airborne and field campaign data through development of an ESD-wide approach to airborne data management and stewardship. ADMG works with Earth Venture Suborbital (EVS) teams, R&A research teams, and NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) to assist with communication and data transfer while also improving policies, procedures, and best practices to ensure quicker and more effective data archival and distribution to users. As EVS-3 projects are wrapping up, the increase in speed and efficiency of data transfer is evident.

Status

165 past and current campaigns have been identified of which 41 need to be placed at DAACs. ADMG is adding metadata for each campaign, platform, and instrument into a relational database for improved cross-DAAC discovery and understanding of NASA airborne and field data. The Catalog of Archived Suborbital Earth Science Investigations (CASEI) provides users with detailed contextual information and data product access for at least 60% of the campaigns with additional campaigns continuing to be added. 

Societal Impact

ADMG built and currently maintains NASA's Catalog of Archived Suborbital Earth Science Investigations (CASEI), a solution for search, browse, discovery, and the provision of contextual details critical for the re(use) of airborne and field campaign observations collected over a half century; this enables efficient findability, access, and increased scientific return on agency investments in these irreplaceable data as Earth's systems and processes undergo an era of substantial variability and change.

Thematic Areas

Atmospheric Composition, Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Earth Surface and Interior, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Ocean and Cryosphere, Water and Energy Cycle, Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics

Relevant Link(s)

CASEI

Broader Access to Planet Data

Background

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NASA’s Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition (CSDA) program provided NASA-affiliated scientists and funded research partners with access to imagery from several commercial observation platforms. These constellations of imagers have often provided higher spatial resolution imaging, and greater temporal resolution when clear sky conditions prevail. Improved access to data products from commercial systems through upgraded agreement(s), reduced latency acquisitions, and improved derivation of new research and operational products will enable new opportunities for research and applications. In 2021, CSDA licensing agreements expanded to broaden the applicability for scientific applications across the US Government. The status of the Commercial Data and End User License Agreements and how to access the data can be found on the Earthdata CSDA Commercial Datasets page.

Status

NASA CSDA continues to provide U.S. federal civil agencies, including National Science Foundation (NSF)-affiliated scientists and funded research partners access to Planet imagery through the current Expanded Planet End User License Agreement (EULA). This provides access for scientific, non-commercial use with a 30-day delay for PlanetScope and RapidEye. NASA does not intend to include SkySat. Planet will provide low-latency imagery with justifications, i.e., disaster response.

Societal Impact

Improved access to data products from commercial systems, reduced latency acquisitions, and improved derivation of new research and operational products would enable new opportunities for research across thematic areas. Planet high-resolution and stereo imagery have many applications including mapping trees and canopy elevation, monitoring land cover characteristics and change, infrastructure, and shoreline change.

Thematic Areas

Atmospheric Composition, Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Disaster Response, Earth Surface and Interior, Infrastructure Products/Other, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Ocean and Cryosphere, Water and Energy Cycle, Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics

Relevant Link(s)

• Commercial Datasets available via NASA's CSDA program
• NASA evaluation of Planet data

Characteristics

Satellites	Geographic Domain
PlanetScope, RapidEye	Global

Broader Access to Spire Data

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Background

GPS-Radio Occultation data (GPS-RO) were evaluated by NASA’s CSDA program and were found to provide value in a number of areas including data assimilation and numerical weather prediction. They also enhanced atmospheric temperature and moisture content vertical profiles when combined with hyperspectral sounder information. SNWG agencies requested access to GPS-RO data to further explore the value of GPS-RO data to meet their needs.

Status

NASA's CSDA continues to provide access to GNSS-Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) data through the current U.S. Government End User License Agreement (EULA). The license provides scientific, non-commercial use only with a 30-day delay for access to the Spire Earth Science and Heliophysics data catalog.

Societal Impact

Improved access to data products from commercial systems, reduced latency acquisitions, and improved derivation of new research and operational products will enable new opportunities for research and applications across thematic areas.

Thematic Areas

Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics

Relevant Link(s)

• Commercial Datasets available via NASA's CSDA program
• NASA evaluation of Spire data

Characteristics

Satellite	Geographic Domain
Spire	Global

Data Curation for Discovery

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Background

The Data Curation for Discovery (DCD) project focuses on design and implements a systematic plan to assist other agencies in incorporating NASA Earth observation data into their workflows. The DCD team improves the discoverability of NASA Earth science data and other curated Earth observation data in trusted catalogs and on platforms, such as data.gov and geoplatform.gov.

Status

To support the accurate publication of NASA Earth observations in these platforms, the DCD team routinely monitors and updates Data.gov’s climate collection and Geoplatform’s Resilience Community. Additionally, DCD creates a profile of agency needs captured through the federal-civil satellite needs survey conducted by USGEO SNWG. The team publicizes the outcomes of SNWG surveys through the SNWG Solutions interface. The DCD team also gathers training resources and workshop information for select SNWG solutions to address the training needs of users and support the Stakeholder Engagement Program (SEP).

Societal Impact

The DCD team maintains several web pages and data portals to ensure that SNWG data products and associated capacity-building resources are available to SNWG stakeholders and user communities.

Thematic Areas

Atmospheric Composition, Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Disaster Response, Earth Surface and Interior, Infrastructure Products/Other, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Ocean and Cryosphere, Water and Energy Cycle, Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics

Relevant Link(s)

DCD

Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS)

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Background

HLS is derived from re-projecting top-of-atmosphere reflectance from Landsat 8/9 and Sentinel-2 A/B onto a common grid, resulting in two surface reflectance products (L30=Landsat and S30=Sentinel-2, 30m products). Science-quality products for HLS v2.0, which include atmospheric compensation, look angle adjustment, and bandpass normalization, were released globally in August 2021.

Status

The L30 archive extends back to April 2013. The HLSS30 archive was completed on June 6, 2023, and extends back to December 2015. The products are generated as cloud optimized GeoTIFFs (COGs), with supporting tutorials offered by NASA's Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center  (LP DAAC). HLS also supports solutions from other SNWG cycles, including two Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) products (2018), HLS-VegIndex (2020), Low-Latency HLS (2022) and VLM (2022). Dynamic band combinations and calculations were recently released as a beta release in NASA Worldview allowing for customized visualizations of HLS data back to March 2022. See an example in NASA Worldview.

On the horizon

Sentinel-2C is scheduled to launch in spring 2024. The data are planned for inclusion into HLSS30 shortly after the system enters operational status (estimated late 2024).

Societal Impact

The HLS project enables global observations of the land every 2–3 days, which is pivotal for improved monitoring of land surface changes, disaster response, and agricultural management.​

Thematic Areas

Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Disaster Response, Earth Surface and Interior, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Water and Energy Cycle

Relevant Link(s)

• HLSL30
• HLSS30
• Training Resources
• HLS Product - SNWG Fact Sheet

Characteristics

Parent Satellites	Temporal Frequency	Horizontal Resolution	Geographic Domain	Latency	Spectral Band
Sentinel-2 A, Sentinel-2 B, Sentinel-2 C, Landsat 8, Landsat 9	2-3 days	30 m	Global	2-3 days	VIS, NIR, SWIR

NGA Product Support

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Background

NASA supports users requesting archived data as well as new acquisitions provided through NGA's NextView license. Per agreement with NGA, NASA researchers can only access certain datasets via the Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition (CSDA) program. Other agencies may still need to access data such as Maxar through NGA-provided interfaces. All users who request products via NASA's CSDA program are vetted to ensure they are legitimate and understand the license restrictions. NASA's commercial archive is being moved to the cloud. Specific information can be found on CSDA's website linked below.

Status

NGA, NSF, and NASA support the Polar Geospatial Center (PGC) at the University of Minnesota to produce Digital Elevation Model (DEM) elevation products (ArcticDEM and EarthDEM) generated from Worldview stereo imagery for U.S. Government use with NGA’s NextView license. CSDA augmented PGC’s processing capability to improve DEM generation in regions with vegetation and is striving to improve data distribution of EarthDEM via NASA’s EOSDIS Earthdata Cloud. NASA is also providing AWS storage for EarthDEM’s 50 cm products (~6 PB of data).

Societal Impact

Improved access to data products from commercial systems, reduced latency acquisitions, and improved derivation of new research and operational products will enable new opportunities for research and applications across thematic areas.

Thematic Areas

Atmospheric Composition, Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Disaster Response, Earth Surface and Interior, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Ocean and Cryosphere, Water and Energy Cycle, Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics

Relevant Link(s)

• CSDA SmallSat Data Explorer
• CSDA commercial datasets
• NASA evaluation of Maxar data

OPERA Near-Global Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWx)

Background

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The SNWG-2018 Assessment found that knowing where surface water exists (lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and floods) multiple times a week would benefit all the U.S. land monitoring SNWG agencies, such as those water resource management and monitoring, and disaster monitoring and response agencies. The near-global Dynamic Surface Water eXtent (DSWx) data product suite uses imagery from 5 optical and radar satellites (Harmonized Landsat-8 & Sentinel-2 A/B, Sentinel-1A, and NISAR) to map the spatial extent of surface water on land at 30 m resolution every few days. SAR imagery will aid in mapping surface water extent in cloudy conditions and beneath some vegetation. This SNWG activity is being managed by JPL’s Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) project, who will oversee the development, implementations, and operations. The optical DSWx product was developed in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Further information about OPERA and the DSWx product suite can be found below.  

Status

In production since Apr. 2023. Products are available from PO.DAAC (doi:10.5067/OPDSW-PL3V1)

Societal Impact

The DSWx solution provides maps of surface water every few days, enabling flood and drought monitoring, habitat assessment, wetland preservation, and tracking of water use. These applications inform land and water resource management and hazard response and recovery.​

Thematic Areas

Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Disaster Response, Earth Surface and Interior, Infrastructure Products/Other, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Ocean and Cryosphere, Water and Energy Cycle

Relevant Link(s)

• OPERA DSWx website
• OPERA DSWx on Worldview
• OPERA DSWx Guide on PO.DAAC
• OPERA DSWx applications Github 
• OPERA DSWx Product - SNWG Fact Sheet

Characteristics

Parent Satellites	Temporal Frequency	Horizontal Resolution	Geographic Domain	Latency	Spectral Band
Landsat 8, Landsat 9, Sentinel-2 A, Sentinel-2 B, Sentinel-1 A, Sentinel-1 B, NISAR, SWOT	Sub-weekly	30 m; 100-120m for SWOT	Near-global (all land masses excluding Antarctica)	~ 3 days	VIS, NIR, SWIR, MW, L-Band, S-Band, C-Band, K-Band, Ka-Band

OPERA Near-Global Surface Disturbance (DIST)

Background

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The SNWG-2018 Assessment found that knowing where the land surface vegetation and urban areas are changing would help satisfy the satellite needs of all the U.S. land monitoring SNWG agencies. The near-global Surface Disturbance (DIST) data product uses imagery from 7 optical and radar satellites (Harmonized Landsat-8/9 and Sentinel-2 A/B, Sentinel-1 A/B/C) to identify where and when the land surface has undergone disturbance such as vegetation loss from processes such as fires, landslides, drought, urban growth, deforestation, and mining, at 30 m resolution every few days. An annual DIST product will be available after a full year of disturbance granules have been generated. This SNWG activity is being managed by JPL’s Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) project, who will oversee the development, implementations, and operations. The optical DIST product was developed in partnership with the University of Maryland Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) group. Further information about OPERA and the DIST product suite can be found below. 

Status

In production since February 2023. Products are available from NASA's LP DAAC (doi:10.5067/SNWG/OPERA_L3_DIST-ALERT-HLS_PROVISIONAL_V0.000)

Societal Impact

This solution provides maps of vegetation loss every few days that can be used to track wildfires and invasive species, monitor forest health and deforestation, and detect land cover change. Such maps are crucial in land management, forest and resource monitoring, and hazard response and recovery.​

Thematic Areas

Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Disaster Response, Earth Surface and Interior, Infrastructure Products/Other, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Ocean and Cryosphere, Water and Energy Cycle

Relevant Link(s)

• OPERA DIST website
• OPERA DIST on Earthdata
• OPERA DIST applications Github 
• OPERA DIST Product - SNWG Fact Sheet

Characteristics

Parent Satellites	Temporal Frequency	Horizontal Resolution	Geographic Domain	Latency	Spectral Band
Landsat 8, Landsat 9, Sentinel-2 A, Sentinel-2 B, Sentinel-1 A, Sentinel-1 C	Sub-weekly	30 m	Near-global (all land masses excluding Antarctica)	~ 3 days	VIS, NIR, SWIR, MW, L-Band, S-Band, C-Band

Sea Surface Salinity with Sea Ice Mask

Background

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NASA supports production of a sea surface salinity (SSS) product from the SMAP satellite mission, produced by Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) as part of the NASA Ocean Salinity Science Team effort. The product, referred to RSS SMAP-SSS, is distributed via NASA's Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC). NOAA requests an additional flag to be included in the RSS SMAP-SSS product to get closer to the sea ice edge, rather than the current approach of masking and removing the SSS value whenever sea ice is detected. 

Status

PO.DAAC released Version 5.0 RSS SMAP Sea Surface Salinity data in late 2022. NASA continues to produce salinity values from SMAP close to the sea ice edge and now includes a variable/flag that sates the fraction of sea ice pixels within SMAP satellite footprints. This enables the end user to select the SSS value based on the sea ice fractions in the measurement. 

Societal Impact

Sea surface salinity product with sea ice mask allows operational users (e.g., NOAA) to improve their ocean forecasting systems to support efforts for advancing the blue economy.

Thematic Areas

Ocean and Cryosphere

Relevant Link(s)

• RSS SMAP Sea Surface Salinity
• Earthdata announcement

Characteristics

Parent Satellites	Temporal Frequency	Horizontal Resolution	Geographic Domain
SMAP	8 days	70 km	Global

Water Quality Product

Background

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NASA's Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG) will produce analysis ready ocean color data products using the Sentinel-3A/B Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI). 

Status

The Ocean Biology Processing Group is producing ocean color products from OLCI on Sentinel-3A/B, which are available through NASA's Ocean Biology DAAC (OB.DAAC). These products include Level-2 (300-meter resolution) and Level-3 (global 4.6-km resolution), as derived using standard NASA ocean color algorithms and the NASA vicarious calibration approach to minimize bias between OLCI products and the standard ocean color time-series derived from SeaWiFS, MODIS, and VIIRS instruments. The Level-2 and Level-3 processing capability is also distributed as open source software through the SeaDAS software package.

Societal Impact

Ocean color data provides crucial insights into marine ecosystems and the effects of climate change and ocean acidification. This SNWG activity supports the monitoring and management of coastal water quality and marine protected areas, providing essential information used to protect human and ecosystem health and for aquatic ecosystem modeling.​

Thematic Areas

Ocean and Cryosphere, Water and Energy Cycle

Relevant Link(s)

• NASA Ocean Color Data
• NASA Ocean Color Web
• Water Quality Products - SNWG Fact Sheet

Characteristics

Parent Satellites	Temporal Frequency	Horizontal Resolution	Geographic Domain	Vertical Resolution	Latency	Spectral Band
Sentinel-3 A, Sentinel-3 B	Daily	300 m	Global	300 m	< 24 hours	VIS, NIR, SWIR

The Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG) surveys federal civilian agencies biennially to identify their high-priority Earth observation data needs. After receiving survey responses, NASA-led assessment teams collaborate with other satellite Earth science data providers NOAA and USGS to pinpoint solutions that could potentially resolve these data gaps. The implementation of SNWG solutions is overseen by the SNWG Management Office at NASA's Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team (IMPACT) and by other entities within NASA's Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program. Solutions from past SNWG survey cycles that are in implementation are described below. Toggle the tabs above to view solutions that are currently operational and in formulation.

Air Quality Forecasts and Distributed Pandora Sensors

Background

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Global-scale modeling of air quality and trace gases provides key information in data-sparse regions of importance to the U.S. Department of State, EPA, USDA, DOE, and NOAA. DoS requests air quality forecasts for health and safety decisions for U.S. Embassies in countries with poorest air quality. EPA and USDA seek air quality (i.e., NO₂) measurements in agriculture and rural regions: current in situ networks are in urban centers. NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) will integrate data from distributed Pandora sensors into the GEOS-Composition Forecast (GEOS-CF) model with downscaling approaches used for more precise air quality forecasts at EPA, USDA and DoS sites of interest. There is a multi-agency need to improve the U.S. Government's ability to detect and forecast crucial air quality parameters in poorly sampled locations both domestic and international.  

Status

This activity is currently in formulation, with implementation expected to begin later in 2023.

Societal Impact

This activity provides measurements of air quality relevant to human health in international urban and domestic rural locations that lack the advanced measurement capabilities that are provided in domestic urban locations. It will also provide historical analyses and 5-day air quality forecasts at US embassy locations, helping to better understand, anticipate, and mitigate human exposure to harmful air pollution.​

Thematic Areas

Atmospheric Composition

Relevant Link(s)

• NASA Pandora Project
• Access Pandora data
• Air Quality Forecasts and Distributed Pandora Sensors - SNWG Fact Sheet

Characteristics

Parent Satellites	Temporal Frequency	Geographic Domain	Latency
Pandora Project, GEOS-CF and GEOS-FP model output, Suomi NPP	Hourly	Select U.S. Embassies and agricultural sites	1-4 hours

 Animal Tracking (Internet of Animals)

Background

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In response to the needs of scientists and natural resource managers including federal agencies such USGS, NOAA, and USFWS, NASA has initiated a five-year study to determine a suitable space-based architecture for global low-latency tracking of small migratory animals like birds and bats. The objectives of the study, named Internet of Animals, are to 1) systematically assess user needs in the areas of space-based telemetry for animal movement ecology/behavior research and applied ecological management, 2) architect a next-generation space-based animal tracking system, i.e., an ‘Internet of Animals’ or IoA, to meet those needs, and 3) develop science and technology needed to monitor animal movement and link it with the many other dimensions of biodiversity and habitat that can now be mapped from space using remote sensing. 

Status

The IoA study is a collaboration between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Yale University, NASA's Ames Research Center, USGS Western Ecological Research Center, and the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany. There have been project delays associated to data access of an antenna on the Russian Module on the International Space Station.

Societal Impact

Tracking animal movement from space in large numbers can inform various conservation efforts to maintain biodiversity and landscape connectivity to secure safe migratory routes. It can help mitigate human-wildlife conflicts, curb the spread of invasive species, and enhance our understanding of the spread of zoonic diseases and outbreaks such as malaria or avian influenza. Monitoring changes in animal movement behavior can facilitate the early identification of global change events, providing critical information to mitigate its impact on ecosystems and human societies. Finally, it can raise awareness about conservation efforts by showcasing the incredible trans-continental journeys of animals tracked from space.

Thematic Areas

Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Water and Energy Cycle

Relevant Link(s)

Animal Tracking Project Background

Characteristics

Parent Satellite	Geographic Domain
ISS	Global

Atmospheric Composition using GEOS-5

 Background

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Aerosol and trace gas concentrations observed by satellites and ground stations will be assimilated in the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS). This will provide global, three-dimensional gridded atmospheric composition distributions for the period 2008-2018. Fields for 2008-2018 will be provided, based on the GEOS-CF (Composition Forecasting) system.

Status

The GEOS-CF system has been enhanced and final tests will now be run for an extended period. Retaining the 72-layer, quarter-degree configuration, the updated GEOS model is now being run with assimilation of atmospheric constituents (aerosols, ozone, NO₂, and SO₂) from a variety of observation sources. Testing and benchmarking of this system is underway. Once the evaluation is complete, the reanalysis for the 2008-2018 period will be initialized and run to completion. The bulk of the work has been on preparation for the assimilation of the multiple input datasets, implementation and evaluation of the NO₂ assimilation, and the development of new monitoring and evaluation diagnostics, tested on the GMAO’s real-time GEOS-CF system. These diagnostics are released daily on the GMAO’s web site.

Societal Impact

Assimilation of additional aerosol and trace gas concentration data is improving the GEOS-CF system’s representation of atmospheric composition, with benefits ranging from historical reanalysis of trends and outlier events to improved forecasts for air quality monitoring and pollution regulation.

Thematic Areas

Atmospheric Composition

Relevant Link(s)

GMAO - GEOS-CF

Characteristics

Parent Satellite(s)	Temporal Frequency	Horizontal Resolution	Geographic Domain	Vertical Resolution
Terra, Aqua, Aura, Suomi NPP, JPSS-1, JPSS-2, Sentinel-5 precursor	Hourly (selected surface fields), Daily	25 km	Global	72 layers, surface to mesosphere

Discovery and Access of NASA Commercial Data

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Background

The SNWG community requested discovery and access to commercial data through NASA’s Earthdata Search web interface. This would serve to consolidate the discovery of remote sensing data provided by various vendors to the U.S. government.

Status

NASA will implement this SNWG activity as part of the Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition (CSDA) program. Agencies will be able to discover both NASA and commercial data with the same search tool and will be able to access both datasets subject to the terms of the End User License Agreement (EULA). 

This will provide U.S. government agencies discovery and access to both NASA’s commercial data holding and NASA data using the Earthdata.nasa.gov interface. Maxar and Planet products are planned to be available in Earthdata Search by the end of the 2024 calendar year, with additional commercial products phased in continuously.

Societal Impact

Improved access to data products from commercial systems, reduced latency acquisitions, and improved derivation of new research and operational products will enable new opportunities for research and applications across thematic areas.

Thematic Areas

Atmospheric Composition, Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Disaster Response, Earth Surface and Interior, Infrastructure Products/Other, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Ocean and Cryosphere, Water and Energy Cycle, Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics

Relevant Link(s)

CSDA program

Characteristics

Satellites
PlanetScope, RapidEye, SkySat, Spire, Worldview-1, Worldview-2, Worldview-3, GeoEye-1, QuickBird, IKONOS, Worldview-4, DESIS, EarthDEM

Global HLS-derived Vegetation Indices Suite

 Background

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The SNWG-2016 process supported the production of a global Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) surface reflectance product, reducing differences between each sensor and providing global observations on a common set of grids to expedite processing and analysis. Surface reflectance information is routinely used to assess vegetation type, long-term changes in land use, disasters, and season health as inferred through vegetation greenness. This information is obtained through "vegetation indices" that relate multiple HLS bands to specific parameters of interest as an instantaneous value, time series, or anomaly. The following indices are sought by the SNWG agencies: NDVI, EVI, SAVI, MSAVI, NDMI, NBR, NBR2, and TVI. Indices will be generated for the HLS archive (December 2015 for Sentinel-2 and April 2013 for Landsat) and will continue forward with future HLS acquisitions as part of the HLS production system thereby increasing overall product efficiency while decreasing product latency and reducing duplicative processing efforts across the U.S. government.  

Status

This activity began implementation in fall 2023. NDWI will be added to the vegetation indices suite at the request of SNWG agencies. Data from Sentinel-2C will be incorporated in 2024.

Societal Impact

The HLS-VI solution is a suite of 9 vegetation indices derived from HLS data products and is slated to be operational in FY25. Similar to HLS data, the HLS-VI products benefit from 2-3 day latency and provide key data for global monitoring of vegetation health, soil properties, and water levels.

Thematic Areas

Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Earth Surface and Interior, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Water and Energy Cycle

Relevant Link(s)

• Product overview
• HLSS30
• HLSL30
• Training Resources

Characteristics

Parent Satellites	Temporal Frequency	Horizontal Resolution	Geographic Domain	Latency	Spectral Band
Landsat 8, Landsat 9, Sentinel-2 A, Sentinel-2 B, Sentinel-2 C	2-3 days	30 m	Global	2-3 days	VIS, NIR, SWIR

Global NISAR Soil Moisture

 Background

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The global NASA/Indian Space Research Organisation Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) soil moisture product will provide a well- calibrated and validated soil moisture product with 200-meter resolution globally (approximately 500-m for the Sahara due to challenges of measuring soil moisture in dry sand). There will be a minimum of two products every 12 days from both ascending and descending orbits, with more frequent observations at higher latitudes as the orbits begin to converge closer to the poles.

Status

Product formulation began in fiscal year (FY) 2020 to align with the NISAR launch. The final algorithms have been reviewed as of fall 2022, and the products will be operational after NISAR launches in 2024. 

Societal Impact

Global maps of soil moisture are of high relevance for a range of agencies and applications, including many hydrological, biological, and biogeochemical processes. Soil moisture data is required for estimation of crop yields, crop hazard alerts due to drought and flood, forecasting of food demands, forest fire prediction, water supply management, and other natural resource activities.

Thematic Areas

Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Earth Surface and Interior, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Water and Energy Cycle

Relevant Link(s)

NISAR

Characteristics

Parent Satellite	Temporal Frequency	Horizontal Resolution	Geographic Domain	Latency	Spectral Band
NISAR	Twice every 12 days	200 m (400 m in Sahara Desert)	Global	72 hours	MW, L-Band, S-Band

High-Resolution North America NISAR data

Background

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The SNWG-2016 Assessment found that increasing NISAR’s data collection resolution from 20 MHz (7.5x12 m) to 40 MHz (3.75x6 m) and increasing the signal polarization diversity from dual-pol to quad-pol over North America (Canada to Panama, Hawaii and US Territories) would widely support satellite needs for all of the U.S. Government land monitoring Agencies. While NISAR has the on-orbit capacity to collect the added data requested by the SNWG, NASA lacked sufficient downlink stations to meet the added data volume. The SNWG-2016 supported the installation of a new downlink station that increased the dedicated downlink capacity of NISAR by 9 Tbits/day.  

Status

Near Space Network (NSN) installed a new downlink station at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to support the added data volume for NISAR’s SNWG activities.  The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) did not approve NASA’s NISAR proposed 40 MHz quad-pol collection mode.  The SNWG community and the NISAR Science Team  recommended the 40MHz (3.75  x 6m) dual-pol data to meet the community’s needs. 

Societal Impact

The addition of a North America downlink station for NISAR enabled the highest resolution land imaging mode for North America and US Territories. This capability will support measurement needs for every land monitoring agency and will provide better imagery for disaster response, crop assessment, infrastructure stability, and more. Furthermore, the new NISAR downlink station made it possible to produce a global soil moisture product and collect coastal North America ocean data that would not have been possible otherwise.

Thematic Areas

Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Disaster Response, Earth Surface and Interior, Infrastructure Products/Other, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Ocean and Cryosphere, Water and Energy Cycle, Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics 

Relevant Link(s) 

NISAR

Characteristics

Parent Satellite	Temporal Frequency	Horizontal Resolution	Geographic Domain
NISAR	12 days	6 m	North America

Low Latency Freeboard and Ice Thickness Products over the Great Lakes

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Background

SNWG agencies stated that they would benefit more significantly from reduced latency observations from the Ice, Clouds, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) mission, specifically over the Great Lakes region. Efforts here focus on reducing latency to three days from the original 45-day wait.

Status

The team has operationally released reduced-latency versions of existing products for ICESat-2 and analyzed the uncertainty of these products. This has been a necessary step toward the capability for a low-latency lake ice freeboard thickness product. The five "expedited products" are now discoverable through NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) and available at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Higher quality, longer-latency products remain available in the permanent data archive. The team has begun investigating a new algorithm approach for the proposed lake ice thickness data product. The proposed work builds off the ATL10QL sea ice product.

Societal Impact

The NRT Great Lakes Freeboard and Ice Thickness solution helps provide accurate ice mapping for safe commercial shipping and fishing, all of which are vital to the economic interests of the Great Lakes region.​

Thematic Areas

Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Ocean and Cryosphere, Water and Energy Cycle

Relevant Link(s)

• NSIDC
• LANCE
• ICESat-2 Product - SNWG Fact Sheet

Specific Products 

• Sea Ice Height Quick Look (ATL07QL; doi:10.5067/ATLAS/ATL07QL.005)
• ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A  Land and Vegetation Height Quick Look (ATL08QL; doi:10.5067/ATLAS/ATL08QL.005)
• Calibrated Backscatter Profiles and Atmospheric Layer Characteristics Quick Look (ATL09QL; doi:10.5067/ATLAS/ATL09QL.005)
• Sea Ice Freeboard Quick Look (ATL10QL; doi:10.5067/ATLAS/ATL10QL.005)
• Along Track Inland Surface Water Data Quick Look (ATL13QL; doi:10.5067/ATLAS/ATL13QL.005)

Characteristics

Parent Satellite	Temporal Frequency	Horizontal Resolution	Geographic Domain	Vertical Resolution	Latency	Spectral Band
ICESat-2	Variable	20 m - 150 m	The Great Lakes	< 5 cm	3-5 days	VIS

OPERA North America Land Surface Displacement (DISP)

Background

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The SNWG-2018 Assessment found that knowing where the land surface is deforming would help satisfy the satellite needs of all the U.S. land monitoring SNWG agencies. The North America Surface Displacement (DISP) data product uses imagery from 3 radar satellites (Sentinel-1 A/B and NISAR) to identify where and when the land surface has moved from processes such as sinkholes, land subsidence, landslides, permafrost motion, volcanic unrest, earthquakes, and more, at <30 m resolution every 6, 12, or 24 days. The Sentinel-1 imagery provides a detailed deformation time series beginning with the launch of Sentinel-1 in 2014 but has limited coverage in regions with significant vegetation. NISAR’s vegetation penetrating L-band radar will be able to track land surface displacement in most of the ecosystems across North America. This SNWG activity is being managed by JPL’s Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) project, who will oversee the development, implementations, and operations. Further information about OPERA and the DISP product suite can be found below. 

Status

Products are in development. The intermediate product for DISP is available at ASF DAAC: https://search.asf.alaska.edu/#/?dataset=OPERA-S1 

Societal Impact

This solution provides timely maps of ground surface motion caused by diverse factors such as earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, subsidence and/or uplift caused by mining, groundwater loss, or fluid injection. These types of outputs are critical for hazard response and monitoring of infrastructure stability.​

Thematic Areas

Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Disaster Response, Earth Surface and Interior, Infrastructure Products/Other, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Ocean and Cryosphere, Water and Energy Cycle

Relevant Link(s)

• OPERA website
• OPERA DISP hazards whitepaper
• OPERA DISP vertical land motion whitepaper
• OPERA CSLC (intermediate product)
• OPERA DISP Product - SNWG Fact Sheet

Characteristics

Parent Satellites	Temporal Frequency	Horizontal Resolution	Geographic Domain	Latency	Spectral Band
Sentinel-1 A, Sentinel-1 B, NISAR	Weekly	<= 30 m	North America, U.S. Territories	~ 5 days	MW, L-Band, S-Band, C-Band

Radiation and Clouds

 Background

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NASA will enhance processing and storage capabilities within the Satellite Cloud and Radiation Property retrieval System (SatCORPS), develop algorithms to ingest observations from Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), and create global composites of cloud properties from MODIS, VIIRS, and 5 geostationary satellites (GEO; Meteosat-9/11, GOES-16/18, and Himawari-9). Data will be produced over the globe at 3-km spatial and hourly temporal resolution.

Status

The GCC (global cloud composites) system that merges MODIS, VIIRS, and GEO data onto a 3-km global grid is complete. A Version 1 test dataset derived with legacy SatCORPS cloud and radiative flux formulas is available for SNWG stakeholders. The Version 2 system (expected release in January 2024) will include new cloud algorithm updates and applied artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) tools that further improve accuracy and consistency at all times of day. A computed top-of- atmosphere (TOA) and surface radiative flux component is also in development so that GCC products can be ingested into a radiative transfer modeling system.​

Societal Impact

The NASA SatCORPS Radiation and Clouds solution provides global high spatiotemporal resolution satellite observations that are needed to improve the representation of clouds and their effects in Earth System Models for energy and related sectoral infrastructure planning.​

Thematic Areas

Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics

Relevant Link(s)

• NASA Langley Research Center SatCORPS
• Available test datasets

Characteristics

Parent Satellite(s)	Temporal Frequency	Horizontal Resolution	Geographic Domain
Aqua, Terra, Suomi NPP, JPSS-1, JPSS-2, Meteosat-9, Meteosat-11, GOES-16, GOES-18, Himawari-9	Hourly	3 km	Global