SUPPORTING WEATHER DATA
ENVIRONMENT AND RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
ORIGINATING TECHNOLOGY/ NASA CONTRIBUTION
Since its founding in 1992,
Global Science & Technology, Inc. (GST), of Greenbelt, Maryland, has been developing technologies
and providing services in support of NASA scientific
research. GST specialties include scientific analysis,
science data and information systems, data visualization,
communications, networking and Web technologies,
computer science, and software system engineering.
As a longtime contractor to Goddard Space Flight
Center’s Earth Science Directorate, GST scientific,
engineering, and information technology staff have
extensive qualifications with the synthesis of satellite,
in situ, and Earth science data for weather- and
climate-related projects. GST’s experience in this
arena is end-to-end, from building satellite ground
receiving systems and science data systems, to product
generation and research and analysis.
|
| This screen shot shows the Regional Digital Information Network Observation Interface
for the browsing and ordering client application. |
Among the company’s advanced software designs is
the Regional Digital Information Network (RODIN),
which was originally designed under contract to NASA
Goddard. RODIN is a Web-based information system
that employs unique GST-developed methods for extracting,
organizing, and searching metadata in such a way
that allows fast retrieval and staging of stored
geospatial data from different sources and in any
format on the basis of time, location of the data,
or other user-defined attributes. While providing
a low-cost alternative to archive and retrieval systems
based on fixed data formats, the RODIN framework
provides much of the functionality of large, expensive
data systems. RODIN offers the distinct advantage
of not being bound by any one data format. In addition,
it has the built in capability to automate the search,
retrieval, and dissemination of data and data products
over the Web.
PARTNERSHIP
GST developed RODIN for Goddard’s Applied Information
Sciences Branch as a core capability that would underpin
the NASA
Regional Applications Center (RAC) program.
The RAC program was conceived to provide a nimble,
locally implemented and controlled advanced data
system that would enable universities, businesses,
and local communities to jointly address environmental-related
applications or issues of local or regional importance.
While the RAC program is no longer actively supported
by NASA, the RODIN software lives on through its
transfer to private industry. Under a license from
NASA, GST has continued to modify and develop RODIN
as an add-on enhancement to the company’s commercial
products.
PRODUCT OUTCOME
Based on its earlier work with NASA’s Applied Information
Sciences Branch, GST introduced DirectMet® in 1999,
a direct-readout Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellite Receiver and Workstation for the ingestion,
processing, and analysis of geostationary satellite
imagery. Used worldwide by professional meteorologists,
DirectMet is employed extensively throughout the
Caribbean and Pacific to support hurricane tracking
among many other applications. The system allows
automated user-defined scheduling, subsetting, and
product creation, and has unique built-in meteorological
analysis functions.
|
| The DirectMet® GOES-GVAR system captured Hurricane Frances, a Category 4 storm,
as it headed towards the Bahamas in August
2004. One of Global Science & Technology, Inc.’s many customers in the Caribbean depended heavily on the DirectMet
system as the storm approached. |
A new DirectMet archive based on the RODIN technology
provides DirectMet with a scalable, expandable archive
system that allows both directed and automated archiving
of raw and processed data, imagery products, and
project files. Data are fully retrievable by time,
location, area, product, and spectral band.
Another application of RODIN is through MetLab,™
a “next-generation” meteorological workstation developed
by GST in partnership with 3DI, Inc., in 2002. MetLab
was recently adopted by the U.S. National Weather
Service as its internal World Area Forecast System
Aviation Weather Terminal. Deployed from Hawaii in
the Pacific to the Caribbean and South America, the
workstation provides comprehensive data and toolsets
for the professional forecaster. GST is developing
a RODIN-based archive system for MetLab’s weather
data that will be marketed as a comprehensive local
meteorological data archive system to support local
climate and weather studies. This archive system
is needed by small countries around the world that
do not have immediate or reliable access to the vast
NASA or National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
data holdings that are accessible to the U.S. community
at various data centers.
RODIN’s unique design has applications that extend
beyond those of immediate interest and use to NASA
and the weather communities. GST plans to develop
RODIN-based archive and retrieval systems that will
enable it to serve as a powerful, stand-alone archive
for virtually any Earth science-related data system.
DirectMet® is a registered trademark of Global Science & Technology, Inc.
MetLab™ is a trademark of Global Science & Technology, Inc.
