Satellite
Analysts Use GIS to View Geospatial Data in a New Way
Thomas
Callsen
Office of Research and Applications, NESDIS
Traditionally,
when the NOAA's Satellite and Information Service satellite analysts
wanted to view a new ancillary data layer, developers needed to
make time-consuming software changes to geolocate, reformat and
incorporate that layer into their analysis system. By using GIS,
the analysts can quickly view a great number of geospatial data
layers almost immediately. This technology is being used by the
fire analysts at the NOAA Science Center (NSC) in Camp Springs,
Maryland to increase the data available to them to assist their
mission of tracking forest fires.
The
project began by interviewing the fire analysts to determine precisely
what data sets would assist them in their work of identifying
and tracking fires with remotely sensed imagery. These data sets
include experimental products, such as the Geostationary Operational
Environmental Satellite (GOES) Aerosol Smoke Product, a soil moisture
tracking product by the National Weather Service's National Centers
for Environmental Prediction (NWS/NCEP) and the NOAA Global Vegetation
Index product. Also included is an elevation layer, Drainage Basin
data by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and a Land Cover/Land
Use layer by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA). Further, other organizations that produce map services
of their own data can easily be overlayed with the fire data via
the internet.
The
various data sets have different time stamps. Data sets that are
not updated frequently such as Drainage Basins and Land Use reside
on the workstation for quicker access. Data that is updated more
frequently, for example Vegetation and Soil Moisture, are accessible
at a different location and stored in individual Arc Internet
Map Server (ARCIMS) map services.
Fire
analysts use ArcView by Environmental Systems Research Institute
(ESRI) to link to the SSD Fire Web GIS developed also at Camp
Springs. Next, they "turn off" all the layers except
the fire data. They then begin overlaying data from a variety
of sources stored on the workstation or other ArcIMS web sites.
GIS
is helping the NOAA fire analysts interpret the hot spots they
see on satellite imagery.
It provides them with the tools they need to make informed decisions
regarding fire detection
and tracking.
