Remote Sensing Information Gateway (RSIG)

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General

Contact

Data System Name: Remote Sensing Information Gateway (RSIG)
Data System URL: http://linden.nesc.epa.gov/rsig/
Contact Person: Heidi Paulsen
Contact e-mail: Paulsen.Heidi@epamail.epa.gov

About the Data System (Purposes, Audience)

The RSIG applet allows users to interactively specify, visualize and save a subset of meteorological and air-quality data from a variety of sources including: NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite data, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) air quality forecasts, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model output, National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) biomass burning data, and AIRNow and Air Quality System (AQS) ground station measurements.

Data subsets are interactively specified by user-selected variable,time-range and lon-lat box and quickly displayed together over a map and animated over time. Images and data may be saved on the user's computer in a variety of formats including: PNG, MPEG, KMZ, ASCII, XDR, NetCDF, and HDF for later analysis and integration with other applications.

The RSIG applet accesses a set of remote OGC-WCS web server applications also developed at EPA and installed at the remote sites that store the data. By operating at the source, these servers and associated subset programs enable fast and convenient streaming of data subsets across the network to achieve an impressive response of "about a minute per day's worth of data". (Other applications, such as EGS and AirQuest, also benefit by utilizing these powerful server programs.)

Presentation

http://linden.nesc.epa.gov/rsig/RSIG architecture.pdf

History

n/a

Agencies

EPA

List of Publications, Papers, Presentations

n/a

Datasets Served

• • AIRNow ground stations hourly Ozone and PM2.5 measurements. North America, 2003-present.
  • AQS ground stations hourly and aggregated Ozone and PM2.5 measurements. North America, 1995-present.
  • NESDIS Biomass Burning surface point values of PM2.5, CH4, CO2, CO, N2O, NH3, NOx, SO2, TNMHC. Currently selected week events in August 2005, July 2006, October 2007.
  • NASA MODIS-4/6/7 satellite surface-integrated data including: Aerosol Optical Depth, Cloud Optical Thickness, Ozone, Pressure, Temperature, etc. Global 2000-present.
  • NASA CALIPSO LIDAR satellite vertical data including: backscatter, pressure, temperature, ozone density, etc. Currently selected week events in August 2005, July 2006, October 2007.
  • EPA CMAQ gridded model data including: O3, NO2, CO, PM25, WIND, etc. Currently Eastern US, 2001, August 2004, August 2005.

Parameters

See above

Spatial - Temporal Coverage

Not Given

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Health

Not Given

Forecasting and Reanalysis

Not Given

Model/Emissions Evaluation

Not Given

Characterization, Trends, Accountability

Not Given

Other

Not Given

Data System IT

Primary/Official Store for Some data

No. RSIG generally accesses data from other sources (and subsets it at the source).

Data Consolidation/integration

Yes. RSIG visualizes data together over a map. It will also soon have the ability to regrid the data to a specified CMAQ grid to facilitate integration with other applications such as Hierarchical Baysian/Markov Chain Monte Carlo (HB/MCMC).

Providing Data Access to users/externals

Not Given

Data Processing

Yes. RSIG does subsetting, reformatting, conversion, and augmenting of data to facilitate visualization and subsequent analysis with other datasets. Examples include: aggregating across multiple files covering the user-specified date/time range, subsetting to a lon-lat box, striding over dense data points for fast visualization rasterization, decoding integer data to reals, lossless compression/decompression to speed-up transfer over the network, units conversion to SI and model-common units, data reordering to match model-common conventions such as ground-up, augmentation with longitude, latitude and elevation for each data value, and projecting and aggregating into model grid cells.

Visualization/Analysis

Yes. RSIG provides a simple and quick interactive visualization of all data overlaid together on an appropriate map. It also has other custom visualizations such as a "curtain" for LIDAR data and other user-requested visualizations are planned.

Decision Support (e.g. some integration into user business process)

Not presently. There are plans to enable RSIG to launch other applications such as HB/MCMC and visualize their results. Also, external applications such as AirQuest can utilize RSIG's WCS servers.

End-to-End Integration

Not presently. There are plans for HB/MCMC launch and visualize...

Other DS Values

The primary value-added strengths of RSIG are its ease of use, performance and user-driven custom features.

Data Access and/or Output Interoperability

RSIG uses Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Mapping Service (WMS) and Web Coverage Service (WCS) standards for specifying data subsets and a supports a variety of standard output formats (ASCII, NetCDF, KMZ, etc.) requested by users to enable data to be saved and input into other applications.

Reusable Tools and Methods

RSIG components include an applet and set of documented WCS server applications and powerful subset and converter programs - all of which are freely available and accessible by others. This applet/server/subset method has and will be reapplied to access additional data as requested by users and prioritized.

Security Barriers and Solutions

Access outside the EPA is being addressed by installing the WCS servers and downloadable applet on the EPA Portal (badger.epa.gov). This requires an EPA firewall modification to allow http-80 access from external computers to maple, an internal computer used for visualization.

User Feedback Approach

Principal Investigator: Fred Dimmick, (919) 541-5537 and Jim Szykman (757)864-2709 Please send all questions and comments to RSIG developers directly at plessel.todd@epa.gov, 919-541-5500.

Other Architecture

Not Given

User Provided Content

The Remote Sensing Information Gateway (RSIG) is a tool for selecting, downloading, assembling, and visualizing atmospheric data. After the data has been assembled, it can be stored on the user’s workstation, if desired. RSIG is developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); see File:Rsig 10312007.pdf .

The RSIG application is operated by selecting from among fifteen or so variables available from the following data sources:

• NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) data
• Sonoma Tech's AIRNow and NOAA's Air Quality System (AQS) ozone and particulate-matter observations
• EPA's Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model output
• National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) biomass burning data

More details on RSIG's data sources can be found at http://linden.nesc.epa.gov/rsig/datainventory.html.

The application then assembles the data from local files or by submitting requests over the Internet to data repositories at NASA, NOAA, etc. RSIG then presents a visualization of the data on a latitude-longitude map, automatically locating the data in correct geographic position.

RSIG uses program code that runs on NASA and NOAA servers to select and subset large datasets at the source computer center. Transmission over the Internet to the EPA is thereby accelerated compared to conventional techniques.

RSIG can save the collected data in the following formats:

• Binary External Data Representation (XDR) format
• NetCDF format
• ASCII spreadsheet
• MPEG or PNG format files for visualized images

Access and Status

The RSIG documentation server is on the EPA Intranet at http://linden.nesc.epa.gov/rsig. The RSIG application is operable but is still in the final stages of development. The application can be accessed at http://rtpmeta.epa.gov/portal/rsig2D.html. All workstation users connected to the EPA network can access these servers. Those outside of the EPA network do not have access.

Java Requirements

RSIG is a Web browser-based application that runs as a Java applet. Therefore, RSIG carries the following Java requirements:

• Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.4 or better
• a .java.policy file saved to your Home directory. The .java.policy file is a simple text file that ensures you can save data from the RSIG applet to your computer.

The RSIG web site contains full information on installing the .java.policy file for Linux, UNIX, Mac OS, and Windows systems here: http://linden.nesc.epa.gov/rsig/javapolicy.html.

Access to RSIG Data

In addition to the Web browser-based Java applet, RSIG offers additional ways for researchers or applications to access data.

Streaming access. Applications with specific information needs can use RSIG's CGI scripts to enable streaming access to RSIG's data. This can effectively automate access to any data that RSIG can access and deliver the data to your application in the desired format. These scripts are in the review process, but are accessible within the EPA intranet. For more information: http://linden.nesc.epa.gov/rsig/rsig_cgi.html

Web server scripts. Assuming your application is running on an EPA computer inside the EPA firewall, then the application should access http://maple.rtpnc.epa.gov, which is the internal computer containing the web server scripts. (Tthe MODIS script is on a public NASA computer.) The scripts will eventually be hosted on external EPA computers for external/non-EPA clients. The server scripts are OGC-WCS-compliant. For more information: http://linden.nesc.epa.gov/rsig/webscripts.html

Sponsorship and Contacts

The RSIG application has been sponsored and managed by ORD’s National Exposure Research Lab (NERL). Dr. Fred Dimmick, Chief of the Process Modeling Research Branch, is the responsible EPA manager. It is being developed by the EPA Environmental Modeling and Visualization Laboratory (EMVL).

• Dr. Fred Dimmick, dimmick.fred@epa.gov, EPA ORD (919) 541-5537
• Dr. Joe Retzer, retzer.joseph@epa.gov, EPA NCC (919) 541-4190
• For technical information contact: Mike Uhl, uhl.mike@epa.gov, EPA EMVL (Lockheed Martin) (919) 541-4283