2012 UWG Meeting HW#2: Tools and Services

This is the 2nd homework assignment that is geared towards PO.DAAC's tools and services.

In addition to yourselves, if you could distribute the homework to some of your colleagues.

State of the Ocean (SOTO): SOTO provides visualizations of near-real-time (NRT) data currently pertaining to SST, SSH, ocean winds, ocean currents, and ocean color. http://podaac-tools.jpl.nasa.gov/soto/

Action #1
Interact with SOTO and answer the following questions:
1. SOTO has mainly been considered an education and outreach tool. However, is this tool of use to the research community? If so, what additional components, if any, would be needed? Extended time period (more than 10 days)?
2. What additional data and/or information layers should be added?
3. Are the controls and layout of the interface intuitive?
4. Should the imagery be available to the user for download as KML or some other format?
5. General comments related to this tool?

Dataminer Level-2 subsetter: Dataminer is PO.DAAC’s Level-2 subsetter. http://podaac-tools.jpl.nasa.gov/dataminer

Action #2
Log into Dataminer, execute a search utilizing spatial and temporal constraints for one or more data products, generate quicklook imagery, then extract and download the data conforming to the search criteria. Repeat the search including additional constraints based upon data properties and extract specific variables for download.
1. Were you able to search for, view, and download data?
2. Is the interface intuitive?
3. Are the so-called data properties constraints useful?
4. Is the ability to map (re-grid) the data for output useful?
5. What additional data and/or information layers should be added?
6. What are your comments regarding the general usability of the tool?

High-level Tool for Interactive Data Extraction (HITIDE): HITIDE is slated to be Dataminer’s replacement (i.e., Level-2 subsetter). http://podaac-tools.jpl.nasa.gov/hitide/

Action #3
Execute a data product search based upon spatial and temporal criteria, generate quicklook imagery, then extract and download the data conforming to the search constraints.
1. Were you able to search for, view, and download data?
2. Is the interface intuitive?
3. What additional data and/or information layers should be added?
4. What are your comments regarding the general usability of the tool?
5. Is HITIDE a suitable replacement for Dataminer? What capabilities of Dataminer should be reproduced or replicated in HITIDE? What additional capabilities should be introduced in HITIDE?

Live Access Server (LAS): LAS is slated to be POET’s replacement (i.e., Level-3 subsetter). http://thredds.jpl.nasa.gov/las

Action #4
Choose one or more data products, generate quicklook imagery (maps, Hovmoller plots, line plots, scatter plots), and extract and download the data.
1. Were you able to perform various views or analyses and download data?
2. What additional data and/or information layers should be added?
3. What are your comments regarding the general usability of the tool?
4. Is LAS a suitable replacement for POET (http://poet.jpl.nasa.gov/)? Are there exclusive features within POET that LAS needs?