2016 Fall AGU Meeting
PO.DAAC represents at the 2016 Fall AGU Meeting in San Francisco, California.
PO.DAAC Dataset Discovery will be temporarily unavailable due to maintenance on 12/10/2016.
PO.DAAC Dataset Discovery will be temporarily unavailable due to maintenance on 12/10/2016 (00.30 - 5:30). We apologize for the inconvenience.
ISS-RapidScat Decommissioning
2016-12-08
The ISS-RapidScat Project has officially announced the end of operations of the ISS-RapidScat Mission as a result of numerous failed attempts to restore power to the RapidScat from the ISS Columbus module. The root cause of the power outage remains unknown. A robotic survey is currently underway to assess whether the site connecting RapidScat to the Columbus module (known as the SDX interface) is still viable for future payloads. Planning is now underway to determine the course and scheduling for future data reprocessing deliveries to the PO.DAAC.
Newsletter:
Record Texas Flooding Left a “Horseshoe” in the Gulf of Mexico (December, 2016)
SMAP SSS revealed a unique "horseshoe" pattern in the Gulf of Mexico in 2015. This signature was caused by the freshwater plume from the Texas flood, the typical Mississippi River plume, an unusually strong Loop Current and its anticyclonic eddy to the west.
Data in Action: Record Texas Flooding Left a “Horseshoe” in the Gulf of Mexico
In May 2015, more than 35 trillion gallons of water fell over Texas, enough to cover the entire state 8 inches deep in water. NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite and other satellite instruments along with in situ data were used to create a comprehensive chronology of the flood from land to ocean.
Jason-3 begins mapping the ocean
Launched on January 17, 2016, Jason-3 is a partnership that includes NOAA, NASA, CNES and EUMETSAT. After launch, Jason-3 was maneuvered into orbit about 80 seconds behind Jason-2, where it collected data at essentially the same time and place. It will stay in this tandem orbit for about six months while scientists and engineers take a careful look at any differences between Jason-2 and Jason-3.
22-year sea level rise - TOPEX/JASON
This visualization shows total sea level change between 1992 and 2014, based on data collected from the TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellites. Blue regions are where sea level has gone down, and orange/red regions are where sea level has gone up. Since 1992, seas around the world have risen an average of nearly 3 inches. The color range for this visualization is -7 cm to +7 cm (-2.76 inches to +2.76 inches), though measured data extends above and below 7 cm (2.76 inches). This particular range was chosen to highlight variations in sea level change.
Rising seas, by decade
For over 20 years, satellite altimeters have measured the sea surface height of our ever-changing oceans. This series of images shows the complicated patterns of rising and falling ocean levels across the globe from 1993 to 2015. Sea levels reflect changing currents (which tilt the sea surface), the redistribution of heat (which makes sea levels higher) and the long term rise in global sea levels that is the result of human-caused warming. The globally averaged rise is traced out in the bottom right-hand corner.
Public Release of QuikSCAT Level 2B Ocean Wind Vectors in 12.5km Slice Composites Version 3.1
2016-11-14
The PO.DAAC is pleased to announce the public release of the “QuikSCAT Level 2B Ocean Wind Vectors in 12.5km Slice Composites Version 3.1” (hereafter L2B Version 3.1) dataset. This dataset consists of Version 3.1 Level 2B (L2B) science-quality ocean surface wind vector retrievals from the Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT). L2B data are in an along-track/cross-track swath grid with a pixel (wind vector cell) resolution of 12.5 km.
Newsletter:
PO.DAAC Data Access Services Scheduled Upgrade (OPeNDAP, THREDDS, LAS)
Please be informed that the following PO.DAAC public Data Access services will experience intermittent downtime during the scheduled upgrade window this Thursday, October 27 2016, between 4pm - 5pm (PST):