OpenAltimetry - rapid analysis and visualization of Spaceborne altimeter data.

Area of Science:

• Earth Science
• Geospatial Data Analysis
• Satellite Remote Sensing

Background:

• NASA's ICESat-2 mission generates terabytes of surface elevation data daily using a laser altimeter.
• Efficiently exploring and visualizing ICESat-2 data poses significant challenges for researchers.
• Existing data services lack interactive tools for assessing data coverage and quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a user-friendly platform for accessing and visualizing ICESat-2 and ICESat data.
• To enable on-demand data discovery, visualization, and download for any global location.
• To facilitate data access via APIs for advanced computation and third-party applications.

Main Methods:

• Developed a web-based cyberinfrastructure platform, OpenAltimetry.
• Integrated search, subsetting, visualization, and download functionalities.
• Provided API access for programmatic data retrieval and analysis.

Main Results:

• OpenAltimetry successfully enables users to locate, visualize, and download ICESat-2 surface elevation data and photon clouds.
• The platform offers access to historical ICESat mission data.
• API access supports rapid data experimentation and integration with tools like Jupyter notebooks.

Conclusions:

• The OpenAltimetry platform effectively addresses the challenges of accessing and utilizing large-scale satellite altimetry datasets.
• It caters to diverse user needs, from new users seeking ease-of-use to experts requiring rapid access to extensive data.
• The project enhances the discoverability and usability of critical Earth observation data for scientific research.