ASF User Working Group Meeting

Meeting Summary

ASF is now the Alaska Satellite Facility rather than the Alaska SAR Facility.

ASF received a glowing assessment from all members of the UWG. A good management team has been pulled together over the past year, and ASF is running well. The User Services Office is very responsive and helpful, as are the acquisition planners. The operational agencies are very happy with the rapid delivery of near-real time imagery, and the science users are satisfied with level-0 and level-1 data delivery.

ASF has a new NASA contract through March 2008 which funds its core activities. The first two years include support for reception and processing of data from the currently orbiting SAR satellites, RADARSAT-1 and ERS-2, with 24 hr/day operation of the Receiving Ground Station (RGS). RGS service will be reduced in years 3-5. DAAC operations are currently reduced from 24 hr/day to 18 hr/day (7 days/week).

ASF, in partnership with NOAA, is the Americas ALOS Data Node. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is planning to launch ALOS in September 2004. ASF expects to receive 200-300 TB of SAR and optical data per year. Data policy negotiations were completed in October. All users in North and South America will receive their data through ASF (except those who are directly involved with a Japanese-sponsored project such as the Kyoto & Carbon Initiative). ASF has submitted proposals to four U.S. Federal agencies for funding to support the Data Node.

RADARSAT-1 is now 8 years old, and the second ADRO program is ending. Its purpose was to develop new applications of SAR data, and the researchers were directed to ASF to obtain that data. In the future, the opportunities for projects that use SAR data will be spread across different programs and agencies. ASF will need to take a more active role in encouraging and supporting SAR data users if it hopes to maintain its customer base.

Recommendations and Notes

(Not necessarily in order of importance)

• Users need to have a better way to see what data are available through ASF. Currently there are two methods: (1) Use the EDG to search the ASF archive; (2) Call USO and ask them to search the CSA archive. The EDG is not amenable to browsing through lots of coverage maps, and the second method requires a lot of human effort to fill a single request. At ASF, as with other satellite data facilities, only about 10-20% of the acquired data have been processed into image products. To facilitate data mining, and to encourage new users and applications of the data, the available coverage needs to be more visible. This could be done in a three-step process: (1) Make the ASF holdings more visible; (2) Make the CSA holdings more visible; (3) Create thumbnails or browse images of all available imagery. One suggestion is to make maps, one map for each day and each satellite, showing the frames available for that day. The maps could be organized and posted on the ASF web site. An even better idea is to produce coverage files that are compatible with ESA's DESC software so that users can plot the coverage themselves. ASF should develop a plan for improving the visibility of its own archive, CSA's archive, and any other data to which users may have access via ASF.

• Give a more detailed report on whether or not the recent SWB enhancements have fixed the previous problems.

• Improve the documentation of data quality problems.

• Improve the documentation of data calibration.

• ASF should identify whether or not there has been a change in the amount of on-time for RADARSAT-1, and determine how that should affect the U.S. data allocation.

• ASF has a new Strategic Plan (July 2003). The UWG would like to emphasize strengthening the ties with local scientists by entraining them in the ASF strategizing process and collaborating with them on proposals. The six goals in the Strategic Plan should be re-ordered by simply moving the current #1 ("viable organization") to #6.

• About ALOS and the AADN:
  • ASF should publish the newly negotiated ALOS data policy on its web site.
  • Continue to pursue the ability to acquire near-real time ALOS data for U.S. operational agencies.
  • Find out if simultaneous PALSAR and AVNIR acquistions will be possible.

• ASF has produced a new newsletter, News & Notes, to be issued quarterly. The inaugural edition is dated Fall 2003. This is a good start at initiating regular communication with data users and potential customers. Some suggestions for content and distribution are:
  • Have a welcome statement announcing the new newsletter and the new name of ASF
  • Have a subscription sign-up form on the ASF web site
  • Make pdf copies available on the web site
  • Include more news about data sets available at ASF
  • Discuss recent problems and improvements in data sets
  • Highlight various software tools
  • Include a URL for further information at the end of each article
  • Feature other institutions that use ASF data, and their applications
  • Give links to research announcements that would support the analysis of data from ASF
  • Have a "suggestion box" -- an e-mail address for suggestions about how to improve data, services, or the newsletter itself

• Clarify the pricing policy on data from foreign ground stations. Users should know how much the data will cost before they order it.

• ERS-2 has experienced a gradual power loss over several years but the ASF calibration has not changed to account for this. Please investigate.

• A new set of software tools will be available at the end of January, including combined ingest and calibration, export to a variety of popular formats, and geocoding. Proposed tools include viewing software, terrain correction, and statistical functions. Tools are available for the Solaris and Irix operating systems. There is strong interest in Windows versions. The goal of the tools is to reduce the barrier to entry into the use of SAR data. Here are some suggestions:
  • Allow users to contribute tools to the "unsupported" category of software.
  • Create an on-line user forum for discussion of tools. ASF could also post the Tools Survey there. UWG members could preview and test the forum before it goes public.
  • Simple tools are needed to return the incidence angle and satellite track angle for any pixel in an image. Note that ENVISAT ASAR metadata comes with 11 x 11 arrays of latitude, longitude, and incidence angle. This simplifies the extraction of geolocation information and allows easy interpolation to any pixel in the image.

• Find out from CSA if ASF is allowed to show (e.g. on a password-protected web site) what acquisitions are planned for the following day. This would be useful for the operational agencies.

• ECHO is the EOSDIS Clearinghouse. DAACs are supposed to deposit their metadata into ECHO, and users will then search the single ECHO database rather than all the DAACs. ASF has to build a tool to migrate its metadata to ECHO, and build an interface to ECHO. The UWG cautioned against moving too quickly to embrace ECHO until the system is more stable. Also, the interface should be able to point the user directly to ASF as well as to the ECHO database.

• Forty hours of Seasat SAR data reside at ASF but they are currently inaccessible. Ben reported on a plan whereby the University of Miami and Vexcel would copy the tapes, develop a level-0 processor (and perhaps a level-1 processor), and Miami would make the level-0 data available on-line in a manner analogous to WInSAR. The UWG endorses this plan, as the initial effort involves nearly zero cost to ASF, and it would be a significant step in resurrecting this data set. A strawman plan will be provided by Ben (together with Miami and Vexcel) to ASF and Waleed for approval. The plan will include the possibility of processing the data to level-1 and making them available through the EDG.

• The antennas at ASF could be used for educational purposes on a non-interference basis. Contact LASP at the University of Colorado for ideas about how to do this. ASF could also get students involved in other aspects of operations such as acquisition planning.

• ASF experienced a 15-minute power outage on November 18. This was a rare occurence, but it shut down the whole operation and it took about an hour to bring all the computers back up. ASF should look into a range of options for protecting against power outages, from the cheapest possible solution ("graceful shutdown") to full backup power.

• ASF's new contract with NASA provides for annual meetings of the User Working Group. It also reduces funding for ASF in years 3-5, which ASF plans to make up from other funding sources. Should the UWG advise ASF on its non-NASA activities? I believe the answer is yes, if ASF requests such advice. Anything that improves ASF in general has the potential to benefit the NASA side of ASF as well. Note that NSIDC has some non-NASA funding, and their advisory group (PoDAG) considers all aspects of NSIDC operations. Nevertheless, the role of the UWG may change over the next five years.

• UWG membership. (1) Larry Smith is resigning, and several names were put forward as possible new members. The membership should represent the various communities that use data from ASF. (2) ASF has become more integrated with the Geophysical Institute (GI), and the GI has its own advisory board. Someone from the GI advisory board should be invited to attend future UWG meetings. (3) Ben Holt will replace Harry Stern as the UWG chairperson. Membership questions will be taken up by the new chair, together with Nettie and Waleed.

• We will have a teleconference with ASF to get their responses to the recommendations from this meeting. The date will probably be in late January. Details to follow later.

• We talked about having the next UWG meeting in conjunction with PoDAG, probably in Boulder, in the summer or fall of 2004. Stay tuned.

Attendance

Waleed Abdalati		NASA HQ 	wabdalat@hq.nasa.gov
Scott Arko		ASF		sarko@asf.alaska.edu
Don Atwood		ASF		datwood@asf.alaska.edu
Tom Bicknell		JPL		Thomas.J.Bicknell@jpl.nasa.gov
Pablo Clemente-Colon	NOAA/NESDIS	Pablo.Clemente-Colon@noaa.gov
Katy Farness		OSU/Byrd Polar	kfn@frosty.mps.ohio-state.edu
Ben Holt		JPL 		ben.holt@jpl.nasa.gov
Ron Kwok		JPL 		ron.kwok@jpl.nasa.gov
Nettie La Belle-Hamer	ASF 		nettie@asf.alaska.edu
Carel Lane		ASF		clane@asf.alaska.edu
Larry Ledlow		ASF		lledlow@asf.alaska.edu
Martha Mason		ASF		mmason@gi.alaska.edu
Kyle McDonald		JPL		kyle.mcdonald@jpl.nasa.gov
Frank Monaldo		JHU/APL		Frank.Monaldo@jhuapl.edu
Ross Newcombe		ASF		ross@asf.alaska.edu
Jeremy Nicoll		ASF		jnicoll@asf.alaska.edu
Eric Rignot		JPL		Eric.J.Rignot@jpl.nasa.gov
Paul Seymour		NIC		seymourp@natice.noaa.gov
Harry Stern		UW/PSC		harry@apl.washington.edu
Ron Weaver		NSIDC		Ronald.Weaver@colorado.edu