The Science Working Group for the AM Platform (SWAMP) met at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) on November 2-3, 1995. On December 15, 1995, there was a related AGU session on science and the EOS AM-1 platform.

The SWAMP meeting was opened by EOS AM Project Scientist, Piers Sellers. Chris Scolese, EOS AM Project Manager, presented the Project Status and the Team Leaders/Principal Investigators gave updates for the MODIS, MISR, ASTER, MOPITT, and CERES instruments. The meeting continued with sessions on Calibration, Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), Gridding, Test Data Sets, Validation, Science Workshops, Science Software Management, Landsat-7/AM-1 Issues, and EOS Data Products. The essential points made in these sessions are given below.

Lunar Calibration

Joe Bolek presented the recent findings of the engineering assessment for lunar calibration:

The lunar view maneuver is technically feasible; only software modifications are required.

The science rationale and justification need to be very solid.

Funding for the software changes needs to be identified.

A decision needs to be made at NASA/GSFC to go ahead and make the necessary changes.

Jim Butler presented the scientific assessment for lunar calibration, which is to be summarized in a "White Paper." The lunar maneuver has direct science benefits to ASTER, MISR, and MODIS, while the dark space view has benefits for all five EOS AM-1 instruments.

There were discussions about various methods for entering and leaving the maneuvers (combinations of yaw-pitch-pitch-yaw or roll-pitch-pitch-roll, etc.), which need to be considered to:

ensure that the MODIS thermal cooler does not get overly warmed by Earth radiation;

allow all the MISR cameras to see the moon; and

allow different incident-view angles for MODIS and MISR.

To accommodate all of the above safely, it may be necessary to conduct maneuvers on two orbits. It was proposed that the suite of full lunar/space viewing maneuvers be conducted only occasionally; from one per year (maximum) to three times in the mission (minimum).

Calibration Plan

Jim Butler reviewed the current state of the EOS Project Calibration Plan, which exists in draft form. The plan includes material from:

Instrument Calibration Plans: these have all been delivered for EOS AM-1, were updated at the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and Critical Design Review (CDR), and have been peer-reviewed.

Calibration Algorithm Theoretical Basis Documents (ATBDs.)

Calibration SubPanel, which has not met for a while. (The next meeting will be in early 1996.)

The calibration plan will incorporate information about:

Pre-launch calibration.

Post-launch calibration. (a) On-board devices. (b) Vicarious (Earth viewing). (c) Vicarious (lunar/space viewing). (d) Cross-calibration, i.e. with other simultaneous satellite acquisitions.

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs)

Nevin Bryant (JPL) reported on the current status of DEMs being developed for EOS. A 1-km Defense Mapping Agency (DMA)-based product should be available in 1996, with hopes for a 500-m/100-m product in early 1998.

Work needs to be done to:

define the sequence of tasks needed to generate DEM-based products from the "raw" DEM material to achieve the above goals;

define the requirements for the various software tools to be applied to the EOS DEM data, so that the DEM can be usefully accessed by instrument algorithms.

Gridding

Piers Sellers reviewed the "via dolorosa" of the gridding schemes for EOS AM. After much discussion, it has been concluded that:

No single gridding scheme can be imposed on the EOS AM-1 teams for Level 3 (L3) products‹there is too much variation in the requirements of the groups, e.g., polar products versus cloud products.

The need for uniform, easy-to-use products for use by modelers has been recognized by all teams.

It has been decided that the EOS AM-1 teams will generate analogues of their L3 products (and, perhaps, some of the L2 products) to a "modeling" grid with the following properties:

1 degree x 1 degree resolution, or nested 0.5 degree x 0.5 degree or 0.25 degree x 0.25 degree; with grid cells bounded by integer latitude/longitude lines and starting from 180 degree W, 90 degree N and reading text-wise, i.e., left to right, thereafter.

Monthly time resolution, or 10-day resolution with three periods per month such that the intervals run: 1-10, 11-21, 21-end of the month

If diurnally-resolved products are to be produced, they should conform to conventional UTC time-marks, e.g., 00Z, 03Z, 06Z, etc.

Common land/sea mask (to be determined by the GSFC/DAAC).

Ralph Kahn (JPL) should continue to pursue the hexagon-nested grid. This approach may offer the best long-term solution to the gridding problem for L3 products.

Test Data Sets

Skip Reber (EOS Deputy Senior Project Scientist) reported on the recent Test Data Set Workshop. He is coordinating progress towards a common test data set to be used by all EOS AM-1 teams. This may be a data period of one week in October 1986 or a period in 1987.

Validation

David Starr reviewed validation activities:

A Validation Workshop will be held in the Spring of 1996. This will include linkages with other programs and field experiments.

There will be a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) for validation activities in 1996. Emphasis will be placed on the importance of the instrument teams' needs and the breadth of application, i.e., number of teams/products benefited by a single activity.

Science Workshops

Three disciplinary workshops have been proposed. These will follow-up on the ATBD reviews by providing a forum for the discussion of EOS product improvements, additions, and synergisms (multi-instrument products).

Land Workshop

The workshop will take place in May 1996, after the selection of the new EOS investigators. It will consist of two segments:

1. A status review where all the existing and new team members will present their algorithms.

2. The workshop itself, articulated as follows:

   Surface radiances, reflectances, emittances

   Land cover classification, fraction of photosynthetically absorbed radiation (FPAR), leaf area index (LAI), roughness length, etc.

   Downstream products: photosynthesis, evapotranspiration (E-T,) Gross Primary Productivity (GPP), etc.

Atmospheric Workshop

Michael King reported that this was in a very early planning stage. Graeme Stephens had agreed to co-chair.

Oceans Workshop

Chuck McClain outlined some discussion topics for the Oceans Workshop:

Review of geophysical algorithm status

Quality control of products

Product specification and formats (L1-> L3).

Science Software Management Reviews

Francesco Bordi reviewed the main points emerging from the Science Software Reviews (SSRs) for MODIS, MISR, ASTER, and MOPITT. The common concerns raised by all teams were:

Metadata and browse requirements literature

EOS-HDF delivery schedule (late delivery could severely impact V1.0 deliveries)

Availability of remote testing at DAACs

Proposed restructuring of EOSDIS

Landsat-7 and EOS AM-1

All SWAMP members present concurred that having Landsat-7 and EOS AM-1 fly close together in time was highly desirable.

Redefinition and Additions of EOS Products

There are some differences of opinion as to what is or is not a standard/research product. Michael King and Ghassem Asrar will work on specifying a procedure for defining the status of a product, how to change its status, and how to add/delete a product.

EOS AM-1 Session at AGU

There was an American Geophysical Union special session on science and the EOS AM-1 platform. There were a total of 15 oral presentations and 12 posters. The overall standard of the papers was very high and was appropriate for the AGU audience; that is, the focus was on the science that we expect EOS AM-1 to deliver and how we are going about it (algorithms, validation, etc. ) rather than a technical review of the guts of the instruments.

The speakers and poster presenters for the session were:

Oral: Sellers, Salomonson, Ackerman, Kahn, Davies, Kahle, Tsu, Schmugge, Gillespie, Matsunaga, Drummond, Pan, Kaufman, Barkstrom, Stobie.

Poster: Slater, Wan, Therrien, Edwards, Rokke, Smith, Yu, Pierl, Khalsa, Case, Kahn, Wang.

Next SWAMP Meeting

The next full-up SWAMP meeting will be held in conjunction with the Science Software Management Reviews for all the EOS AM-1 teams during the week of March 18-22, 1996.

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