We are pleased to announce the availability of a web-based browse utility for OCTS data of U.S. coastal waters that are currently being received at Wallops Island and the Alaska SAR Facility. This tool features quasi-true-color images mapped to a global projection, in addition to point-and-click access to the higher resolution (10x10 subsampling) images. These true- color images are intended merely to enable researchers to geographically identify scenes, to determine cloud coverage, and to identify major features of interest that may be visible in true-color images such as these (land features, major ocean color changes, etc.).
The OCTS browse utility is available from the SeaWiFS Homepage at: http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS. html or directly at: http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/seawifs_scripts/octs_browse.pl.
Following are some of the features of the OCTS browse tool. When the screen first appears, a global map of the most current day for which we have received OCTS data is displayed. For most of the current day, a single pass from Alaska might be all you will see. There will also be a small map at the bottom of the page, indicating which stations have provided data for that day (as of the current time). Also on this page, is a hyperlinked calendar showing all the days of the current month for which we have data, and a number in parentheses that indicates the number of orbits we have for that day. Clicking on any of the hyperlinked dates on the calendar will take you to that date, and display the corresponding data files. You can go to any of the previous months by selecting the name of the month in the forms window and pressing the "Set Month" button. Also, you can choose to look at data from only one of the ground stations by selecting the station of interest from the forms window and pressing the "Set Stations" button. As a rule of thumb, the current day's display will generally be somewhat sparsely covered, until late in the afternoon (eastern time). You might wish to look at the previous day's coverage, or pick a day that has a large number of orbits.
If you are looking at the global map of browse products and wish to examine one of the orbits in more detail, just click on the area of interest on the map, and a screen displaying the 10x10 subsampled image will be presented. Many of the orbits will have a tilt change somewhere near the middle of the pass, which is easily seen in the image. Features to look for include the Bahama Banks off the eastern coast of Florida, the Appalachian Mountains, river plumes in the South Atlantic Bight, and many others.
As part of a NASA/NOAA/NASDA collaboration, data received at these two stations, along with selected data recorded on board and transferred from Japan, are currently being archived within the SeaWiFS Project. The SeaWiFS Project looks on this activity as a way to ensure that ocean color data from OCTS is preserved, and as a very good test of the Project's readiness for the launch of SeaWiFS. In fact, we are using this opportunity to incorporate OCTS processing within the existing SeaWiFS data processing system with great success. It is also providing a chance to exercise all facets of the SeaWiFS Project. This activity also represents a wonderful example of interagency cooperation, where NASA, NOAA, and NASDA all contribute expertise and infrastructure to benefit the scientific community.
It must be pointed out, however, that the data being received and stored at the present time are in raw format, and not available for distribution. All data acquired by OCTS are archived at the Earth Observation Research Center in Japan and all requests for data should be directed to them at the present time. They can be reached at: http://mentor.eorc.nasda.go.jp/index.html.
After a hiatus of nearly a decade, it is an absolute pleasure to be able to work with real data once again.