GHRC DAAC science team member Leigh Sinclair and database administrator Mary Nair attended the Common Metadata Repository (CMR) Metadata Summit at GSFC on February 15, 2017. Nair and Sinclair assist with metadata creation and population at GHRC, and are working with the ARC team to review and improve GHRC metadata.
SpaceX Dragon mission carrying the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) to the International Space Station (ISS) was successfully launched on February 19. Four members of the GHRC DAAC team – ISS LIS project manager Will Ellett, Michele Garrett, Mary Nair and Amanda Weigel – were able to attend the launch. ISS LIS is part of the DoD STP-H5 (Space Test Program-Houston 5) payload package, which was installed on Thursday February 27, 2017 and powered on for instrument check-out early the next day.
On Saturday February 18, 2017 members of SpaceX and NASA gathered at Kennedy Space Center’s observation building to witness the first launch off the historic Apollo/Saturn V launch pad 39A since the shuttle missions ended in 2011. SpaceX attempted to launch their Falcon 9 rocket carrying the CRS-10 Dragon spacecraft into orbit on a resupply mission to the International Space Stations. Aboard the CRS-10 Dragon was the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) a backup to the TRMM LIS instrument that provided scientists with over 17 years of lightning data and is planned to continue lightning observations from the ISS. In addition to the launch, SpaceX attempted its fourth vertical landing of the stage one rocket 6 miles south of pad 39A. The first launch attempt was scheduled for 10:00 AM on February 28th however, the launch was aborted 13 seconds prior to lift-off. The launch successfully occurred at the next launch window, Sunday morning, February 19th, at 9:38 AM.
From Saturday evening through Sunday morning an upper level trough brought rain and clouds through the Orlando-Titusville Florida area. Meteorologists closely monitored weather conditions in hope that both the rain and high cloud tops would move out of the area before launch that morning. It was only at 9:30 am, 8 minutes before launch, that the weather improved and the launch countdown commenced. Five seconds before launch the Falcon 9 engines ignited and at zero seconds, the rocket began to move vertically upwards and quickly disappeared in the clouds. The sonic boom and sounds of the Falcon 9 making its way to space were still audible.
Following the launch, at t-minus 9 minutes, SpaceX attempted to vertically land the detached stage one rocket that was used to push the CRS-10 Dragon into space. From the observation deck spectators could hear the dull noise of the the rocket nearing Earth's surface. Out from the clouds the rocket descended vertically and landed on the surface, releasing another sonic boom. SpaceX had successfully launched from the historic 39A pad and completed another stage one vertical land landing!
On Thursday, February 23rd CRS-10 Dragon docked at the International Space Station. In the subsequent days, the science package was unloaded and placed in position on the space station. NASA GHRC has been working alongside scientists and engineers to prepare the first images and data from LIS. The release of LIS data is expected to occur in early April 2017. Near real-time and standard lightning products from ISS LIS will be processed, archived and distributed at the GHRC DAAC for the public to explore.
GHRC science and outreach staff worked with EOSDIS Science Writer Joshua Blumenfield to draft an article describing the Lightning Imaging Sensor for the International Space Station. The article was published on the Earthdata website: https://earthdata.nasa.gov/lis-on-iss. LIS is on the SpaceX ISS crew resupply mission launched February 18th. Near-real-time and standard lightning products from ISS LIS will be archived at and distributed by the GHRC DAAC.
California has been hit by multiple atmospheric river events over the 2016-2017 winter season. Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands of high water vapor that transport moisture from tropical regions into the mid-latitudes. The atmospheric rivers bring 50% or more of the annual precipitation to California and often lead to hazards, such as flooding and mudslides. The events of January and February 2017 resulted in year-to-date precipitation totals greater than 150 - 200% above normal for many Northern California locations. The latest map from the U.S. Drought Monitor and NOAA shows Northern California is no longer under drought conditions, while Southern California drought status has improved from severe status to moderate.
Reservoirs, which supply essential water during the dry-season, have filled to capacity due to the excess rain. Lake Oroville, in Northern California, experienced weeks of heavy rain and runoff into the reservoir. To prevent dam overtopping, the spillway was activated on February 10, 2017. While releasing water, the spillway developed a hole almost the size of a football field that continued to expand with use. The damaged spillway was subsequently closed, but rising lake levels resulted in water release over an emergency spillway that caused excessive hillside damage. The headward erosion of the hillside toward the emergency spillway edge risked failure of the concrete berm of the spillway and sudden massive water release from the lake. Should this happen, devastating floods would occur to the many downstream communities. Nearly 200,000 people were evacuated as a precaution and the water flow of the damaged spillway was increased to lower lake levels and stop the erosion. Crews are rapidly working to reinforce the damaged spillway before forecasted rains arrive. Another series of storms are expected to dump 4 - 6 inches of rain to the area during the next week (February 15th-23rd).
The Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for Earth Observing Systems (EOS) (LANCE) distributes data to support users monitoring natural and man-made phenomenon by making data available within three hours of satellite observation. These near real-time data are critical for disaster planning, assessments, and decision making. The GHRC LANCE AMSR2 data observed the most recent atmospheric river as it moved towards Southern California on February 10, 2017. The image shown has 3 panels, Terra MODIS corrected reflectance imagery (left), the LANCE AMSR2 water vapor data (center) and the surface precipitation (right) observations available from the AMSR2 Rain and Ocean dataset. On the left, the MODIS imagery captures the linear band of convective cloud cover. Associated with this cloud cover is the narrow stream of higher water vapor concentrations shown in the AMSR2 water vapor image (middle). The AMSR2 surface precipitation data (right) identifies regions of high rain rates that coincide with the higher water vapor concentrations and cloud cover.
Near real-time data such as these LANCE AMSR2 Rain and Ocean data can provide emergency managers with important information during extreme weather events to help them decide how to respond.
For more information about NASA LANCE and other LANCE datasets at GHRC please access:
https://earthdata.nasa.gov/earth-observation-data/near-real-time
References:
AGU: http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2017/02/14/oroville-dam-site/
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/13/us/california-oroville-dam-spillway-failure/
NWS Sacramento Twitter: pic.twitter.com/LIn73Yyysz
U.S. Drought Monitor: https://www.drought.gov/drought/data-maps-tools/current-conditions
VOX: http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/2/13/14598042/oroville-dam-flood-evacuation
GHRC science staff member Amanda Weigel presented to the ESDIS Webinar series on February 8. Her presentation entitled "Atmospheric Event based Research using NASA GHRC Tools and Services” covered a variety of information, tools and services available at the GHRC, including micro articles linking data to phenomena or other information, the HyDRO search tool for data discovery, Field Campaign Explorer for visualization and and acquisition, and data recipes to guide users in the use of selected data products.
The webinar can be viewed online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyYBi4ttpmk&feature=youtu.be.
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