Continuity of Earth Observation Data for Australia: Research ... - csiro

EO Data Type
Synthetic Aperture
Radar – X band
Scatterometry
Earth Radiation Budget
Radiometry
Instruments exclusively used
by CAWCR/BoM
Table 3-8 (continued)
40 Continuity of Earth Observation Data for Australia: R&D • January 2012
-
ASCAT (MetOp-A),
Scatterometer
(OCEANSAT2)
-
Data Sources TOTAL INSTRUMENTS
Instruments used by all
CEODA-R&D projects
(including CAWCR/BoM)
SAR 2000 (COSMO-
SkyMED), X-Band SAR
(terraSAR-X)
CAWCR/BoM
only
Other
Projects
All
Projects
0 2 2
- 2 0 2
CERES (TRMM, Terra,
Aqua)
0 1 1
Lidar - CALIOP (CALIPSO) 0 1 1
Synthetic Aperture
Radar – L band
- - 0 0 0
TOTAL 18 48 66
# Unique Instruments 17 42 59
* Some key instruments that contribute to Ocean Colour are categorised under Optical – Low Resolution
For each essential data type, respondents were asked to select the agreement type that governed data
supply and the physical supply route used for data delivery (please refer to Appendix C-6 for details of
supply categories). The vast majority of EO data used for R&D activities in Australia are available under
public good agreements and are accessed via ftp/Internet arrangements, either from Geoscience Australia, or
(often) directly from data servers operated by international agencies (e.g. NASA, USGS, ESA). This imposes
significant loads on current Internet links to the USA and Europe. Some sources of meteorological data are
covered by WMO Resolution 40, and a small number of researchers have enhanced access privileges based
on either Primary Investigator status, data reception agreements or public good (research agreements).
While most respondents did not report current infrastructure obstacles, several commented in relation
to overall data supply and download capacity. Some state governments impose extremely high download
charges, which are avoided by consortia which include academic institutions. Bandwidth is a problem in
more remote locations, such as Townsville, resulting in slow data transfer rates. For some data types, data
access was compounded by ‘data packaging’ by the supplier. For example, AATSR data is only available via
web access, without the facility to download sub-global coverages. The daily volume of data acquired over
Australia by other sensors, such as CALIOP (CALIPSO), is too large to download in a single day. Some
research projects currently lack the facilities and manpower to download ongoing data, so are concentrating
on analysis of historical data. Certain key EO datasets in Australia are currently acquired and supplied largely
on a ‘good will’ basis by selected research establishments, and these supply conditions were reported to
contribute to unpredictable delays in data delivery.
The current data volumes being managed by seven of the 56 surveyed projects are listed in Table 3-9.
Each of these projects involve storage, processing and ongoing acquisition of relatively large data volumes.
The infrastructure implications of downloading these growing volumes of EO data, often from international
sources, underline the importance of efficient data access and archiving facilities for Australian researchers,
and the need for strategic infrastructure plans.