News and Features

National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) Affiliate Researcher Visits Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland [June 24, 2013]
Dr. Manoj Nair, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), is visiting the Institut für Geophysik at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Switzerland from July 1 to July 19, 2013. The purpose of the visit is to do collaborative research, developing techniques to improve prediction of the ground electric currents and magnetic field induced by very large geomagnetic storms. The research supports NGDC's work to improve understanding of and the ability to predict the geomagnetic fields in near-real time, providing more accurate and timely magnetic field products. Accurate predictions of the induced electric currents in the ground can provide power companies with the information needed to prevent power outages during large geomagnetic storms. NGDC is the national archive for geomagnetic data and information with primary roles in geomagnetic research and modeling. NGDC develops the standard magnetic navigation field models for the U.S. and the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) and participates in international research collaborations.
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NOAA Scientist Gives Progress Report on Efforts to Improve Data Quality in Space Weather in Satellite Technology [June 17, 2013]
Dr. Janet Green of the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) will attend a team meeting of Living with a Star (LWS) Targeted Research and Technology. Dr. Green will report on the progress of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) funded grant to study mechanisms that lead to the decay and enhancement of the radiation environment of earth. The harsh particle radiation can temporarily disable or permanently damage satellite electronics. Dr. Green will also attend the Geospace Environment Modeling conference immediately following to present NGDC efforts in improving the science quality of the GOES and POES space weather datasets.
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NOAA Scientists Participate in Local Workshop [June 17, 2013]
Drs. Rob Redmon and William Denig from the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) will participate in the Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) workshop in Boulder, Colorado, June 22-28, 2013. CEDAR is a broad-based, community-initiated, upper atmospheric research program having a stated goal to understand the behavior of atmospheric regions from the middle atmosphere upward through the thermosphere and ionosphere into the exosphere in terms of coupling, energetics, chemistry and dynamics on regional and global scales. The theme of this year's workshop is "Implementing the New Dimension Strategic Plan". The CEDAR research community has a heavy reliance on NOAA environmental data and products made available through NGDC.
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National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) Participates in NOAA Environmental Data Management Committee (EDMC) Virtual Conference [June 17, 2013]
During the week of 24 June 2013, NGDC's LCDR Dan Price will virtually attend and Anna Milan will participate in person at the NOAA EDMC conference followed by the NOAA and Academic Fleet Rolling Deck To Repository (R2R) meeting. The EDMC coordinates the development of NOAA's environmental data management strategy and policy, and provides guidance to promote consistent implementation across NOAA, on behalf of the NOAA Observing Systems Council and the Chief Information Officer. R2R focuses on consistent management of ocean data from ship to archive, implementing automated standard metadata descriptions and working towards common data formats. Environmental data management is an end-to-end process that includes acquisition, quality control, validation, reprocessing, storage, retrieval, dissemination, and long-term preservation activities. The EDMC, followed by the R2R, will bring together environmental data management leadership from NOAA, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, among others. NGDC stewards the nations ocean and coastal mapping data, including data collected by all of NOAA's Line Offices.
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National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) Establishes Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Data Services for Thailand Government Agencies [June 10, 2013]
Chris Elvidge of NGDC will be in Bangkok, Thailand June 17-21, 2013 to provide training on VIIRS data services established for two government agencies. The Thailand Department of Fisheries has used Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) nighttime lights to track lit fishing boats for the past five years, supplied from NGDC and are beginning to use VIIRS data for the detection of lit fishing boats. They use the data to confirm that fishing boats are staying out of protected areas and to understand the dynamics of fishing stocks in response to fishing level of effort. Dr. Elvidge will also provide training at the Thailand Hydro-Agro Informatics Institute, which has interest in VIIRS data products that could be used to better predict flooding and the monitoring of drought. Both agencies requested VIIRS data in geotiff format to reduce the data transfer volume and processing effort to convert from HDF5 to geolocated data grids.
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National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) to Attend CoastGIS 2013 Conference [June 10, 2013]
Mr. Mike Sutherland, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) scientist supporting development of high-resolution coastal digital elevation models (DEMs) (http://ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/dem), will attend the CoastGIS 2013 conference in Victoria, British Columbia from June 18-21, 2013. CoastGIS is an international biennial series of symposia that brings practitioners and researchers in marine and coastal Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing, and computer cartography together. Mr. Sutherland will attend a workshop on the development of integrated topographic-bathymetric DEMs to determine the utility of new software for NGDC DEM activities. Mr. Sutherland will also visit the NOAA Office of Coast Survey's Pacific Hydrographic Branch in Seattle, Washington to discuss data processing techniques and error estimation methodologies. NGDC is exploring ways to better quantify the error associated with DEMs to support better error estimation in the results of inundation modeling.
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National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) to Attend U.S. Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) Necker Ridge Discussion [June 10, 2013]
Dr. Barry Eakins, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) scientist at NGDC, will participate and present at the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) discussion on Necker Ridge, hosted by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) in Washington, D.C. on June 21, 2013. The discussion will focus assessing potential ECS along Necker Ridge in the Central Pacific Ocean. Dr. Eakins, as lead of the ECS Central Pacific Integrated Regional Team, will present scientific analyses on the morphologic connection between Necker Ridge and Necker Island, a part of the Hawaiian Islands. The U.S. ECS Project is a multi-agency collaboration to determine and define the extent of the U.S. continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles as reflected in the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. NOAA co-leads the ECS Project management with DOS (senior lead) and the Department of Interior. NOAA leads the bathymetric survey planning, coordination, and execution to address ECS requirements. NOAA's NGDC leads the Data Management and Integration to steward, document and maintain the long-term archive for all ECS related data and derived products while also supporting regional analysis and submission development. The DOS will establish an ECS Project Office in Boulder, co-located with NGDC, in FY2014.
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Critical Design Review (CDR) for GOES-R Space Weather Level 2+ Algorithms [June 03, 2013]
The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) is currently developing the third phase of GOES-R Level 2+ algorithms for the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) under the support of the GOES-R Risk Reduction Program. On June 11, 2013, Dr. Juan Rodriguez of NGDC & the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) will be giving a Critical Design Review (CDR) at SWPC for the GOES-R Level 2+ Solar Proton Event Detection product. This product has three parts: Event Detection proper, which includes the legacy SWPC algorithm that supports the Solar Radiation Storm Scale as well as a new real-time calculation of event fluence; Rate-of-Rise, which alerts the Space Weather Forecast Office to rapidly-rising solar proton events; and Linear Energy Transfer (LET), which estimates the LET spectrum of solar heavy ions, a cause of single-event-upsets in spacecraft electronics. The Event Detection product ingests data from two of the instruments in the Space Environment In-Situ Suite (SEISS): the Solar and Galactic Proton Sensor (SGPS) and the Energetic Heavy Ion Sensor (EHIS).
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NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) to Remotely Present at Curators of Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples Meeting (June 11-13, 2013) [June 03, 2013]
On June 11, 2013, Carla Moore from NGDC will present the status of the Index to Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples (IMLGS) database (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geosamples/) to the Curators of Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples meeting hosted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Woods Hole, MA. NGDC maintains the IMLGS on behalf of the Curators, in cooperation with the National Science Foundation (NSF), under the NSF Division of Ocean Sciences Data and Sample Policy. Since 1977, NGDC has met biennially with the Curators to promote best practices in stewardship of data about geological samples from the sea floor and lakebeds, coordinating data sharing and interoperability through the IMLGS. Stewardship of geologic samples and data, maximizes the scientific and environmental resource-management potential of these scarce assets, and supports NOAAs role in climate change research and benthic habitat characterization. Representatives from the Antarctic Marine Geology Research Facility at Florida State University, the British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility, the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Natural Resources Canada, Oregon State University, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the University of Hawaii, the University of Rhode Island, the USGS, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the NSF-funded Rolling deck to Repository and Integrated Earth Data Applications programs will participate in the June meeting. NGDC and NSF are unable to participate but will present remotely.
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