Linda Hayden

Compact reconnaissance imaging spectrometer for MARS (CRISM)

The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars CRISM (CRISM) carried aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), is the first visible-infrared spectrometer to fly on a NASA Mars mission. CRISM scientists are using the instrument to look for the residue of minerals that form in the presence of water: The ‘fingerprints’ left by evaporated hot springs, thermal vents, lakes or ponds. With unprecedented clarity, CRISM is mapping regions on the Martian surface at scales as small as 60feet (about 18 meters) across, when the spacecraft is 186 miles (300 kilometers) above the planet. CRISM is reading 544 ‘colors’ in reflected sunlight to detect certain minerals on the surface, including signature traces of past water. CRISM alone will generate more than 10 terabytes of data, enough to fill more than 15,000 compact discs. Given that quantity of data being returned by MROCRISM, this project partners with Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) scientists of the CRISM team to assist in the data analysis process. The CRISM operations team has prototyped and will provide the necessary software analysis tools. In addition, the CRISM operations team will provide reduced data volume representations of the data as PNG files, accessible via a web interface without recourse to specialized user tools. The web interface allows me to recommend repeating certain of the CRISM observations as survey results indicate, and to enter notes on the features present in the images.

Science Gateways Institute Survey

Science gateways are digital interfaces to advanced technologies that support science/engineering research/education. Frequently implemented as Web and mobile applications, they provide access to community resources such as software, data, collaboration tools, instrumentation, and high‐performance computing. We anticipate opportunities for growth within a fragmented community. Through a large‐scale survey, we measured the extent and characteristics of the gateway community (reliance on gateways and nature of existing resources) to understand useful services and support for builders and users. We administered an online survey to nearly 29,000 principal investigators, senior administrators, and people with gateway affiliations. Nearly 5000 respondents represented diverse expertise and geography. The majority of researchers/educators indicated that specialized online resources were important to their work. They choose technologies by asking colleagues and looking for documentation, demonstrated reliability, and technical support; adaptability via customizing or open‐source standards was another priority. Research groups commonly provide their own resources, but public/academic institutions and commercial services also provide substantial offerings. Application creators and administrators welcome external services providing guidance such as technology selection, sustainability planning, evaluation, and specialized expertise (e.g., quality assurance and design). Technologies are diverse, so flexibility and ongoing community input are essential, as is offering specific, easy‐to‐access training, community support, and professional development. Copyright

Science Gateways: The Long Road to the Birth of an Institute

Nowadays, research in various disciplines is enhanced via computational methods, cutting-edge technologies and diverse resources including computational infrastructures and instruments. Such infrastructures are often complex and researchers need means to conduct their research in an efficient way without getting distracted with information technology nuances. Science gateways address such demands and offer user interfaces tailored to a specific community. Creators of science gateways face a breadth of topics and manifold challenges, which necessitate close collaboration with the domain specialists but also calling in experts for diverse aspects of a science gateway such as project management, licensing, team composition, sustainability, HPC, visualization, and usability specialists. The Science Gateway Community Institute tackles the challenges around science gateways to support domain specialists and developers via connecting them to diverse experts, offering consultancy as well as providing a software collaborative, which contains ready-to-use science gateway frameworks and science gateway components.

Collaborations Focused on Enhancing Undergraduate Involvement in Remote Sensing Applications to Atmospheric and Earth Science Research

This paper discusses the mentoring strategies used with groups of undergraduate physics, mathematics and atmospheric science majors to develop their ability to contribute to remote sensing investigations. The projects have been a joint effort of scientists and educators at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton University in Virginia, Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina, Stennis Space Center, and The Office of Naval Research. Atmospheric Science investigations have included verification of Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER). The SABER instrument is one of the four instruments housed on the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite. SABER explores the MLTI (Mesosphere Lithosphere Thermosphere Ionosphere) region of the Earths atmosphere using infrared limb emission to sound the atmosphere. Other atmospheric science investigations have included use of a single scatter lidar equation to investigate tropospheric and stratospheric aerosol and temperature measurements derived from the 355 and 532 nm channels and comparison of the SAGE III limb scattering data to other instruments measuring similar aerosol and gas profiles. Earth science investigations include investigating incidents of coastal upwelling during the summer of 2000 along the northeastern coast of North Carolina (from Cape Hatteras to the Virginia Commonwealth border) by comparing archived in situ near and offshore wind and temperature measurements with sea surface temperatures deduced from observations by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on board several of NOAAs Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES); remote sensing investigation of turbidity and water clarity in the Atlantic Ocean with the use of SeaWiFS data during which the frequency and extent of turbidity events in the Atlantic coast was studied and SeaWiFS ocean color data was utilized to generate Secchi disk depth estimates and; determining the spatial and temporal variability of chlorophyll concentrations in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico during 2002. Techniques for developing the required collaborations, student selection and organization of research training activities are described in this paper.

The Science Gateways Community Institute at Two Years

The Science Gateways Community Institute was one of the first two software institutes funded by the National Science Foundations Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure in August, 2016. The structure of and services offered by the institute were developed as a result of seven years of planning grants that funded focus groups, a 5000-person survey and the development of a strategic plan. Now two years in, we provide an overview of the institutes service offerings and their usage, reflect on the experiences of some early clients, review our approaches to metrics and evaluation, and describe some lessons learned. We also describe the lightweight, adaptive management approach employed by the institute. SGCI is organized into five service areas: Incubator, Extended Developer Support, Scientific Software Collaborative, Community Engagement and Exchange, and Workforce Development. This paper will highlight early successes in all five areas, from client achievements to conference experiences to our impact on students. We highlight areas where the institute has evolved --- based on community feedback --- from what was originally envisioned. We describe our use of the Entrepreneurial Operating System as a lightweight management approach for a highly adaptive organization. Finally, we include early plans for the execution phase of the institute.

Establishing Paradigms for Modifying and Developing the Workforce Development Section of the Science Gateways Community Institute Site

The Center of Excellence in Remote Sensing Education and Research (CERSER) program on the campus of Elizabeth City State University is currently partnering with the Science Gateways Community Institute (SGCI) which is led by the San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC). SGCI is divided into five sections to support members of the gateway community: Incubator, Extended Developer Support, Scientific Software Collaborative, Community Engagement & Exchange, and Workforce Development. Dr. Linda Hayden, the CERSER Principal Investigator, leads the Workforce Development Section. The Workforce Development goals are to increase the development pipeline of science gateway young professionals and educators with an emphasis on increasing involvement of students from underrepresented groups. As science today grows increasingly computer based, it poses challenges and opportunities for researchers. Scientists and engineers are turning to gateways to allow them to analyze, share, and understand large volumes of data more effectively. The existence of science and engineering gateways and the sophisticated cyberinfrastructure tools together can significantly improve the productivity of researchers. Most importantly, science gateways can give uniform access to the cyberinfrastructure that enables cutting-edge science. The goal of the science gateways team was to increase the interactivity of the SGCI Workforce Development section of the SGCI web site to attract potential members and publicize needed information. The proposed modifications for this project were completed utilizing HTML, CSS, and graphical modeling.

GLOBE Data Entry App Version 1.3 Now Available: Create and Edit Sites Without Active Internet Connection [Education]

The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program is a worldwide hands-on primary and secondary school-based science and education program. GLOBE’s vision promotes and supports collaboration among students, teachers, and scientists on inquiry-based investigations of the environment and the Earth system, working in close partnership with NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Earth System Science Projects for study and research about the dynamics of Earth’s environment.

Quantifying sargassum boundaries on eastern and western walls of the gulf stream protruding near cape hatteras into Sargasso Sea Bermuda/Azores

The Sargasso Sea has been a ocean life habitat for millions of years, yet accurate assessment of the boundary area and detection of these relatively small sea surface features using Landsat series and Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments have been found to have difficulty or even impossible due to lack of spatial resolution, coverage, recurring observance, and algorithm limitations to identify pelagic species of Sargassum. Sargassum rafts tend to be elongated, curved in the upwind direction and warmer than the surrounding ocean surface. Long weed ‘trails’ extending upwind from the rafts are evidence of plants dropping out and being left behind. Satellite data utilizing a simple ocean color indexes such as the floating algae Index and Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) have been established to detect floating algae in open environments using MODIS instruments. Floating Algae Index (FAI) has shown advantages over the traditional NDVI and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) because FAI is less sensitive to changes in environmental and observing conditions (aerosol type and thickness, solar/viewing geometry, and sun glint) and can see through thin clouds. The baseline subtraction method provides a simple yet effective means for atmospheric correction. The algorithms assisted in identifying the boundary area of the Sargasso Sea and the path of this floating alga past Cape Hatteras into the Atlantic Ocean. Due to the fact that similar spectral bands are available on many existing and planned satellite sensors such as Landsat series observations satellites, the NDVI and FIA concept was extendable to establish a long-term record of these ecologically biological dependent ocean plants.

Validation of the Antarctic Snow Accumulation and Ice Discharge basal stress boundary of the southeastern region of the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica

The largest ice shelf in Antarctic, Ross Ice Shelf, was investigated over the years of 1988-2014. Near the basal stress boundary between the ice shelf and the West Antarctic ice sheet, ice velocity ranges from a few meters per year to several hundred meters per year in ice streams. Ice velocity increases as the ice moves seaward, reaching more than 1 km yr-1 in the central portions of the ice front. Most of the drainage from West Antarctica into the Ross Ice Shelf flows down two major ice streams, each of which discharges more than 20 km3 of ice each year. Along with velocity changes the warmest water below parts of the Ross Ice Shelf resides in the lowest portion of the water column because of its high salinity. Vertical mixing caused by tidal stirring can thus induce ablation by lifting the warm water into contact with the ice shelf. This process can cause melting over a period of time and eventually cause breakup of ice shelf. With changes occurring over many years a validation is needed for the Antarctic Snow Accumulation and Ice Discharge (ASAID) basal stress boundary created in 2003. After the 2002 Larsen B Ice Shelf disintegration, nearby glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula accelerated up to eight times their original speed over the next 18 months. Similar losses of ice tongues in Greenland have caused speed-ups of two to three times the flow rate in just one year. Rapid changes occurring in regions surrounding Antarctica are causing concern in the polar science community to research changes occurring in coastal zones over time. During the research, the team completed study on the Ross Ice Shelf located on the southwestern coast of the Antarctic. The study included a validation of the ABSB vs. the natural basal stress boundary (NBSB) along the Ross Ice Shelf. The ASAID BSB was created in 2003 by a team of researchers headed by National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA GSFC), with an aim of studying coastal deviations as it pertains to the mass balance of the entire continent. The point data file was aimed at creating a replica of the natural BSB. Select cloud free Landsat satellite imagery from satellites 1 through 7 was used to detect changes occurring over the span of 19 years. The last major interest in the study included documenting the deviations or incorrect placements of the ABSB vs NBSB. ENVI 4.7 as well as ENVI 5.0 image manipulation software was used in the geo-rectifying and the geo-referencing process. Changes that occurred were documented in the form of a data table with the change that occurred along with the latitude and longitude geographic coordinates.

Update of the CERSER TeraScan cataloguing system and the TeraScan image processing scripts

In 2013, the Center of Excellence in Remote Sensing Education and Research (CERSER) added more satellite receiving hardware to its current National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite system [2]. The program now processes both NOAA satellite images as well as Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) [8] satellite images. This new imaging capability required the development of scripts on the TeraScan system to process satellite data received and produce an image file with overlay features such as latitude/longitude lines and political map outlines.