About the Branch: About Home

The Terrestrial Information Systems Branch supports the requirements of GSFC research projects that advance our understanding of the atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere on a global scale through the production of stable, well calibrated and scientifically validated products from a series of earth observing satellites. In producing a time series of high quality global products, members of the branch are engaged in:

• Developing algorithms for precisely locating and atmospherically correcting observations from satellite instruments;
• Developing and operating computing systems that produce, archive and distribute global products;
• Assessing the quality of global products as they are produced;
• Developing software and computing systems to inter-relate observations from multiple instruments over long time scales to support science investigations into climate and ecosystem change;
• Developing and managing a global network of validation sites and;
• Innovative research in the areas of computational algorithms, computing systems and technologies for acquiring, archiving, searching and distributing remotely sensed data.

Recognizing the need for a rapid response in many of NASA application areas, the branch also partners with other federal agencies, such as the Department of Interior and Department of Defense, to develop and operate computing systems which provide custom products in near real-time to national and international users for applied research activities (such as fire and flood monitoring, famine prediction, invasive species, and ecological forecasting) and applications, e.g. military tactical support.