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MISR Science Data System
The Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS)
is an extensive ground data system used for NASA's current Earth science missions.
This diagram depicts elements of the EOSDIS used for support of the MISR instrument.
The primary ground station for the Terra spacecraft, on which MISR flies, is
at White Sands in New Mexico, to which Terra relays its data via the TDRSS
communications satellite system. The TDRSS "geostationary" satellite
is always directly overhead at the New Mexico ground site. There are also ground
stations on the island of Svalbard,
Norway, and in Alaska, that are used as a backup for the White Sands station.
The Terra spacecraft is controlled through the EOS
Operations Center (EOC), located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Maryland. All of the instruments on board Terra, including MISR, are also controlled
from the EOC. However, the MISR Project staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL) in California, where MISR was built, have an engineering and operations
responsibility for MISR. That is, MISR staff must plan the operational activities
for MISR, and must transmit plans and schedules to the EOC, from where MISR
and the spacecraft are directly commanded. The MISR staff must also monitor
the on-going status of the instrument, and investigate any instrument anomalies.
Data from MISR and from other Terra instruments is sent to the EOS
Data and Operations System (EDOS), located at Goddard Space Flight Center
in Maryland. Data arrives here in the form of spacecraft telemetry, and must
be decoded into its component parts, checked, and then despatched to the various
data processing locations, known as Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs).
The DAAC where MISR data is handled is within the Atmospheric
Sciences Data Center (ASDC) at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Virginia.
Here the data are processed into data products of use to the scientific community,
and distributed the to the end users. The data are also archived. Users who
need MISR data.should contact the ASDC
web site, where they will find more detailed information about MISR products.
From here, they contact the EOS Data Gateway (EDG), located at Goddard Space
Flight Center, to place orders for products. Products are normally delivered
directly over the internet or on physical media such as magnetic tape.
Back: MISR Data System
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