Table 1.
Available environmental datasets for the trajectory annotation service
| Datasets | Data Description | Data Source | Projection system/Grid | Temporal Coverage | Geographic coverage (Latitude/Longitude) | Temporal resolution | Spatial resolution | Data Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) [37] | Tropical precipitation | NASA http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/ | Regular lat/lon grid | 1998– present | 50°N–50°S 180°E–180°W | 3-hour | 0.25° | Unformatted binary |
| AVHRR land NDVI [38] | Normalized difference vegetation index from the AVHRR (low resolution) sensor | USGS (USA only) http://phenology.cr.usgs.gov/get_data_1km.php NASA (global) http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/data/gimms/ | Albert’s Equal Area grids | 1989–present, 1982–present | CONUS, 90°N–90°S 180°E–180°W | 1-week, 2-week | 1 km (USA), 8 km (global) | Unformatted binary |
| NCEP Global Reanalysis 2 [39] | Global weather reanalysis | NOAA http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.ncep.reanalysis2.html | Regular (non-Gaussian) grid | 1948–present | 90°N–90°S 180°E–180°W | 6-hour | 2.5° (208 km) | NetCDF |
| North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) [40] | Regional (North America only) weather reanalysis | NOAA http://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/mmb/rreanl/ | Lambert Conformal, Conic Grids | 1979–present | 90°N–1°N 0°–170W° | 3-hour | 32 km (at 40°N) | GRIB |
| ECMWF Reanalysis [41] | Global weather reanalysis | ECMWF http://www.ecmwf.int/ | Regular grid | 1979–present | 89.463°N–89.463°S 180°E–180°W | 6-hour | 0.7° | GRIB |
| MODIS Land | Earth-surface, reflectivity and vegetation variables | NASA https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/ | Geographic/ Sinusoidal grid | 2002–2012 | 90°N–90°S 180°E–180°W | Daily, 8-day, 16-day, monthly | 5.6 km (0.05°) | HDF- EOS |
| MODIS Ocean | Ocean surface, color, and productivity variables | NASA http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/ | Cylindrical Equidistant | 4 km, 9 km | HDF- EOS | |||
| MODIS Snow | Snow and ice variables | NASA http://modis-snow-ice.gsfc.nasa.gov/ | Cylindrical Equidistant | 1 Km, 4 Km | HDF- EOS | |||
| Ocean productivity [42] | Ocean net primary productivity (NPP) reanalysis | http://www.science.oregonstate.edu/ocean.productivity/ | Equidistant Cylindrical projection, lat/lon grid | 1997–2009 | 90°N–90°S 180°E–180°W | 8-day, monthly | Grid sizes 1080x2160 (1/6 degree) 2160x4320 (1/12 degree) | HDF |
| ASTER GDEM | Very high-resolution topography | USGS http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gdem.asp | Regular grid, (WGS84 ellipsoid) | 83°N–83°S 180°E–180°W | 1 arc-second | GeoTIFF | ||
| SRTM [43] | High resolution topography | NASA http://www.cgiar-csi.org/data/srtm-90m-digital-elevation-database-v4-1 | Regular grid, (WGS84 ellipsoid) | 60°N–60°S 180°E–180°W | 3 arc-second | HGT | ||
| GlobCover | Land cover and land-use type | ESA http://dup.esrin.esa.it/prjs/prjs68.php | Plate-Carrée projection (WGS84 ellipsoid) | 2009 | 90°N–65°S 180°E–180°W | 20 arc-seconds | HDF | |
| Socioeconomic data (Population Density Grid) | Human geography | http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/gpw/global.jsp | Regular grid (WGS84 ellipsoid) | 1990–2010 | 85°N–58°S 180°E–180°W | 5 years | 30 arc-second (1km) | ASCII |
| Ocean Surface Current Reanalysis (OSCAR) | Ocean surface currents | NASA http://www.oscar.noaa.gov/ | Regular grid | 1993–present | 60°N–60°S 180°E–180°W | 5-day, monthly | 1 degree, 1/3 degree | NetCDF |
| ETOPO1 | Ice surface and bedrock | NASA http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/global.html | Regular grid (WGS84 ellipsoid) | 1940–2008 | 90°N–90°S 180°E–180°W | 1 arc-minute | NetCDF | |
| Distance to the Nearest Coast | Distance to the nearest coast | NASA http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/DOCS/DistFromCoast/ | Regular grid | 90°N–90°S 180°E–180°W | 0.04° 0.01° | Text file, GeoTiff | ||
| Derived wind variables for flight | Tail-wind support and cross wind [36]; Thermal and orographic uplift [5] | Calculated derived variables, based on ECMWF or NCEP data | Regular grid | 1979–present | 89.463°N–89.463°S 180°E–180°W | 6-hour | 0.7° | ASCII |
| Derived topographic variables | Slope and aspect [25]; Rugosity [44] | Calculated derived variables, based on ASTERGDEM | Regular grid | 83°N–83°S 180°E–180°W | 1 arc-second | ASCII |