Title: NASA Earth Observing System Simulator Suite (NEOS3)
Presenting Author: Noppasin Niamsuwan
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Co-Author(s): Simone Tanelli

Abstract:
NASA Earth Observing System Simulator Suite (NEOS3) is a forward simulation tool for Earth remote sensing instruments. The development was initially funded by NASA ESTO's AIST program in 2009 to design and implement a modular simulation framework for atmospheric remote sensing applications. This project has been further supported by the AIST program to increase its computational performance and enhance its capabilities essential for simulating Earth's surface measurements. NEOS3 is equipped with state-of-the-art programs to enable a realistic simulation of satellite observables while remaining highly customizable allowing the users to control several aspects of simulation. User-configurable options include selection of models for describing geophysical properties of atmospheric particles and their effects on the signal of interest, selection of wave scattering and propagation models, and activation of simplifying assumptions (trading between computation time and solution accuracy). The next generation of NEOS3, to be released in 2015, will also feature additional advanced electromagnetic scattering models for various types of the Earth's surfaces and ground covers (e.g. layered snowpack, forest, vegetated soil, and sea ice) NEOS3 is designed to be a sophisticated but user-friendly simulator package intended for science users to help accelerating their research as well as for system engineers to facilitate demonstration and validation of their instrument design concepts. The system is accessible via either a web interface (for graphical interactive control) or web services (for automated machine-to-machine communication). The simulation process can be executed on the NEOS3 central multi-core server or distributed to remote computers (e.g. NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility) for more computationally intensive tasks. Cloud computing capability will also be available in the next release. The presentation will cover (a) feature highlights, for those interested in using NEOS3 in their research or development, (b) a quick walk-through on running NEOS3, and (c) system architecture and interface overview, for those interested in contributing a new advanced library of program code or database. On-going collaboration with other projects also supported by ESTO programs, Fusion of Hurricane Models and Observations (AIST11) and Collaborative Workbench to Accelerate Science Algorithm Development (CMAC11), will also be presented.