Title: An API for Commercial Very High Resolution Science Products for Earth Science
Presenting Author: Christopher Neigh
Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Co-Author(s): Carroll, M.; Montesano, P.; Slayback, D.; Wooten, M.; Lyapustin A.; Shean D.; Alexandrov O.; Macander M. and Tucker C.J.

Abstract:
Commercial very high-resolution (VHR) Earth observing (EO) satellites have grown into constellations with global repeat coverage that can support existing NASA EO missions with stereo and super-spectral capabilities. Sub-meter data from these instruments exceeds petabytes per year and the cost for data, storage systems and compute power have both dropped exponentially. Concurrently, through agreements with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center is acquiring VHR EO imagery from WorldView-1,2,3 Quickbird-2, GeoEye-1 and IKONOS-2 satellites. To enhance the utility of these data we are developing an API to produce on demand user defined science ready products to support NASA’s EO missions that includes two primary foci: 1) surface reflectance 1/2° ortho mosaics - multi-temporal 2 m multispectral imagery that can be used to investigate biodiversity, tree canopy closure, surface water fraction, and land-cover land-use at the human scale; and 2) VHR digital elevation models (DEMs) - derived with the NASA Ames stereo pipeline to benefit Earth surface studies on the cryosphere (glacier mass balance, flow rates and snow depth), hydrology (lake/water body levels, landslides, subsidence) and the biosphere (forest structure, canopy height/cover) among others. Current API capabilities and recent examples of derived products used in NASA Earth Science projects will be provided.