IDL Used by NASA to Develop Award-Winning Software
for Global Oceanographic and Climate Research
Monitoring the Earth's Vital Signs
As the development platform for SeaDAS software - an analysis system for remote sensing data that was recently recognized with NASA's prestigious 2003 Software of the Year Award - RSI's IDL plays a central role in the scientific study of the Earth's vital signs.
SeaDAS is the primary data analysis software for NASA's SeaWiFS Project. Remote sensing data collected by SeaWiFS' satellite instruments is used by oceanography and ecology scientists around the globe for important research about the health of the Earth's oceans, climate trends and the impact of those factors on micro and macro biological systems. The program is part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, a long-term, coordinated research effort to study the Earth as a global system.
The Challenge of Supporting a Global Network of Scientists
Because of the highly distributed nature of the user base for data provided by the SeaWiFS project, NASA needed to develop a custom application that would allow scientists around the globe to access the remote sensing data over the Internet and analyze the data in a manner that consistently adheres to rigid scientific standards.
In the 1990s, prior to the start of the SeaWiFS Project, NASA provided scientists with platform specific UNIX based applications to allow those with older computers to handle and analyze the large image files. Not only were significant development resources required to design and maintain these applications, but the applications were complex and difficult for end users to work with.
Choosing IDL
"When we started preparing for the launch of the SeaWiFS satellite instrument, we knew we needed to develop a software application that would better support our rapidly growing user base. We also knew we needed a development platform that would allow us to accomplish that in a way that used our resources wisely. That is why we chose IDL," said Chuck McClain, former leader of the SeaDAS development team.
The SeaWiFS choice of IDL was a decision that was embraced by people around NASA who have been using IDL for numerous other visual data analysis projects.
Developing an Award-Winning Application
"Developing an application of this size and complexity would normally take a large staff and an equally large budget, but IDL allowed the SeaWiFS team to develop the original application with just a staff of three," said Chuck McClain. |
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"Instead of building complex components from scratch, the SeaWiFS team took full advantage of IDL's large library of analysis algorithms," said Mark Ruebens, SeaDAS Manager. "In addition, IDL's GUI development tools have been invaluable in streamlining one of the most time-intensive parts of the development process. An application like SeaDAS requires an interface that meets the needs of novice users of data analysis software as well as power users who want advanced capabilities. That would be a huge job without IDL."
Using IDL, the SeaDAS development team was able to create a very powerful application that can handle the large data sets used by the scientific community. These data sets can range in size from 20-100MB for SeaWiFS imagery to 500MB for imagery from the newer MODIS satellite instrument.
"One of our goals was to design SeaDAS to focus on the heavy lifting of image processing, and give our end users a lot of flexibility to build their own analysis routines on top of that. IDL allows us to do that because it gives scientists the right tools to easily add custom analysis features to suit the specific nature of the research they are doing," said McClain.
"Our team has also been able to maintain a very aggressive schedule of upgrades since the launch of SeaWiFS with just a staff of two or three," said Ruebens. "That has made the SeaDAS project very cost-effective for NASA."
Upgrades since the launch of SeaWiFS have included a move to Linux, meeting the needs of a growing international user base that predominantly relies on lower cost Linux-based systems.
"World-Class Support"
"RSI was truly a partner during the original development process, and that's one of the unwritten benefits of using IDL," said McClain. "The RSI team was a great resource for our small development group, and the company was also very flexible in accommodating our unique needs in supporting such a large user base."
"On a day-to-day basis, my team provides technical support to SeaDAS users in every corner of the globe, and RSI's support services allow us to be very responsive to our users and be very efficient in doing so," said Ruebens. "RSI's technical support services resources have made it possible for us to provide world-class support on a shoestring. SeaWiFS takes great pride in that accomplishment."
Setting a New Standard for Success
Since the launch of SeaWiFS, hundreds of scientific papers using SeaWiFS data have been published, representing a dramatic burst of progress in fields such as marine biology, ecology, oceanography, and climate studies.
"The IDL/SeaDAS development project has become a template for best practices in supporting NASA's remote sensing data users in an efficient, cost-effective way," said McClain. "It has been such a success that I believe it will be the template for next-generation remote sensing projects that are in the works. That is a tremendous validation for the SeaWiFS team and for IDL."
For more information about SeaDAS, visit http://seadas.gsfc.nasa.gov.
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