1 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office Glenn Prescott Office of Earth Science, NASA HQ Steve Smith Earth Science Technology Office Karen Moe Earth Science Technology Office The Role of Advanced Information System Technology in Remote Sensing for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise

2 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office NASA’s Strategy for Remote Sensing Past approach focused on Large complex platforms Multiple instruments performing diverse measurements Data transmitted to ground and stored in large archives Scientists accessed data to derive information Present and near-term approach focuses on cheaper, lighter platforms Single mission platforms Instruments have higher precision, resolution and timeliness Larger quantities of data to be transferred, stored and analyzed The future strategy for NASA Earth Science measurements is defined by the Earth Science Vision….

3 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office The Goal: Modeling and assessment will evolve from characterizing the earth through a variety of independent measurements to assessing and forecasting the state of the Earth System based on the fusion of multiple, diverse scientific measurements. The Implementation: A constellation of small, instrumented satellites as well as airborne and in-situ instruments, networked together into an organic measurement system. High speed data links and internetworking tie the system together Intelligent on-board systems allow sensor autonomy On-board signal and data processing give more options to the scientist Challenge of the Earth Science Vision

4 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office Challenge of the Earth Science Vision

5 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office Technology Features: Autonomous operation allows each sensor to react to significant measurement events on and above the Earth, increasing precision and coverage where needed, without human intervention. On-board signal processing capability allows scientists the option of configuring instrument parameters on demand and controlling on- board algorithms to preprocess the data for information extraction. High speed information systems route user requests to specific instruments and maximize the transfer rate of data to processing and archive facilities on the ground. The key element in integrating all of the component parts of the sensor web is information technology… Challenge of the Earth Science Vision

6 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office The Role of Information Technology Information technology ties the sensor web together and provides a degree of control and access to space-based instruments that does not currently exist. Information technology challenges can be broadly classified into categories relating to Satellite on-board functions – pertaining to collection, processing and transmission of data Ground based functions – pertaining to data management, analysis, and information extraction Long range planning is required for technologies needed to bring the Earth science vision into reality. NASA engages scientists, engineers and technologists to determine the priority technologies that will provide the capabilities needed to implement the Earth science vision. These key technologies are described in terms of ground based and space based needs…

7 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office Space-Based Information Technology  High Speed Data Delivery Technologies increasing bandwidth available for space/ground communications  Data Compression and Storage Techniques and devices for efficient on-board storage and maximizing bandwidth utilization  Space Based Computing Architectures Techniques for implementing (radiation tolerant and reconfigurable) high- speed data and signal processing systems  Intelligent Platform and Sensor Control Technologies enabling autonomous goal-directed operations of one or more cooperating satellites

8 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office ESTO Key Investments Needed to Evolve toward the ESV High Speed Data Delivery High Data Rate Communications Satellite IP Network Data Compression and Storage Lossless and Lossy Data Compression Onboard Storage Architecture Space Based Computing Architectures Microprocessor and Board/Bus Technology Intelligent Platform and Sensor Control Platform Autonomy Navigation Technologies Space-Based Information Technology

9 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office High Data Rate Communication X-Band Technologies Ka-Band Technologies Optical Technologies Satellite IP Network Onboard Routers & Switches IP over Sat w/ larger network IP Networks on Satellites TDRSS Supports Routable Nets Flight Qual End-to- end IP IP to the Instrument TCP Over Satellite Addresses the need for ever increasing rates of data transfer from satellite to ground, and even from satellite to satellite. Increasing operating frequency permits greater bandwidth and hence higher data rates Sensor webs, or groups for formation flying spacecraft will need to have intra-constellation connectivity in order to hand off processing tasks, route data and enable navigation. Key Investments: High-Speed Data Delivery

10 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office Onboard Storage Architecture Solid State Mag/Optical Hybrid Planar bits/µm Mbits/sec Volumetric/Optical 1st Generation 0.05 bits/µm Mbits/sec Volumetric/Optical 2nd Generation 0.1 bits/µm 3 1 Gbits/sec Volumetric/Optical 3rd Generation 0.2 bits/µm 3 2 Gbits/sec Lossless & Lossy Data Compression 80 Msps 2:1 Comp Ratio ROI Lossy Comp 20 Msps ~ 2:1 Comp Ratio 80 Msps 3:1 Comp Ratio 220 Msps 5:1 Comp Ratio JPEG Lossy Comp High Performance Feature Identification for Preferential Compression Key Investments: Data Compression and Storage Allows more efficient use of available bandwidth. When combined with feature identification, can significantly increase the quantity of useful scientific data collected in a time interval Instruments having greater precision and resolution will require larger amounts of on-board storage. May also enable effective pre-processing of the data.

11 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office Key Investments: Space-Based Computing Architectures Microprocessor, Board and Bus Technology FPGA Tool Sets GIPS Processor Rad Hardened Sandia Pentium High Bandwidth Optical Bus (Gbps) High Performance Boards (100s MIPS) On-board processors will need to be reconfigurable in order to be used for data and signal processing tasks. Field Programmable Gate Array technology will be an essential element.

12 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office Key Investments: Intelligent Platform and Sensor Control Navigation Technologies Onboard GPS tracking Differential GPS and Lidar Systems Self- calibrating nav systems High precision control of cluster satellites Platform Autonomy Agent-based Reference Arch for multiple autonomous spacecraft (~50) Remote Agent Arch for single autonomous spacecraft Experimental Arch for multiple autonomous spacecraft (~3) Experimental Reference Arch for multiple autonomous spacecraft (~5) Autonomy will be an essential part of platform control. Intelligent systems will control the sensor web and integrate the platform with sensor measurement requirements. Precise navigation is essential for formation flying and a variety of precise geospatial measurements.

13 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office  Large Archival Storage Mass storage systems geared for Long Term Arc. with very large capacity and throughput requirements  Data Architecture Technical approaches enabling interoperability, scalability, and evolvability of data management systems  Data Discovery Techniques for finding and accessing data that are possibly unknown to the user or otherwise buried in large stores of complex information  Data Exploitation Technologies enabling application of algorithms and data to extract or project knowledge from one or more sources ESTO Key Investments Needed to Evolve toward the ESV… Ground-Based Information Technology

14 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office Key Investments: Large Archival Storage Proprietary FSMSSwath DBMS High- Performance Evolvable FSMS High-Performance Evolvable Archives Advanced Media Benchmarks Many current file storage management systems are proprietary. However these will evolve through storage, archival, and retrieval standards.

15 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office Key Investments: Data Architecture Research Code for Limited Semantic Extraction, Basic Earth Science Information Representation “Living” Data Lineage Technique Effective Knowledge Representation Earth Science Data & Services Representation The association of valuable content descriptions and knowledge representation with sets of data to facilitate finding data that was previously unknown to the user of the system. Includes data exploitation tools for search, fusion and mining. Extract semantic information from data set to describe the contents of a file in machine-readable terms such that an application can interpret the data in an intelligent manner

16 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office Key Investments: Data Discovery Research Code for Limited Knowledge Extraction / Change Detection Pilot Extraction Tool Set Automatic Change Detection & Task Initiation for Sensor Webs Knowledge Extraction Use of knowledge features, regions, models, objects, and semantics to detect changes in environment; then automatically task sensor webs to monitor regions of interest. Enable transformation of data from one or more sources into knowledge: - Data visualization - Feature extraction - Data fusion - Data mining - Semantic mapping

17 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office Key Investments: Data Exploitation Adaptive / Customized Subscription / Advertising Services Independent Subscriptions Partner on URN Technology Information Access and Delivery Users can independently subscribe to data products Real-time event recognition & products on demand Earth Science Data Exploitation infrastructure: - Combine data products and services - Tools for finding and obtaining data - Pilot set of reusable components - Provide web sites with mining systems, tools and services for science community Push/pull data & knowledge delivery when an event is recognized

18 ESTO Earth Science Technology Office Summary A primary enabler of the Earth Science Vision is Information Technology – we call it “Advanced Information Systems Technology” and manage it as a program. NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) has the task of assuring that needed technologies will be ready All planning is accomplished by collaborating with research scientists, engineers and technologists The technologies described here are high on ESTO’s investment priority list For current information on investments and planning activities