Visualize, Discover, and Analyze: A Data Center's Innovative Services for Addressing Observing System Challenges

Meteorological phenomenon are observed and quantified using a variety of airborne, satellite, and ground-based instruments.  Data collected using these instruments are fed into improving our physical understanding of atmospheric phenomenon in order to better model, forecast, and prepare.  One of the challenges faced in data collected for an observing system is having the ability and resources to archive these large quantities of data, as well as provide the services and tools to make these data more discoverable and usable to a diverse user base.  The Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC), one of NASA’s data centers, actively archives data related to severe and hazardous weather, its governing dynamical and physical processes, and associated applications.  With a focus on lightning, tropical cyclones, and storm-induced hazards, GHRC provides services to users that promote the discovery and use of integrated collections of satellite, airborne, and in-situ datasets.  These services include cutting edge field campaign visualization tools, collections of data for case study analysis, data recipes, and documentation to educate users on how to use and visualize scientific data.  The GHRC DAAC addresses common observing system data challenges by providing user services that aim to make atmospheric data more accessible and easy to use across broad-user communities in order to stimulate scientific research and discovery for enhanced modeling, forecasting, and decision making.