ABSTRACT

In the compilation of a book describing the history of NASA’s ocean color missions (Coastal Zone Color Scanner, Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), it was quite clear that the accomplishments of these missions would have been difficult to achieve without the parallel rapid growth in computing capability. Before the launch of the CZCS, it was not even possible to fully test the critical atmospheric correction algorithm. Increasing computational power improved data processing speed markedly, made global mapping of ocean chlorophyll concentrations possible, and gave the power of data processing and visualization to the user community via both a system that duplicated NASA’s own data processing system (SeaDAS) and an easy-to-use Web interface (Giovanni). Along the way, the occasional mismatch between computational power and data volume sometimes drove people to tears, gave summer students wonderfully tedious jobs, and tested the limits of the nascent Internet.

About the Speaker:

Dr. James Acker received an undergraduate degree in chemistry and a Ph.D. in chemical oceanography from the University of South Florida, researching the deep-dissolution of aragonitic pteropods. He came to GSFC in 1991 to work with the Earth Observing System, and worked with the SeaWiFS Project before coming to the Goddard Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) for ocean color user services prior to the launch of SeaWiFS in 1997. He authored a SeaWiFS Technical Memorandum on the CZCS Nimbus Experiment Team, and wrote several Web articles on CZCS, SeaWiFS, and MODIS imagery. He has represented the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) for both user services and outreach, in particular advocating the use of the Giovanni data analysis and visualization system. In 2007, he was funded jointly by the NASA Science and History divisions to write “The Color of the Atmosphere with the Ocean Below: A History of NASA’s Ocean Color Missions”. Dr. Acker has also demonstrated the use of ocean color data and Giovanni with papers on phytoplankton blooms in the Chesapeake Bay, the unique biology of the northern Red Sea, and the export of calcium carbonate sediments from the Bahamas, Bermuda, and coral atolls caused by tropical storm systems. He has also assisted educational users of the data products available from the GES DISC in Giovanni. Dr. Acker is an avid swimmer and sports fan, and enjoys listening to movie soundtracks and reading about all aspects of science.