SeaWiFS ocean color data archive and distribution system: assessment of system performance

The Sea-viewing Wide Field-of View Sensor (SeaWiFS) Mission has initiated a new era of ocean color remote sensing and has established performance benchmarks that will be emulated by subsequent missions. An integral element of the SeaWiFS mission is the data component, performed by the Goddard Earth Sciences Distributed Active Archive Center (GES DAAC), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. Since the beginning of data distribution in September 1997, the GES DAAC has managed the data archive and improved data distribution capability. SeaWiFS data products are archived in a primary, secondary, and tertiary archive structure, ensuring data preservation. Data distribution utilizes a World Wide Web (WWW)-based ordering interface, allowing distribution either electronically or on magnetic tape media. Automatic data subscriptions, supplying user-tailored data product selections, have yielded a high archive-to-distribution ratio. System improvements have increased efficiency and redundancy. The user interface has added features designed to facilitate data access and data usage, enhanced by WWW information resources and comprehensive online dataset documentation. As SeaWiFS enters the latter half of its five-year mission, a system performance assessment provides useful information for other Earth remote sensing missions and allows consideration of future usage objectives for the SeaWiFS data archive. Index Terms--Data systems, ocean color, remote sensing.