A key component of NASA’s Earth Observing System is its field experiments, for intensive observation of particular phenomena such as hurricanes, or for ground validation of satellite observations. These field experiments collect many datasets from a wide variety of satellite, airborne, and ground-based instruments, on different spatial and temporal scales, often in unique formats. Such diverse environmental observations are important for physical process studies, disaster assessment and response, as well as for the validation of environmental satellite observations and atmospheric models which can improve forecasts. However, the challenges inherent in working with such diverse datasets mean they are underused despite their value.
The Field Campaign eXplorer (FCX) addresses challenges inherent with utilizing these datasets to improve data management and discoverability to enable scientists to rapidly collect, visualize, and analyze these data. FCX was originally developed for the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) field campaign that investigated hurricane intensification.
More recently, NASA's Global Hydrometeorology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center (GHRC DAAC) has leveraged work from the Visualization for Integrated Satellite, Airborne and Ground-based data Exploration (VISAGE) project. FCX has incorporated the lessons learned from VISAGE to transition FCX into a robust, cloud-native tool for exploring, visualizing, and analyzing diverse data in a common framework.
FCX is currently in beta status and is under development including recently submitted proposals for follow-on work. The functionality to subset and download data granules, view flight reports, and view data from additional field campaigns. This will occur concurrently with the development of new analysis tools.
