Data from NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) are an important resource for training new generations of Thai scientists and engineers not only about the engineering behind the remote sensing of Earth, but also about Earth processes and cycles. Dr. Don McNeil, Research Coordinator for the PhD Program in Research Methodology at Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus, in southern Thailand, uses data from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument to show his students how remotely-sensed Earth observing data can be used to study climate science.
“Given that remote sensing climate data covering the whole world are freely available from NASA, our goal is to learn from these data,” says Dr. McNeil (or “Ajarn Don,” as he is called by his students using the Thai word for “teacher”).
The university has a firm stance on using only free and open-source data and software to conduct research. Dr. McNeil notes several aspects of NASA Earth observing data that make them ideal: they have global coverage, they are freely distributed, and all the algorithms used to produce and analyze the data are openly available. In addition, tools necessary for analyzing the data, along with the application programming interfaces (APIs) behind the tools, are all available through EOSDIS Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs).
Dr. McNeil’s specific area of interest is temperature change and the drivers behind it. He has been using MODIS products such as Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity (MOD11A2) to investigate how daily land surface temperature has changed across the globe. His source for these data is NASA’s Land Processes DAAC (LP DAAC). LP DAAC is a partnership between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and is responsible for archiving and distributing EOSDIS data related to land processes.