LAADS DAAC Premieres New Tool to Preview Data Images Before Downloading

Searching on a map is second nature to many people as smartphones are used daily, around the world, to navigate through towns, cities, and other communities. Searching for data products can be this simple and some platforms like NASA Worldview make this possible. But what if a data user already knows where the data is that they want to download? NASA's Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive & Distribution System Distributed Active Archive Center (LAADS DAAC) is launching a new tool, View Data, that allows data users to use a global map to search for and preview many data sets before ordering.

In the new View Data tool, full-resolution images from MODIS and VIIRS data products can be viewed on a web-based map using the Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) tile service. Users can pan across the world, search by country, tile, validation site, user-defined polygon, or coordinates. They can also narrow their search criteria by date and include specific data products as layers, while also including orbit tracks, street maps, or administrative boundaries.

The View Data tool points directly to LAADS-specific data sets and products (including those without browse images), which enables users to quickly access data directly from LAADS DAAC, eliminating other data sets that are not pertinent to atmosphere or Level 1/0 datasets. This streamlines data product acquisition by keeping within the parameters of their research. In addition, users can request post-processing options, where users can tease out layers, or subset them, for their needs.

"The current search tool, Find Data, doesn't allow for preview of data," says Otmar Olsina, LAADS DAAC Lead Applications Developer. "With the View Data tool, users can preview data before downloading large amounts of data files. It should make their lives easier."

The View Data and Find Data tools will co-exist for the time being, but plans are in place for the View Data tool to eventually replace Find Data. The tool is still being refined and our developers would appreciate users' input on features that they would like to see tweaked or improved.

Please share your feedback on the new View Data Tool. Contact us