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News in 2014

The purpose of this page of the CDDIS web site is to post new items, activities, data sets, etc. of interest to the CDDIS user community. Users should also consult the meetings page to view a list of upcoming meetings and events of interest to the space geodesy community.


Sensing Our Planet cover

Earthdata Article Featuring CDDIS Data Published (04-Dec-2014)

A speed bump in space-timeLike many physicists today, Rafael Lang at Purdue University is on the hunt. As in a treasure hunt, the odds of finding the treasure may be slim, but the rewards are huge and the lure of the hunt irresistible. Lang said, "If we were to find something, it would be super, super exciting, another puzzle piece to open this new world."

Read more....


19th ILRS Workshop

The 19th International Laser Ranging Workshop was a great success (18-Nov-2014)

The 19th International Laser Ranging Workshop was hosted by NASA GSFC from October 27-31, 2014 in Annapolis, Maryland. October 31 marks the 50th anniversary of the first successful Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) measurement which occurred at the Goddard Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory (GGAO) in 1964. The theme for this workshop, "Celebrating 50 Years of SLR: Remembering the Past and Planning for the Future" allowed the community to look back on its many accomplishments and to present plans for future advances in SLR technology and science. Sponsors for the Workshop were NASA, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), and the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS). The Workshop was organized by Carey Noll (NASA GSFC, CDDIS DAAC Manager), Jan McGarry (NASA GSFC), Mike Pearlman (SAO) and Stephen Merkowitz (NASA GSFC) and was attended by approximately 180 participants from 25 countries.

On Monday, the history of SLR was given in a series of six invited talks by the pioneers in the field. The afternoon was devoted to invited science talks showing SLR's positive impact on various NASA and international missions.

In addition to the events in Annapolis, the participants were given a day-long tour of GSFC and GGAO, including tours of the Goddard Visitor's Center, Building 7 Integration and Testing facilities, Building 29 James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) integration and testing, and tours of the NASA next generation space geodesy systems at GGAO. A Goddard Joint Engineering and Scientific Colloquium on Wednesday featured a seminar by John Degnan, "A Celebration of Fifty Years of Satellite Laser Ranging." John's talk was introduced with a few words from GSFC Center Director, Chris Scolese.

A new format for a station operations session was introduced at this workshop where ILRS experts met in small groups of station engineers and operators to provide solutions to common station problems, information to maintain station stability, and guidelines for interacting with the analysts in determining station biases. These station clinics were well attended and received by workshop attendees.

A highlight of the Workshop was a speech and question and answer session at Thursday evening's banquet given by Dr. Piers Sellers, GSFC Deputy Director of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate and NASA astronaut.

There were 81 oral presentations and 70+ posters at the Workshop. The Goddard participants were authors or co-authors of over 30 of these, with many highlighting the new Space Geodesy Satellite Laser Ranging (SGSLR) Systems and the Next Generation Space Geodesy Network. SGSLR and the Space Geodesy Network will be built by Space Geodesy Project at Goddard for global deployment over the coming decade.

This workshop in Annapolis and GSFC proved to be a very successful gathering of international experts in the field of satellite laser ranging. The workshop website (http://cddis.gsfc.nasa.gov/lw19) will soon be updated with presentations, posters, summaries, and photos from the week.


NGSLR

Celebrating 50 Years of Satellite Laser Ranging at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (28-Aug-2014)

We like to think of Earth as a big blue marble; a shimmering, smooth sphere. In reality, our home planet is shaped more like a big blue potato (or, to be polite and more scientific, an "oblate spheroid"). The combination of Earth’s rotation at roughly 1,670 kilometers per hour, the uneven distribution of continents that are slowly moving, the Moon’s tug on tides, ocean circulation, and a host of other factors cause our planet to have an uneven surface that is a bit flat at the poles and slightly bulging around the middle.

This means that the Earth's exact shape, center of gravity, and precise rotation are constantly changing and can only be determined through extremely precise measurements. An entire field of science called geodesy is devoted to taking these precise measurements, and Goddard Space Flight Center is at the leading edge of this field. In fact, it was in a field near Goddard 50 years ago this October that the first successful Satellite Laser Range (SLR) measurements were taken, ushering in a new era in the science of measuring the Earth.

Read more....


CDDIS logo

2014 User feedback survey (26-Aug-2014)

In the next few days, you will receive an email from CFI Group on behalf of NASA. This message will ask you to complete a survey for users of NASA Earth science data and services, which includes the Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS). The CDDIS is one of twelve NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) science data centers evaluated by this survey. The purpose of this survey is to help NASA and the DAACs assess customer satisfaction and improve future services. Suggestions from past surveys have been implemented to improve the tools and services offered by the CDDIS.

Please participate! Your feedback affects our future performance and helps to identify science needs. You will be able to take the survey for each DAAC you use. This is your opportunity to influence the priorities of the DAACs.

If you did not receive a survey and wish to complete one or know of someone who uses EOSDIS data and services who did not receive a survey, please contact CFI Group.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is the only national cross-industry measure of customer satisfaction in the United States. NASA commissioned the CFI Group, an independent research and consulting organization, to conduct a brief survey to rate the products and services NASA currently provides from NASA's EOSDIS data centers. Please consider responding to this survey; your input will help us to better serve our user community.

Presentations of these results given to NASA Earth science are available at: http://earthdata.nasa.gov/acsi.

Thank you in advance to all of you who are willing to spend a few minutes to complete the survey.


18th Laser Ranging Workshop logo

Proceedings from the 18th International Workshop on Laser Ranging (25-Mar-2014)

A website for the proceedings from the 18th International Workshop on Laser Ranging, held November 11-15, 2013 in Fujiyoshida Japan, has been created and is now available at http://cddis.gsfc.nasa.gov/lw18/.

Because a hardcopy of the proceedings will not be published, all presentations, posters, and papers collected thus far have been made available through this website. Session summaries and ILRS splinter meeting notes are also linked on the website. The ILRS would like to acknowledge the significant, and thorough, efforts of the program committee in working with workshop participants to collect the documents that are now available through the website.


CDDIS logo

New CDDIS website now available (24-Mar-2014)

The CDDIS staff is pleased to announce a new CDDIS website is now available. This redesign has allowed for a review of the organization of the site and its contents, ensuring information is current and useful. The new site also incorporates an improved navigation scheme. The website features access to applications enabling data discovery. One application, the SiteLogViewer, provides an enhanced display and comparison of the contents of ILRS and IDS site logs used by the services to document a site's system configuration; IGS and IVS site logs will be added to the utility in the near future.

Comments and suggestions are welcome and should be directed to the CDDIS support group through the "Contact Us" link. We would like to acknowledge the efforts of the website development team (Lori Tyahla, Nathan Pollack, and Carey Noll) for their contributions to the site content.


Goddard Space Flight Center

Robert H. Goddard Award Recipients (18-Mar-2014)

Congratulations to the Space Geodesy Project Team for receiving the Robert H. Goddard Exceptional Achievement Group Award for Engineering. Additional congratulations goes to Jan McGarry, who received an individual Robert H. Goddard Award for Exceptional Engineering Achievement.


NASA logo

Network outage - Saturday, March 15, 2014 from 08:00 a.m. through 04:00 p.m. EDT (12:00-20:00 UTC) (07-Mar-2014)

We have been notified that there will be a network outage (due to work on NASA's backbone equipment) on Saturday, March 15, 2014 from 08:00 a.m. through 04:00 p.m. EDT (12:00-20:00 UTC). Unfortunately, this activity will affect CDDIS operations. All connectivity to our servers will be off-line during that time. The outage will also affect access to the CDDIS, ILRS, LRO-LR, and Space Geodesy Project websites.

While the CDDIS is unavailable, users can access one of the other data centers supporting the services:


We regret the inconvenience the outage will cause our user community.


NASA logo

NASA Solar System Exploration Division Seminar (29-Jan-2014)

An SSED seminar will be held Monday, February 10 from 2 to 3 p.m. in Building 34, Room W150. The speaker, Dr. Zuheir Altamimi from IGN in France, will give a presentation entitled "The International Terrestrial Reference Frame: current status and future challenges."


ILRS logo

19th International Workshop on Laser Ranging Announced (22-Jan-2014)

We are pleased to announce that the 19th International Workshop on Laser Ranging will be hosted at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, October 27-31 2014. Goddard has the unique opportunity to host this event at the birthplace of SLR: October 31, 2014 will mark the 50th anniversary of the first SLR measurement, conducted at what is now the Goddard Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory, GGAO. The theme for this workshop, "Celebrating 50 Years of SLR: Remembering the Past and Planning for the Future" will allow us to look back on our many accomplishments and present plans for future advances in the SLR technique. Furthermore, we solicit contributions from complementary space geodesy techniques and from activities that rely on the integration of SLR with other space geodesy techniques.

Please consider participation in this workshop and reserve the week to join us at NASA GSFC. More details will be provided shortly.