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Scientific Research & Data Analysis
MDA has a workforce with a broad skill set touching on many scientific disciplines. This provides us an ability to present comprehensive and integrative approaches to environmental problems.
MDA has a long and well recognized history of providing high quality and scientifically rigorous products. We are involved in an industry that is advancing technologically and requires cutting edge tools and techniques to maintain and improve capabilities. In this vein, we are constantly improving our workforce and platforms to maintain a competitive edge. We have a workforce with a broad skill set touching on many scientific disciplines. This provides us an ability to present comprehensive and integrative approaches to environmental problems. We have access to a wide selection of imagery sources to aid us in this endeavor.
Sea Surface Temperatures
Global climate change has been an increasingly important issue for the scientific community in recent years. Understanding how temperatures vary across the surface of the Earth over time is a very important component of climate change analysis, especially with regard to the El Nino/La Nina cycles. MDA was tasked by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to acquire, ingest, reformat, and assemble global Sea Surface Temperature data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) into a common data base. The goal was to develop a systematic data set that was statistically comparable through time. NOAA's published data (both the SST monthly mean and anomaly data) were not scaled consistently, so direct comparison month to month was not possible without rescaling the data. MDA rescaled the existing data to work around this limitation. Dr. Al Strong of NOAA/NESDIS developed the initial SST data (both monthly mean and anomalies-deviation from monthly mean) into a global monthly dataset at a 36 km resolution. This established 12 annual datasets stretching from January 1984 to December 1998. 1991 and 1992 were excluded due to volcanic aerosol contamination.
Release of IDPs for NSF Research
The U.S. Government has large volumes of remotely sensed Earth imagery data that are collected and maintained for a variety of applications. Unfortunately, many of these datasets are classified for national security reasons. During the 1990s, there were efforts to identify classified imagery data sources that may have scientific value for environmental analysis. MDA has been involved in the data research, selection, utility assessment, quality assurance and production side of a number of these projects as well as serving as a systems integrator.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) identified a number of pilot projects to demonstrate the utility of Imagery Derived Products (IDPs), created from classified national reconnaissance satellite imagery, for long-term scientific research. Two of these projects involved polar regions (Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA) and the McMurdo Dry Valleys in the Antarctic). The final products consisted of digital imagery and elevation data sets.
