The Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) was set up in 1990 in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey. It is one of 12 archive centers in NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System, and it takes in, archives, processes and distributes NASA's Earth-science data on land: more than 2 petabytes (2,000 terabytes) of satellite data, free to the public.
What it holds
Data from satellite sensors that watch the land surface — chiefly ASTER (the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) and MODIS (the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites — plus datasets made by selected scientists under NASA's MEaSUREs program and community programs. New datasets are added regularly.
| Collection | Collected by | Period | Coverage | Pixel size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASTER | Terra | 2000–present | Global | 15, 30, 90 m |
| MODIS | Aqua (2002–present), Terra (2000–present) | Global | 250 m to 5,600 m | |
| Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, version 3 | Space Shuttle Endeavour | February 11–21, 2000 | 60°N to 56°S | 30, 90 m |
| Web-Enabled Landsat Data | Landsat 7 | 2002–12 | Conterminous U.S. and Alaska | 30 m |
| Vegetation Index and Phenology | Terra MODIS, AVHRR, SPOT | 1981–2013 | Global | 5,600 m |
| ASTER Global Emissivity Dataset | Terra ASTER | 2000–08 (v3), 2000–15 (v4) | Global | 100 m to 5,600 m |
How often
MODIS, on two satellites in different orbits, covers the whole Earth every 1 to 2 days, and its data are also combined into 4-day, 8-day, 16-day, monthly and yearly views. ASTER has to be tasked to image a place, which suits studies of particular areas or events and gives sharp images of natural disasters.
Wildfires in southeastern Australia on October 7, 2015: the MODIS fire product (red) over a true-colour image from Aqua. USGS.
Getting the data
- Data Pool — direct download of most of the archive; DAAC2Disk for bulk orders.
- NASA Earthdata Search — to find and browse data.
- AppEEARS (Application for Extracting and Exploring Analysis Ready Samples) — pulls out user-defined samples and plots the values interactively.
What the data are used for
Geology and soils, agriculture, urban studies, health, vegetation and ecosystems, volcano and hazard monitoring, natural disasters, hydrology, climate and land change — in short, how the Earth works and how it is changing.
The path of the EF-5 tornado through Joplin, Missouri, seen by ASTER on July 26, 2011. USGS.
A dataset made at the LP DAAC
The center created ASTER Level 1 Precision Terrain Corrected Registered At-Sensor Radiance (AST_L1T), which delivers consistent, GIS-ready data quickly as a multi-file product. Terrain-corrected images help track changes in vegetation, ecosystems and land cover; watch volcanoes before, during and after eruptions; record the effects of floods, wildfires, coastal erosion, earthquakes and tsunamis; and study water and map soils.
Mount Everest: an ASTER terrain-corrected image draped over an elevation model, November 9, 2015. USGS.
Sources
- Danielle Golon, The Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC), USGS Fact Sheet 2016–3070 (written under contract for the LP DAAC). https://doi.org/10.3133/fs20163070
- LP DAAC: https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/
- Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from pubs.usgs.gov
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