NASA selected a data analysis system for an Earth
observing satellite instrument and a software program used on
the International Space Station and Space Shuttle as winners
of the agency’s 2003 Software of the Year Awards.
The data analysis system is for the orbiting Sea-viewing Wide
Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWIFS) instrument. It makes the data
collected about oceans and climate available to thousands of
scientists around the world over the Internet. It also
provides the necessary tools to break down and analyze the
data in a consistent, scientific manner. It also ensures the
data down linked from the instrument are of the highest
quality. The SeaWiFS Data Analysis System (SeaDAS) is used at
more than 500 sites in 50 countries. The SeaDAS team leader
is Gene C. Feldman of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md.
The SeaWiFS project is funded by NASA’s Earth Science
Enterprise, a long-term, coordinated research effort to study
the Earth as a global system. Using the unique perspective
available from space, NASA is observing, monitoring and
assessing large-scale environmental processes, such as the
oceans’ productivity, focusing on climate change.
The other winning software is NASGRO, an internationally
accepted standard code for fracture control analysis of space
hardware. It is a classic engineering software design and
analysis tool that was developed over a number of years. It
was distributed to virtually every design firm in the world
that must deal with metallic structures.
At NASA, the code has important use in the Space Shuttle and
Space Station programs, including analysis of payloads and
resolution of crack-like anomalies. NASGRO is used in
numerous other industries and by other government agencies.
It is receiving significant support from the Federal Aviation
Administration for development of improved capabilities for
damage tolerance analysis of aircraft.
The NASGRO team leader is Royce Forman of NASA’s Johnson Space
Center, Houston.
