Mt. St. Helens Erruption/Venting/Whatever It Is

[Alterscape]

Okay, I'll admit I'm a n00b, so I'm probably missing something horribly obvious, but why haven't we got any MODIS data for the Mt. St. Helens steam-venting? Is the plume not visible with the MODIS instruments, or has the satelite not made a pass over the area during a time when observation conditions were suitable, or what..? Also, as I'm a member of the "teach a man to fish" school of thought, where would I look in the future to learn more about how the Rapid-Fire MODIS data is created, how targets are chosen for imaging, and so forth? I found the MODIS homepage with Google, but it seemed to discuss the instrument itself more than the "Rapid-Fire MODIS" stuff WorldWind works with.

[TomServo]

Probably the wrong place to ask. I don't think any of the NASA people here know when/where the pictures are taken. They are on the data processing side, not the data collection side.

They can probably ask about though.

As for the other half of your post. You have me there.. probably the NASA members can enlighten us further on information finding.

[cmaxwell]

This is basically the web site we pull our "Rapid Fire Modis" from:
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/

You'll notice that they do recently have a picture of the plume of steam from Mt. St. Helens. :)

Oh, and this does show up on the World Wind Rapid Fire Modis function. :D

[TomServo]

Originally posted by cmaxwell@Oct 5 2004, 03:48 PM
This is basically the web site we pull our "Rapid Fire Modis" from:
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/

You'll notice that they do recently have a picture of the plume of steam from Mt. St. Helens. :)

Oh, and this does show up on the World Wind Rapid Fire Modis function. :D
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Whoa! That 250m stuff is wickedly impressive :)

[TomServo]

Ok, I am having MUCH more fun browsing http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime than with using WW :o

I found a REALLY impressive shot of the Great Lakes... would make a good poster print at the 250m res.

Must... get.. back.. to ... work!......... ARGH! :D

[cmaxwell]

Originally posted by TomServo@Oct 6 2004, 05:59 AM
Ok, I am having MUCH more fun browsing http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime than with using WW :o

I found a REALLY impressive shot of the Great Lakes... would make a good poster print at the 250m res.

Must... get.. back.. to ... work!......... ARGH! :D
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I've come up with a technique to add the real-time modis images into a global mosaic for World Wind and I'm working on adding that as a dataset for an upcoming release (probably not the next one...but perhaps the one right after).

[TomServo]

Originally posted by cmaxwell@Oct 6 2004, 08:30 PM
I've come up with a technique to add the real-time modis images into a global mosaic for World Wind and I'm working on adding that as a dataset for an upcoming release (probably not the next one...but perhaps the one right after).
Quoted post


That will be cool, but will also be a bandwith and CPU hog though if you go down to the 250m res.

Your talking about 9mb a file. Opened up one I found of michigan in Photoshop and my P4 3Ghz pinged the CPU in just opening the file.

[TomServo]

Hrm.. can someone else verify this..

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime can anyone get the 250m res pictures?

All I get are red X's. The other resolutions are fine it seems.. just no 250.

... Never mind.. now they are all showing up.

[cmaxwell]

Originally posted by TomServo@Oct 7 2004, 02:54 AM
That will be cool, but will also be a bandwith and CPU hog though if you go down to the 250m res.

Your talking about 9mb a file. Opened up one I found of michigan in Photoshop and my P4 3Ghz pinged the CPU in just opening the file.
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Actually, every scene you look at on Rapid Fire MODIS comes from a set of HDF files that is around 300-400MB, per scene. This means that each MODIS satellite (Terra and Aqua) upload around 50GB per day of data. That would mean I need to set up a server than can download, process, mosaic, compress, and tile these datasets. It's not THAT tough though... :D

[TomServo]

Originally posted by cmaxwell@Oct 7 2004, 05:46 PM
Actually, every scene you look at on Rapid Fire MODIS comes from a set of HDF files that is around 300-400MB, per scene. This means that each MODIS satellite (Terra and Aqua) upload around 50GB per day of data. That would mean I need to set up a server than can download, process, mosaic, compress, and tile these datasets. It's not THAT tough though... :D
Quoted post


Heh, is that all? ;)

That is one CPU what will never see anything less than 99% use :)

Heck, I max out 3 Dual CPU servers every day for 20 hours with data processing.

[TomServo]

Found a 250m of St. Hellens from yesterday.

Can't see any erruption though.. res is probably too low to see the lava dome clearly.

Terra:
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtim...192000.250m.jpg (http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime/single.php?2004287/crefl1_143.A2004287191500-2004287192000.250m.jpg)

And here is from Aqua:
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtim...210500.250m.jpg (http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime/single.php?2004287/crefl2_143.A2004287210001-2004287210500.250m.jpg)