Satellite data management for effective data access

The management of data generated from satellite missions has not always led to effective access of that data by the scientific community. NASA has tried to alleviate this problem for ocean scientists, by initiating a program, the NASA Ocean Data System (NODS). The menu-based user interface that NODS employs allows a user to make request and receive answers within a short time of accessing the system. A catalog system, which holds information about oceanographic data sets may be queried to determine the suitability of a particular data set. Once a candidate data set is found, the user is directed to the person or place which actually holds the data. NODS also has an archive system that holds data from ocean-observing satellites. The archive may be queried to obtain a manageable data subset that can be delivered in a useful form.