VirES for Aeolus - Online visual analysis of Aeolus data

Abstract

VirES is a highly interactive data manipulation and retrieval interface for the ESA Earth Explorer mission products. It is under evolutionary/operational maintenance by EOX since 2016 for the Swarm geomagnetic mission and we have now implemented a new service supporting ESA's Earth Explorer Aeolus wind mission. The goal of this service is twofold, to provide quick first hand easy access to the data during commissioning phase as well as allowing further users intuitive open access in the future. In order to be able to understand, manage, and visualize the new and exciting data produced by the satellite a close collaboration between experts in the field and EOX as Industry partner was necessary. VirES Aeolus provides an intuitively easy to use web interface for the official Aeolus archives. It includes multi-dimensional visualization, interactive plotting and analysis. VirES stands for a modern concept of extended access to Earth Observation (EO) data. It supports novel ways of data discovery, visualization, filtering, selection, analysis, snapshotting and downloading. The service was designed having following areas in mind: Quality Analysis, Calibration and Validation, Scientific Exploitation, Modeling and Prediction Specialized solutions have been developed to be able to visualize the amount of data in an interactive and intuitive way. The tool has been actively used since the first data has been made available and initial feedback has been very positive. It was important to find a balance between simplifying the interface for intuitive use with enough room for complexity through configuration. Having easy access to data without need of specialized software from the beginning of the mission has been a major achievement as it usually takes some time for solutions to become available. This has been possible through the foresight of ESA and the good collaboration of the project partners.