A hierarchical data archiving and processing system to generate custom tailored products from AVHRR data

A novel indexing scheme is described to catalogue satellite data on a pixel basis. The objective of this research is to develop an efficient methodology to archive, retrieve and process satellite data, so that data products can be generated to meet the specific needs of individual scientists. When requesting data, users can specify the spatial and temporal resolution, geographic projection, choice of atmospheric correction, and the data selection methodology. The data processing is done in two stages. Satellite data is calibrated, navigated and quality flags are appended in the initial processing. This processed data is then indexed and stored. Secondary processing such as atmospheric correction and projection are done after a user requests the data to create custom made products. By dividing the processing in to two stages saves time, since the basic processing tasks such as navigation and calibration which are common to all requests are not repeated when different users request satellite data. The indexing scheme described can be extended to allow fusion of data sets from different sensors.