LP DAAC OPeNDAP Implementation

NASA's LP DAAC OPeNDAP Implementation has configured a set of compute clusters for rapid access to data and metadata, and to provide a platform in very close proximity to the data in order to accept remote user requests using services such as Open-source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol (OPeNDAP) for data transformations before delivery to the user.  Multiple server clusters are used to serve simultaneous requests, with a load balancer to queue requests and monitor the performance of their completion.

To support workflows of temporal data, the time-based aspect of MODIS product suites were aggregated into a single web access point for all temporal products.  Because the data and metadata are in storage locations made available to web services, an initial set of software was developed to create NetCDF Markup Lancuage (NcML), or .ncml files, which depict a time-series of Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) file entries for a specific product set.

Open-source and widely accepted services such as OPeNDAP can provide interactive access to LP DAAC data.  These services present interfaces in a raw form which can be used to access the data archive temporally.  Consumers can develop science application tools enabling more useful processing of the data.