Advanced Very High Resolution
(AVHRR) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) imagery,
received by antennas located at the University
of Colorado, are made
available to Internet users through an online data access system. Created as a
“testbed” data system for the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration's (NASA's) future Earth Observing System Data and
Information System (EOSDIS), this testbed provides an
opportunity to test both the technical requirements of an online data system
and the different ways in which the general user community would employ such a
system. Initiated in Dec., 1991 the basic data system experienced 4 major
evolutionary changes in response to user requests and requirements. Features
added with these changes were the addition of online browse, user subsetting, and dynamic image processing/navigation. Over
its lifetime the system has grown to a maximum of over 2,500 registered users
and after losing many of these users due to hardware changes, the system is
once again growing with its own independent mass storage system.