The hardware is coupled with the most advanced high performance storage system software that has primarily been reserved for use in supercomputer centers. Scientists aren't the only ones with access to this treasure of new information and ways to manipulate it. Students, educators, federal and state agency workers, and all who are interested can get access. The facility's web site is designed for users to preview, explore and order data. Aided by the expertise of CMPS' Human Computing Interaction Laboratory, the web site invites users to explore it in ways that are intuitive.
Emphasis is on rapid data access and effective exploration of the data.
The site also is a forum for exchanging information within the land cover research community. The project grew out of two established, federally-supported projects at Maryland, a National Science Foundation Grand Challenge Grant in high performance computing, and a NASA Center of Excellence program in global remote sensing. It is enriched by Maryland's involvement in the National Partnership of Advanced Computational Infrastructure, led by the San Diego Supercomputer Center. Among our challenges are to integrate data sets from different sensors and create new products, such as ones that will detect changes in the earth's land cover. We're also going to improve the user's search process both with better human - computer interactions and by exploiting the power of high performance computing.