We will provide various entities from the national scale to the local scale with improved tools to increase the usability of NASA EOS data in GIS/Geospatial software programs. Some of these entities include: universities, state and federal agencies, private consulting companies, etc. Because the proposed tools are directed at increasing accessibility and facilitating the use of NASA EOS satellite data, essentially anyone who uses or is interested in using satellite imagery are potential end users of our product. We will provide users with information and training on incorporating the HDF-EOS toolbar into their operations/research. The NASA EOS project has produced a tremendous amount of data in HDF-EOS format and these data are in high demand by a broad range of research and application communities. GIS and other geospatial software programs are important tools for analyzing NASA's EOS data. However, most geospatial software programs use different internal formats and are often incapable of ingesting data in HDF-EOS format. Therefore, the development of capability for converting NASA HDF-EOS data into formats compatible with GIS/Geospatial software programs will greatly enhance the interoperability and public use of EOS data. NASA benefits because images collected by their satellites will be more accessible to the GIS community and other geospatial data users. The proposed HDF-EOS toolbar will also represent a significant improvement over the HDF-EOS to GeoTIFF Conversion (HEG) tool, which is currently used by the GIS/Geospatial community.
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