October 06, 2010 PASADENA, Calif. – A unique partnership between
NASA and agencies in Africa and Europe has sent more than 30
terabytes of free Earth science satellite data to South African
researchers to support sustainable development and environmental
applications in Africa. The data from one of the instruments on
NASA's Terra satellite provide observations of Africa's surface
and atmosphere, including vegetation structure, airborne
pollution particles, cloud heights and winds. Transfer of these
data to a distribution center in Africa will make it broadly
accessible to African users who have not been able to remotely
download the large data files because of limitations in the
continent's Internet infrastructure. The data are from the
Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on Terra. NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., built and manages
the instrument, and NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton,
Va., processes, archives and distributes the data. MISR has been
making continuous meas