SeaDAS SeaDAS Header

SeaDAS General Overview

SeaDAS is a comprehensive software package developed by NASA OBPG (Ocean Biology Processing Group) for the processing, display, analysis, and quality control of remote-sensing Earth data. SeaDAS is open-source and serves as the official distribution point of the NASA OBPG Science Software (SeaDAS-OCSSW).

The visualization and analysis tools can also be used on many other unsupported satellite missions. Customized algorithms can be developed and applied within SeaDAS to evaluate ocean, land and atmospheric data, as well as to produce true color imagery. SeaDAS can also integrate SeaBASS format field measurement (in situ) data for comparative analysis with relevant satellite data. Scientific data products can be exported from SeaDAS in file formats readily readable by many third party GIS analysis packages.

SeaDAS Platform

SeaDAS 8 serves as an application platform to the NASA SeaDAS Toolbox. The core elements of NASA SeaDAS science processing are contained within the SeaDAS ToolBox. The SeaDAS Toolbox comes installed within the SeaDAS 8 Platform and can also can be installed directly within ESA SNAP. SeaDAS 8 Platform is a NASA released version of SNAP which is branded and tailored to the needs of the SeaDAS user.

SeaDAS Platform Release Notes can be found at:
https://github.com/seadas/seadas-toolbox/tree/master/docs/release-notes/seadas-platform

SeaDAS Toolbox

The core elements of NASA SeaDAS science processing are contained within the SeaDAS ToolBox. This includes:

  • the NASA OBPG Science Software (SeaDAS-OCSSW).
  • a GUI interface to the NASA OBPG Science Software (SeaDAS-OCSSW) processors
  • additional useful tools relevant to the SeaDAS user and not present in either the SeaDAS platform or SNAP platform
  • SeaDAS Toolbox Release Notes can be found at:
    https://github.com/seadas/seadas-toolbox/tree/master/docs/release-notes/seadas-toolbox"

    NASA OBPG Science Software (SeaDAS-OCSSW)

    This is the official NASA science processing software (also known as OCSSW - Ocean Science Software) which applies the NASA OBPG (Ocean Biology Processing Group) algorithms to satellite data in order to characterize and calibrate the data and generate science quality OBPG products. Additional coinciding ancillary data are retrieved and used to correct for and calibrate out the atmospheric components of the signal in order to determine an Earth/ocean surface component of the signal and consequently to generate higher order products in the optical path such as Chlorophyll, SST, KD_490, etc. SeaDAS processing provides a standardized data format across a multitude of satellites, currently supporting over 15 US and international satellite missions.

    Sentinel 3 Toolbox

    This toolbox includes the ESA processors specific to the Sentinel 3 satellites. This toolbox also contains the NASA science file readers specific to all NASA supported satellite missions.

    SNAP Platform

    This ESA Platform is similar to the SeaDAS Platform without some of the SeaDAS specific tailored features. The SeaDAS Toolbox may be installed directly within SNAP.