Abstract NASA’s Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (Earth Observing System) (LANCE) provides data and imagery approximately 3 hours from satellite observation, to monitor natural events globally and to meet the needs of the near real-time (NRT) applications community. This article describes LANCE, and how the use of NRT data and imagery has evolved. Since 2010 there has been a four-fold increase in the number of files downloaded. Over the last year there has been a marked shift in the way in which users are accessing NRT imagery; users are gravitating away from MODIS Rapid Response towards Worldview and the Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), in part due to the increased use of social media. In turn this is leading to a broader range of users viewing NASA NRT imagery. This article also describes new, and planned, product enhancements to LANCE and the Fire Information for Resource Management (FIRMS). LANCE has recently expanded to support NRT imagery from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), as well as products from MODIS Collection 6 and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2). In 2106 LANCE will serve NRT winds data from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), and products from the advanced Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) instrument. For more information visit: NASA’s Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE): Updates and Changing patterns in use Diane Davies 1,2,Karen Michael 3, Jeffrey Schmaltz 2,3, Sherry Harrison 4, Feng Ding 5,3, Phil Durbin 5,3, Ryan A. Boller 3, Matthew F. Cechini 6, Pamela Rinsland 7, Gang Ye 2,3 and Ed Masuoka 3 1 –Trigg-Davies Consulting, 2- SSAI, 3 - NASA / GSFC, 4- The University of Alabama in Huntsville, 5-ADNET Systems, 6- Columbus Technologies and Services, 7- NASA Langley Research Center LANCE: Contact information: LANCE was established in 2009 building on the success of MODIS Rapid Response. LANCE is a component of EOSDIS, NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System. It is a virtual system that leverages existing science led data centers. IN41B-1698 What is LANCE? LANCE provides global Imagery and data for Near Real-Time Applications from AIRS, AMSR2, MLS, MODIS, OMI and VIIRS* *Data from OMPS and MLS will be added in 2016 LANCE provides data and imagery in support of applications such as: Air Quality - Dust storms – Fires – Vegetation for agricultural monitoring – Floods – Ash Plumes – Drought – Smoke Plumes – Sea Ice for shipping – Severe Storms AMSR2 Data from AMSR2, an instrument on the Japanese GCOM-W1 satellite, is providing a research-quality global dataset for the climate research and weather forecasting community. In 2015, the following NRT AMSR2 products have been made available through LANCE: All LANCE data can be downloaded via FTP. The following applications also make LANCE products available: Earthdata Search: Users can be search for data by keyword and filter by time or space. Worldview: Users can interactively browse and download full resolution imagery. Underlying HDF data granules can also be downloaded from within the app: Global Imagery Browse Images (GIBS): Provides global imagery layers to Worldview through publicly accessible and standards compliant imagery services. Users can add GIBS to their own web mapping interface or client, Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS): FIRMS enables users to subscribe to fire alerts for any area or view and download MODIS and VIIRS fire data in GIS compatible formats. Product Short NameDescription A2_SI6_NRTNRT AMSR2 Daily L km 89 GHz Brightness Temperature (Tb) Polar Grids A2_SI12_NRT NRT AMSR2 Daily L km Tb, Sea Ice Concentration and Snow Depth Polar Grids A2_SI25_NRTNRT AMSR2 Daily L3 25 km Tb and Sea Ice Concentration Polar Grids A2_Land_NRTNRT AMSR2 L2B Surface Soil Moisture, Ancillary Parameters and QC EASE-Grids The first NRT products from the Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S- NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), have been added to LANCE to provide provide continued support the applications community. These products include 375 m Active Fire Imagery-Band (I-Band) and Corrected Reflectance Imagery. More products will follow in AMSR2 Products Planned for 2016 Increased use of LANCE NRT products VIIRS July 4 th Weekend Social Media Storm On July wildfires were active in Canada. Social Media sites were the top entry referrers to the Earthdata, NRT, LANCE, MODAPS and Worldview sites over that weekend. Twitter and Facebook were # 2 and 3 in referral traffic. Many of the other referrers were blog and news sites with links to NASA satellite images of southern British Columbia smoke from fires. Canada was the leading country for visits to the LANCE, NRT, MODAPS, Worldview and Earthdata sites over the weekend of July 4 th Product Short NameDescription A2_RainOcean_NRTNRT AMSR2 L2B Global Swath Rain Rate/Type GSFC Profiling Algorithm A2_DySno_NRTNRT AMSR2 Daily L3 Global Snow Water Equivalent EASE-Grids OMPS The following products will be added to LANCE in early 2016: Ozone, Sulfur Dioxide (S0 2 ) and Aerosol Index. MISR NRT Level 2 MISR Winds products are expected to become available through LANCE in early MISR NRT Winds will be used to improve numerical weather prediction. To ensure that MISR NRT data reaches the widest possible audience LANCE is investigating options to make the NRT MISR Winds product available through the WMO Global Telecommunications System. The demand for NRT MODIS imagery began with the the US Forest Service; who wanted fire hotspots and imagery for strategic fire management. Other users such as Naval Research Laboratory were instrumental in articulating the needs of the Naval / Weather applications. Since NASA’s Earth Science Division sponsored the development of LANCE there has been a steady increase in demand for imagery and data products. Since 2010 there has been a four-fold increase in the number of files downloaded. What’s new in LANCE? New products from AMSR2, VIIRS Planned products from OMPS and MISR The increasing role of social media The following example demonstrates how social media can cause spikes in the number of visitors to LANCE. AMSR2 Products Released VIIRS I-Band, 375m Active Fire Product and Corrected Reflectance Daily fire spread mapped by 1km Aqua/MODIS (left), 750m VIIRS (center) and 375m VIIRS (right) data at the Taim Ecological Reserve in southern Brazil. The data cover the period March The white outline shows represents the burned area mapped using 30m Landsat-7 on 31 March. This figure is reproduced here courtesy of Wilfred Schroeder, University of Maryland, For more on VIIRS 375m active fire product see Schroeder et al 2014 [1]. These snapshots from Worldview show VIIRS Corrected Reflectance Imagery (Bands M11, 12, I1) and active fires detected over a 24 hr period on November 29 th The Top image shows active fires detected using data from MODIS and the bottom image shows fires detected using the new VIIRS 375 m algorithm. The improved spatial resolution of the VIIRS I-Band fire product enables detection of smaller fires, as well as refined mapping of larger fires, resulting in critical gain to both fire management and science applications. The VIIRS375 m fire product is also available through FIRMS. Right: Screenshot of the improved mobile friendly fire alerts sent out by NASA FIRMS. This alert shows fires detected using data from VIIRS 375 m data on 1 st December LANCE AMSR2 Combined Rain-Ocean Product in Worldview [1] Schroeder, W., Oliva, P., Giglio, L., & Csiszar, I.A. (2014). “The New VIIRS 375m active fire detection data product: algorithm description and initial assessment”. Remote Sensing of Environment 143, The NRT AMSR2 combined rain-ocean product includes surface precipitation, wind speed over the ocean, water vapor over the ocean, and cloud liquid water over the ocean. Accessing LANCE Data and Imagery This chart does not include imagery viewed or downloaded from GIBS or Worldview