Israel Space Agency - Middle East Interactive Data Archive (ISA-MEIDA)
The Center's Goals
The Information center, which is known as the “NASA Node”, was established in order to provide the Israeli scientific community and the general public with access to earth sciences databases in Israel and abroad, via the Internet. The Israeli node is one of the networks participating in NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS).
EOSDIS databases already include over 260 data sets and 3 petabytes(1 petabyte=109 megabytes) of data. NASA has several regional EOSDIS centers outside the United States, which link Canada, Japan, the UK, Russia and Europe to the eight information centers in the USA. The Israeli center is part of this network of information centers.
Earth Observing System (EOS) program
The EOS includes a set of earth-observing satellite missions, an advanced data system, and science teams. These missions perform what is known as the 24 EOS Measurments
to advance understanding of the entire Earth system -- the atmosphere, the land, the oceans, the cryosphere, and the solar driving force.
What the center provides
The Israeli center provides users in Israel with access to information about the earth from the United States and from other information centers that are part of the worldwide network. In parallel, users from all over the world can access databases that are unique to Israel. The databases include information on atmospheric variables, such as temperature, wind, humidity, cloud cover, dust, ozone and gases and other aerosols above the Middle East. They also contain geographical information, such as surface culture, ground moisture and vegetation. Potential applications include scientific research, national level decision-making, agriculture, industry commerce, and more.
The Israeli center emphasizes the archiving of Israeli data, and provides access to these datasets. In addition the center helps
researchers to identify source of data and obtain the data which is not held by the center.
History
The ISA-MEIDA project was launched during a visit to Israel by a delegation from NASA headquarters in July 1995, a visit that took place based on a promise made by President Clinton to the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the summer of 1995. The regional center was officially inaugurated on April 17, 1999 by the then Minister of Science, Silvan Shalom. It was declared active (i.e., connected to the NASA network) as of April 2000.
NASA Node’s website is: http://nasa.proj.ac.il
Services provided by the Center
The center presently offers the following services:
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Link to the international EOSDIS network, and thus, to information products in the USA and in the other international centers.
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Meteorological data produced through the NASA-Goddard reanalysis system (GEOS-1) and specially processed to include only data that is relevant to our region.
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Observations by the Meteorological Service from the beginning of the 20th century (for some of the stations) until 2000.
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Observations from meteorological stations throughout Israel that are not connected to the Meteorological Service.
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Dust loading forecast maps produced by Tel Aviv University Weather Research Center (TAU-WeRC).
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Weather forecast maps and time series from TAU-WeRC, updated twice daily.
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Data collected from the network of air quality monitoring stations set up by the Ministry of the Environment.
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Images from NOAA satellites taken by an Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometry (AVHRR) instrument, which were processed by Hebrew University so as to include our region.
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Land-based data on the ozone, collected by the Hebrew University.
- Additionally, NASA Node offers free hosting for Israeli data, and assistance in accessible to the public.
Meteorological Service data is proprietary to the Service, which has permitted the NASA Center to allow access to it for research purposes.
Center funding and administration
The Inter-University Computation Center (IUCC) is responsible for the center's administrative direction.
The Israeli Space Agency (SELA) is responsible for cooperation with NASA.
The NASA project's web site is: http://nasa.proj.ac.il/
