Telecommuting 11 5 time zones Telecommuting 11.5 time zones Tilottama - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Telecommuting 11 5 time zones Telecommuting 11.5 time zones Tilottama Ghosh and Kimberly Baugh (CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA) ( , y , , ) Asia ‐ Pacific Advanced Network – 32 nd Meeting 32 nd Meeting Asia Pacific Advanced Network New Delhi, India 26 th August, 2011

Brief employment history and Migration decision Started as an intern with the Earth Observation Group (EOG) at the • National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in June 2007 Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in June, 2007. Continued working as a part ‐ time employee while pursuing a PhD • degree in Geography from the University of Denver degree in Geography from the University of Denver Became a doctorate in June of 2010 • Decided to get married in December, 2010 and migrate back to New • Delhi, India. Became a full ‐ time employee at NGDC from August of 2010 and • expressed the desire to continue working part ‐ time with the Earth Observation Group even after returning to India Observation Group even after returning to India Permission was granted, paper work was done, and then all the • arrangements had to be made so that I could work smoothly even while g y being located 11.5 time zones away!

11.5 time zones away – Mountain time zone and Indian Standard time Time difference increases to 12 and a half hours when the daylight saving time ends in November in the U.S.

Arrangements made while in Boulder, Colorado A good laptop ‐ • A good laptop which would be able to handle the download and processing of huge datasets processing of huge datasets • HP Pavilion dv4 notebook PC • CPU processing speed and Random A Access Memory (RAM) were M (RAM) important considerations • The notebook has Intel Core i3 64 bit processor, and an installed memory of 4 GB

Arrangements made while in Boulder, Colorado I Installing PuTTY ‐ t lli P TTY • PuTTY is a client program for the SSH, Telnet and Rlogin network protocols • These protocols are used to run a remote session on a computer, These protocols are used to run a remote session on a computer, over a network • How it works – you run PuTTY on a Windows machine, and tell it to • How it works – you run PuTTY on a Windows machine and tell it to connect to a Linux machine. PuTTY opens a window. Anything you type into that window is sent straight to the Linux machine, and yp g , everything the Linux machine sends back is displayed in the window • PuTTY was installed on my computer so that I could remotely access PuTTY was installed on my computer so that I could remotely access NOAA’s Linux machines through NGDC’s portal. Through NGDC’S portal I can connect to Process 1 and Process 2, two of the machines which has all the data that I access and download for processing

PuTTY

Arrangements made while in Boulder, Colorado Installing Secure FX ‐ • Secure FX is a secure file transfer application with a visual interface • Secure FX is used to exchange files between NGDC’s machine and my computer

Secure FX

Arrangements made while in Boulder, Colorado Installing ArcGIS and ENVI ‐ • For viewing, processing , and analyzing data ArcGIS and ENVI were g, p g , y g required ENVI is an image processing software • package produced by the ITT Visual Information Solutions Premier software solution used for • processing and analyzing geospatial processing and analyzing geospatial imagery Combines spectral image processing • and image analysis technology with a user ‐ friendly interface Interactive Data Language (IDL) is the Interactive Data Language (IDL) is the • scientific programming language associated with ENVI that lets users transform numbers into dynamic and transform numbers into dynamic and meaningful visual representations

ArcGIS ArcGIS is a Geographic • Information System (GIS) tool produced by the Environmental produced by the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) It is a powerful tool used for It is a powerful tool used for • • spatial analysis

Arrangements that had to be made in Delhi Setting up broadband internet connections at home in New Setting up broadband internet connections at home in New Delhi, India Airtel Broadband Service Airtel Broadband Service Airtel broadband connection • provided by Bharti Airtel provided by Bharti Airtel Based on Digital Subscriber Loop • (DSL) technology Got the required telephone and • modem to go along with it The monthly plan we took Th thl l t k • provides an internet speed of 512 kbps The plan also has restrictions on • usage, after 8GB of data download the speed goes down p g to 256 kbps Airtel speed test

Arrangements that had to be made in Delhi Other internet connection – mobile broadband service provided by the Tata Teleservices Limited TATA Photon Plus is a small USB data card • which when plugged into the USB port of my which when plugged into the USB port of my laptop would connect me to high speed broadband internet Internet speed up to 3.1 Mbps through TATA • network The monthly plan we took allows free usage up • to 5GB, after which the speed goes down to 256 kbps and 50 paisa is charged per extra 256 kbps and .50 paisa is charged per extra MB of data download

Why two internet connections? • Fluctuation in the consistency of internet service through the day, especially of Airtel • Power outages cause interruption in file transfer and then • Power outages cause interruption in file transfer, and then Photon is used instead of Airtel • Tata photon enables quicker file transfer when needed • Once in a while I do go over the cap in the amount of data O i hil I d th i th t f d t download, and having two internet connections helps in balancing it out to some extent balancing it out to some extent

Data Processing • Processing monthly composites • Processing rolling annual stable lights products • Processing fixed gain products • Socio ‐ economic analyses using the nighttime light images

Data Processing – processing monthly composites Work flow W k fl NGDC’s portal Personal NOAA’s computer computer p (Process 1 ) (Process 1 ) • Corresponding flag data orbits • Data are flagged on a pixel by pixel basis. • Data included only if flag data bits are set Access the OLS nighttime sub ‐ g as ‐ as orbits for each month Daytime: off (approx. 400 files) Nighttime marginal: off Zero lunar illuminance: on Clouds present: off ouds p ese o • Re ‐ project Cluster jobs submitted to • Run additional flags that need to be done create masked grids of only in 30 arc ‐ second space (clouds) ‘low moon’ nightfiles • Crop the sub ‐ orbits to mid ‐ swath to p generate the masked grids Approx. 300 corresponding ‘low moon’ nightfiles each Secure FX month month 6 ‐ 20 mins/nightfile, approx. 3 GB of zipped data NOAA’s computer Personal computer (through Process 1 to (through Process 1 to f for line ‐ screening li i NGDC’s portal)

Data Processing – processing monthly composite Flag bands Flag bands For each nighttime suborbit, This entire suborbit VIS FLAG a companion flag band is p g was flagged as was flagged as generated with bit ‐ codes having zero lunar designating: illuminance. • daytime (solar elevation > ‐ 6) daytime (solar elevation > 6) • nighttime marginal Red: daytime ( ‐ 15 < solar elevation < ‐ 6) Green: nighttime • • zero lunar illuminance zero lunar illuminance marginal (< 0.0005 lux) Black: This area is considered high g Solar elevation angles are computed Solar elevation angles are computed quality nighttime based on lat, lon, and time of data and will be each OLS pixel. processed further. processed further. Lunar illuminance is a function of Lunar illuminance is a function of lunar phase, azimuth, and Source: Baugh, et al. (2010). Development elevation, which are also based of a 2009 stable lights data using on lat, lon, and time of each OLS on lat, lon, and time of each OLS DMSP ‐ OLS data. Proceedings of the Asia Pacific Advanced Network . pixel. Hanoi, Vietnam. Nighttime portion of orbit F16200901281215

Data Processing – processing monthly composite Line ‐ screening Line screening Red: daytime VIS FLAG • Suborbits containing high g g Green: nighttime G i h i quality nighttime data are marginal screened by an analyst for Yellow: discarded by aurora and abrupt gain linescreening changes. process • Analyst chooses a start and Blue: edge ‐ of ‐ scan g end line of data to include for data compositing. Black: This area is considered high considered high • Data at edges of swath are D t t d f th quality nighttime discarded due to increased data and will be noise and poorer geolocation processed further processed further. (scan angle > 40 91) (scan angle > 40.91) . Source: Baugh, et al. (2010). Development of a 2009 stable lights data using DMSP ‐ OLS data. Proceedings of the Asia Pacific Advanced Network . Hanoi, Vietnam. Nighttime portion of orbit F16200901281215

Data Processing – processing monthly composite Re projecting Re ‐ projecting OLS vis, tir and corresponding flag bands are gridded to 30 arc ‐ second grids, constrained to latitudes 65S ‐ 75N. For clarity, only mid ‐ swath, line ‐ screened data are shown. Green: nighttime Green: nighttime marginal VIS TIR FLAG Source: Baugh, et al. (2010). Development of a 2009 stable lights Nighttime portion of orbit F16200901281215 data using DMSP ‐ OLS data. Proceedings of the Asia Pacific Advanced Network . Hanoi, Vietnam.