The LTER Spatial Data Workbench (SDW) is designed to preserve access and provide analytic tools for spatial datasets maintained at the LTER Network Office, that have been acquired for research projects and activities within the LTER Network.  The SDW is part of the developing LTER Network Information system which will ultimately provide integrated data access for spatial datasets of the SDW as well as those maintained at individual LTER sites.

• The SDW Prototype page developed at the San Diego Supercomputer Center provides an overview of  SDW capabilities.
• The SDW image browse and data access page provides browse images and access to data of the LTER Spatial Data Workbench.
• Data of the SDW can be accessed directly through the LTER Network Office Archive.

The LTER Remote Sensing datasets are freely distributed for all not for profit and non-commercial purposes. Use of the data, original and derived, for any publication and/or marketing purpose requires proper credit to the U.S. LTER Program, the LTER Network Office, and the National Science Foundation under NSF Cooperative Agreement #DEB-0236154.

The Spatial Data Workbench is a collaborative project between the LTER Network Office, the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and the Northwest Alliance for Computation Science and Engineering (NACSE),.  The collaboration grew from an activity of the Earth System Science component of the National Science Foundation's National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI). The components of the Spatial Data Workbench are being incorporated within the developing LTER Information System as well as within the SEEK processing environments. Reports of the specific components of the Spatial Data Workbench include: Hyperspectral data classification and workflow efforts at SDSC, Mapping and visualization collaboration with NACSE, and general Spatial Data Workbench description at UNM.

Data access is facilitated through the use of the Storage Resource Broker (SRB) developed at San Diego that provides for the storage and dissemination of spatial  LTER datasets through World Wide Web access.

The system currently contains airborne hyperspectral (AVIRIS) data for 1997 through 2001, for the Sevilleta and Jornada , as well as  AVIRIS data for the Harvard Forest, H.J Andrews and Konza Prairie LTER sites.  AVIRIS data contain 224 bands in 10 nm wavelength increments. Most of the data is at 30 m ground resolution, although some low altitude 3 m data is available as well.

Landsat Thematic Mapper images for all of the LTER sites, as well as historical AVHRR are also included in the data collection.  MODIS data products for LTER sites have also been added to the archive, for NDVI data products from 2000 through 2003. In addition, historical reconnaissance data from the Global Fiducial Program for selected sites have been included here.

The SDW was not designed to replace data archive facilities such as the NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) and EOS data gateways which are the best source for data not already acquired for LTER projects.  Rather, the SDW is meant to be an active and historical archive of data acquired for the LTER Network by various Network-level research projects.

For further information, please contact John Vande Castle, Associate Director for Technology Development, U.S. Long Term Ecological Research Network Office