Type of change: Decommissioning of the NCEI Earth Observation Group Products Available Through the NCEI Website.
The NCEI Earth Observation Group (EOG) specializes in nighttime observations of lights and combustion sources worldwide. The group started working with DMSP data in 1994 and has produced a time series of annual cloud-free composites of DMSP nighttime lights. EOG's current focus is on nighttime VIIRS data.
Earth Observation Group Products and Services Changes:
The EOG is no longer going to continue operations at NCEI as of October 15, 2019 and NCEI will cease production of all the below listed products:
- VIIRS derived products and services such as: Annual and Daily Global Nighttime Lights, VIIRS Nightfire-Nighttime Detection and Characterization of Combustion Sources
- Illegal and Unreported Fishing Detection
- VIIRS Gas Flaring VIIRS Fishing Boat Detection
- Nighttime Cloud Free Composites.
These products, based on VIIRS observations, will continue to be publicly available through the academic sector at the Colorado School of Mines, a public university in Golden, Colorado. Ongoing data should be available through the university’s Payne Institute for Public Policy.
The planned EOG services retirement date is October 15, 2019. To file an appeal, please contact NCEI.Info@noaa.gov by October 15, 2019. The NCEI Center for Coasts, Oceans and Geophysics at NCEI.Info@noaa.gov is also the point of contact for comments.