ABSTRACT
Over the past several decades, the number of megacities has been rapidly growing around the world. In Asia alone, more than 30 cities are listed as megacities (e.g., Tokyo, Shanghai), demanding effective management for city planning, operations, disaster mitigation, etc. The smart city approach requires information to be collected from multiple sources and to be integrated with modern technologies, providing a new and cost-effective way to manage cities around the world.
Environmental information at multiple spatiotemporal scales is one of critical information sources for smart cities. Each year, severe weather events can strike a city and cause damage to city’s infrastructure as well as interrupt people's daily life. Making this information available for timely and easy access is essential for city's planning and management activities. As one of twelve NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Data Centers, the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) Data and Information Services Center (DISC) provides Earth science data (global precipitation, hydrology, atmospheric composition and dynamics), information, and services for research and applications.
In this book chapter, we introduce NASA global and regional satellite observations with emphasis on the hydrologic cycle (precipitation, wind, temperature, soil moisture, etc.) for smart cities. These products, consisting of both near-real-time and historical datasets, are publicly available and can be used for global and regional research and applications. Accessing remote sensing data can be a daunting task for novices. To alleviate this situation, the GES DISC has developed a wide range of data services. Examples and future plans will be included.
