What is PO.DAAC?Ariel shot of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

The Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) is a NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) data center managed by the Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project. The PO.DAAC is operated by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

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The PO.DAAC is proud to be a CoreTrustSeal Certified Repository. CoreTrustSeal is an international, community based, non-governmental, and non-profit organization promoting sustainable and trustworthhy data infrastructures.

What is the PO.DAAC Mission?

The mission of the PO.DAAC is to preserve NASA’s ocean and climate data and make these universally accessible and meaningful.

Since the launch of NASA's first ocean-observing satellite, Seasat, in 1978, PO.DAAC has become the premier data center for measurements focused on sea surface topography, ocean temperature, ocean winds, salinity, gravity, and ocean circulation.

In addition to providing access to its data holdings, PO.DAAC acts as a gateway to data stored at other ocean and climate archives. This and other tools and services enable PO.DAAC to support a wide user community working in areas such as ocean and climate research, applied science and industry, natural resource management, policy making, and general public consumption.

PO.DAAC User Working Group

The PO.DAAC User Working Group (UWG) is an external group established by EOSDIS, made up of physical oceanographers, hydrologists, and data scientists, and tasked to:

  • Prioritize and provide guidance on PO.DAAC activities, including data acquisition, tools and services, and user support;
  • Provide strategic guidance to NASA and PO.DAAC in general;
  • Represent the user community in the development and operation of PO.DAAC’s products and services;
  • Review the progress and performance of PO.DAAC;
  • Be ambassadors for PO.DAAC.

UWG Membership

  • Philip Thompson (Chair), University of Hawaii
  • Doug Schuster (Co-Chair), NCAR
  • Jim Potemra, University of Hawaii
  • Larry O’Neill, Oregon State University
  • Matt Mazloff, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
  • Jennifer Bonin, University of South Florida
  • Jida Wang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Jordan Read, CUAHSI
  • Deepak Cherian, Earthmover
  • Bia Villas Boas, Colorado School of Mines 
  • Lisan Yu, WHOI
  • Tom Kilpatrick, BOEM, Dept. Interior
  • Edward Beighley, Northeastern University

Ex-Officio

  • Nadya Vinogradova-Shiffer, NASA HQ Physical Oceanography
  • Sara Lubkin, NASA HQ ESDIS

Photo of the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) User Working Group​