Appealing NASA's FOIA Decision

I've decided to appeal the FOIA decision from NASA, JPL. To do this I have to write out a hard copy letter and snail mail it to the appeals office. Here's the copy of that letter:

Dear Sirs,

I'm writing this letter to appeal a FOIA decision involving NASA JPL. The decision involved 3 issues, the first of which has been resolved. For the second and third decision, I've included relevant background information as well as the reason I'm appealing.

Issue 1: Radiative Transfer Algorithm Used By AIRS.
Status: Resolved.

Issue 2: Atmospheric Scan Depth Of Aqua Satellite AMSU Channel 5 Footprints.

Background
The Aqua satellite has an AMSU instrument that scans the atmosphere at 15 different channels. Each of these channels scans 30 different locations in the atmosphere. These locations are sometimes referred to as "footprints". Each footprint scans at a different height in the atmosphere.

NASA Discussion On How This Data Is Used
Where reliable sensor data is available, it is applied directly to the appropriate portion of the atmosphere, taking into account the angle of the observation.
- Steven Friedman, NASA JPL, Personal Correspondance (Included)

My FOIA Request
(2) Atmospheric scan depth for each footprint on channel 5 of the AQUA AMSU.

FOIA Response
This is to advise that NASA has no responsive Government records at JPL for parts (2) and (3) of your request.

Why I'm Appealing This Decision
NASA JPL has indicated that they apply each scan to the appropriate portion of the atmosphere. This is impossible to do if it is unknown at what depth of the atmosphere a given footprint is scanning.

Issue 3: The 230000 Scan Readings And/Or The Values Of Vectors Ai And Theta Bar i Used To Synthesis Aqua AMSU Channel 4 Data

Background
Aqua's AMSU channel 4 failed in late 2007, as described in AMSU-A Channel 4 NeDT Update: 20 December 2007 at the document archive. The data for channel 4 is now artificially generated. The generation process uses two vectors, Ai and Theta Bar i. The values for these vectors is not available to the public. The data for the vectors was itself generated from 230000 scans taken from the AMSU. This data is also not available to the public.

NASA Discussion On How This Data Is Used
See AIRS/AMSU/HSB Version 5 Modification of Algorithm to Account for Increased NeDT in AMSU Channel 4 at http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/AIRS/documentation/v5_docs/AIRS_V5_Release_User_Docs/V5-Modification-for-AMSU-Ch-4-NeDT.pdf for a detailed discussion on this data. In particular, see equation (1) for the use of Ai and Theta Bar i.

My FOIA Request
(3) In references to the creation of synthetic readings for the AQUA AMSU channel 4, the 230000 cases used to create the values for the vectors Ai and Theta Bar i, or the values of vectors Ai and Theta Bar i themselves if the 230000 readings are no longer available. These values and readings are referenced but not actually provided in the document AIRS/AMSU/HSB Version 5 Modification of Algorithm to Account for Increased NeDT in AMSU Channel 4 available online at http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/AIRS/documentation/v5_docs/AIRS_V5_Release_User_Docs/V5-Modification-for-AMSU-Ch-4-NeDT.pdf..."

FOIA Response
This is to advise that NASA has no responsive Government records at JPL for parts (2) and (3) of your request.

Why I'm Appealing This Decision
NASA JPL has indicated that this data is used to generate the synthesized channel 4 data. This would be impossible to do if the values for vectors Ai and Theta Bar i were not known to them, as these values are two of the four values used to generate the synthesized data.

Note that NASA JPL also indicated that NASA GSFC may have responsive records for issue 3. I am in contact with them to see if this is the case, but as my ability to appeal this decision is limited to 30 days, I am simultaneously appealing.

Thank you for you time and help in this matter.

...and the e-mail sent to NASA, GSFC for the data used to generate synthetic channel 4 values:

I was informed by Dennis B. Mahon of NASA, JPL that NASA GSFC may have information regarding data used to generate synthetic channel 4 data for Aqua's AMSU channel 4. Specifically, I am looking for he 230000 cases used to create the values for the vectors Ai and Theta Bar i, or the values of vectors Ai and Theta Bar i themselves if the 230000 readings are no longer available. These values and readings are referenced but not actually provided in the document AIRS/AMSU/HSB Version 5 Modification of Algorithm to Account for Increased NeDT in AMSU Channel 4 available online at http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/AIRS/documentation/v5_docs/AIRS_V5_Release_User_Docs/V5-Modification-for-AMSU-Ch-4-NeDT.pdf..."

See equation (1) of the referenced PDF for specific details.

Please note that this request is associated with a FOIA involving NASA, JPL that is currently under appeal.

Previous Posts In This Series
NASA Responds To FOIA Request
Quick FOIA Update
The Government Way
FOIA Request Filed With NASA

Aqua Satellite Project, Update 10 Released.

Update 10 for the Aqua Satellite Project is ready. You can download it here. This update is part 2 of a 2 part release that adds global griding of the data.

This release adds the ISCCPSummarize program that summarizes ISCCP grid-style data generated by AMSUToGrid and the ISCCPNormalize program that normalizes output files from ISCCPSummarize on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0.

This release also fixed a bug in the AMSUToGrid class DegreeGrid that was passing grid edge rather than grid center to weights, replaced custom code in DegreeGrid to calculate grid locations with code that uses official ISCCP values, and added mask images and generated grid data to MapToGrid folder. Masks are in the Masks subfolder, generated grid data is in the Generated Grid Data subfolder. There are Masks and generated data for Africa, Antarctica, Arctic Ocean, Asia, Atlantic Ocean, Australia, Europe, Indian Ocean, Land and Water, North America, Pacific Ocean, South America, Southern Ocean, and US Lower 48 States. Generated data is in text, XML, JavaScript, and C code formats.

Regional Data
In addition to summarizing data for the entire globe, the ISCCPSummarize program provides summaries for the following regions:

Africa

Antarctica

Asia

Australia

Europe

North America

South America

Arctic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

Indian Ocean

Pacific Ocean

Southern Ocean

...and the following UAH-like regions:

● Global Land
● Global Ocean
● Northern Hemisphere
● Northern Hemisphere Land
● Northern Hemisphere Ocean
● Southern Hemisphere
● Southern Hemisphere Land
● Southern Hemisphere Ocean
● Northern Extra Tropics
● Northern Extra Tropics Land
● Northern Extra Tropics Ocean
● Southern Extra Tropics
● Southern Extra Tropics Land
● Southern Extra Tropics Ocean
● North Pole
● North Pole Land
● North Pole Ocean
● South Pole
● South Pole Land
● South Pole Ocean
● U.S.A. Lower 48 States

These UAH regions use the same latitude boundaries as genuine UAH regions do. My thanks to Dr. Christy of UAH for providing me with the UAH region boundary information.