Much of this is explained in the summary, so we will focus on the technical aspects here.

Our application is developed as three separate but related services. The frontend is built with Vue JS with Ionic. The backend is a split application that can be deployed either as two containers or as one (currently deployed as one due to time constraints, but better deployed as two in production).

For performance reasons when crunching large datasets like the TEMPO data, we used Java 24 with Spring Boot for most of the backend functionality. This allows for easy expansion in the future, particularly leveraging multithreading to generate the tilemaps for the frontend much more quickly. The downloading of the TEMPO data is performed with a Python script, as there are existing libraries that make downloading the files and stripping the unnecessary data much easier (Earthdata library). The Python script is called via the Java application with a call to the underlying host shell, using a Dockerfile for easier deployment that isn't platform-dependent.

We elected to not make the app natively inside of Python (nor using a JS framework) for performance reasons, and because the project specifically requests that we use scalable and cloud-friendly solutions. While native Python or JS solutions are both easier to deploy on cloud, it is more difficult to scale them vertically. Java applications scale very well vertically, and we have deployed using Docker so that with minimal future expansion it is possible to scale horizontally and distribute load amongst multiple instances.

From a frontend perspective, most of the consideration was placed on making the webpage easy to use and understand. The value of our application is making it easier for users to learn from the TEMPO datasets without needing an overly technical understanding, so focus was placed on making the layout intuitive while also including features like the auto-scaling and ground-based data which are more useful for advanced users.

Live Demo: https://tempo-analytics.vercel.app/

Slide Deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aKWLd0rokZSz8rLqmMj0tjyyDsa5VrE8bdS98mBHQvU/edit?usp=sharing

Android APK: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K9n8eV19MAxJGiQX16KAT6pB2IObcVv5/view

2025 NASA Space Apps Challenge

Green Alien House Party