The goal of PO.DAAC's Feature Translation Service is to provide hydrologists with a tool that abstracts away unfamiliar NASA dataset terminology and allows them to query NASA information through a more hydrology-specific language.
The Feature Translation Service provides an API for end users to query NASA’s Common Metadata Repository (CMR) through SWOT Feature IDs and terminology in USGS's Watershed Boundary Dataset (namely the HUC, or the hydrologic unit code, and the region identifiers). It does so through a single, centralized resource in the cloud that first converts these identifiers to geometries and uses this conversion to then query CMR. Thus, in a way, this service acts as a proxy between CMR and end users, removing the need for specific dataset and spatial knowledge.
This can be seen in the Examples folder in this repository. With the launch of the SWOT satellite in the coming years (and PO.DAAC's ongoing effort to branch into the hydrology sector) it was essential to create a tool that facilitates the ease and efficiency at which the expected influx of hydrologists can query NASA datasets.
For installation instructions, please see the terraform deployment directory