Drivers and Challenges for NASA’s Earth
Science Data Holdings
Kathy Fontaine
Frank Lindsay
Martha Maiden
NASA
PV2005
Edinburgh, Scotland
22 November 2005
Introduction
•The Challenge
•External Drivers and their Impact
•Internal Drivers and their Impact
•Current and Future Efforts
•Conclusion
Challenge
As a federal agency, NASA has competing influences
from within (internal to NASA) and without (external
agencies)
• These influences create a tension, and sometimes
an outright conflict, between what can be done and
what should be done.
The challenge is balancing various internal and external
drivers and influences against the work that needs to be
done.
External Drivers
Space Act of 1958
• Established the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, with an objective being “ the
expansion of human knowledge of the Earth and of
phenomena in the atmosphere and space…”
• This objective is the basis for the Earth Science
program at NASA (earth system science, climate
change, etc).
– Studies all aspects of land and atmosphere
using orbiting, aircraft-based, and in situ
sensors (Landsat, EOS series, IceSAT, etc).
– Also builds and tests spacecraft for its own use
and for other agencies.
External Drivers
Office of Management and Budget
• Primarily monitors how other agencies spend their
money.
• Established a policy (A-130) that agencies must only
collect, retain or disseminate data that is clearly
related to their mission.
• When data is collected, it must be protected and
must not violate privacy laws.
• When data is disseminated, it must be done in a full
and open manner.
• Established a policy on formats and standards for
data (A-16).
External Drivers
Other agencies
• United States Geological Survey (USGS) and
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) have somewhat overlapping missions with
NASA
• USGS has mapped the United States and its
territories since 1879, and can keep its receipts.
– Executive Order created the National Satellite
Land Remote Sensing Data Archive at USGS to
archive Landsat data
• But didn’t Landsat start as a NASA mission?
External Drivers
• NOAA is a relatively more recent agency,
combined from the US Coast and Geodetic
Survey, the Weather Bureau, and the Bureau
of Commercial Fisheries
–Housed within the Department of
Commerce
–Collects information for real-time use
(weather) and research use (climate)
• But doesn’t NASA study climate change?
External Drivers
Other legislation
• NOAA was given the responsibility of being the
primary archive for Earth Observation System (EOS)
data
• Isn’t this another NASA program?
• And isn’t the data in EOSDIS already?
Other national programs
• There are several programs at the national level
which bring to light the commonalities and
confusions inherent in overlapping missions.
• USGCRP
• CCSP
• Ocean.US
• US GEO
Impacts
• NASA’s science work overshadowed by human
spaceflight issues (show of hands – who thinks
about science first when they hear the word NASA?)
• When agencies cooperate, budgets adjust
accordingly, never in the correct direction.
• As more and more agencies use IT as a tool, global
policies can become meaningless or restrictive.
• Reporting on progress can be difficult.
• Original distribution of agency missions was clear,
but isn’t any more.
• When agencies join forces in the national or
international arena, this can be a challenge.
Internal Drivers
Earth Science in NASA’s Mission
Understand and Protect Our Home Planet
by using our view from space to study the
Earth system and improve prediction of
Earth system change
Help Explore the Universe and Search for
Life by applying our scientific
understanding of the Earth system to the
identification and study of Earth-like
planets around other stars
Inspire the Next Generation of Earth
Explorers by providing Earth system
science content and training to educators,
and by sponsoring the education and early
careers of Earth scientists
Earth Science Focus Areas
Science Drivers
Variability
Forcing
Response
Consequence
Prediction
Precipitation,
evaporation &
cycling of water
changing?
Atmospheric
constituents &
solar radiation on
climate?
Clouds & surface
hydrological
processes on
climate?
Weather
variation related to
climate variation?
Weather
forecasting
improvement?
Global ocean
circulation
varying?
Changes in
land cover
& land use?
Ecosystems,
land cover &
biogeochemical
cycles?
Consequences
of land cover
& land use
change?
Improve prediction
of climate
variability &
change?
Global
ecosystems
changing?
Motions of the
Earth & Earth’s
interior?
Changes in
global ocean
circulation?
Coastal region
impacts?
Ozone, climate &
air quality impacts
of atmospheric
composition?
Atmospheric
composition
changing?
Atmospheric trace
constituents
responses?
Regional air
quality impacts?
Carbon cycle &
ecosystem
change?
Ice cover mass
changing?
Sea level
affected by Earth
system change?
Change in water
cycle dynamics?
Earth surface
transformation?
Climate Variability and Change Atmospheric Composition
Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Weather
Water and Energy Cycle
Earth Surface and Interior
Predict & mitigate
natural hazards
from Earth surface
change?
Advisory and Other
Committees
NASA Advisory Committee
• Used to be comprised of an Earth System Science
Advisory Committee and a Space Sciences Advisory
Committee, with Subcommittees
• Currently being reconstituted by NASA, stay tuned
National Academy of Sciences
• Conducts reviews on the state of research and
makes recommendations on what science entities
ought to do.
• Decadal surveys being conducted to help set
internal research priorities.
Earth Science community
• While not really an advisory committee, the research
community plays a critical role in setting research
priorities.
Impacts
Mission and vision revised periodically, which flows
through the organization
• Revisions necessitate review and soul-searching;
which can lead to changes in the program
• Consistency and continuity could be at risk
All the science drivers lead to sensors, which leads to
DATA.
• Collection, access, archive responsibilities
skyrocket.
• EOSDIS lessons learned include one-size-fits-all
doesn’t fit any size
External reviews inevitably produce diametrically
opposed sets of recommendations.
Other Drivers
EOSDIS has over 1500 data sets (over 4 petabytes of
data), and counting; has over 230,000 users in 2005
alone
EOS missions are winding down, hence the need for the
large data system structure is reduced
• Although – Terra mission was extended, and all
other spacecraft are healthy
Move towards smaller, focused measurement
processing systems distributes services and archives
Impact
• Must ensure that the plans and resources mesh
• Must ensure all elements are tracked and measured.
Current and Future
Activities
Strategic Evolution of Earth Science Enterprise Data
Systems (SEEDS) Study [http://seeds.gsfc.nasa.gov]
• Found that smaller, distributed, heterogeneous
systems will work if they make wise use of
• Standards and interfaces
• New technologies infused when ready
• Metrics and reporting tools
• Reusable and open source components
• Community participation
• Follow-on work includes four working groups
• Standards, Reuse, Technology Infusion, Metrics
Planning and Reporting
• Data Life Cycle Working Group proposed and
under discussion
Data Life Cycle Working
Group
Data Life Cycle Working Group Proposal
• Under consideration at NASA
• Primary goal is to provide an internal body to
• Advise the Earth science managers on topics
relating to data life cycle, including, but not only,
archive and preservation issues
• Oversee or conduct data product reviews
• Similar structures exist within other agencies
• Useful for projects such as the NOAA/NASA MODIS
Pilot Project, Research to Operations, etc.
Other Activities
Senior Reviews
• Process in use at NASA HQ by the space science
group
• In effect, a forum for mission principal
investigators or data system managers present
their proposals for continuing the activity.
• EOS Terra approved; contains MODIS, which is
still working well
• Larger data systems will be put through this
process over the next year or so
Other Activities
Data Product Reviews
• Done by program managers at HQ but are also
bottom-up
• Product scrub underway in support of this activity
– Metrics run performed at the data center
– Products with low demand are flagged and
investigated
– Recommendations made to HQ
Elements of EOSDIS Evolution
• Study done by NASA over the past 2 years.
• Presented to NASA and accepted.
• http://eosdis-evolution.gsfc.nasa.gov
Evolution of EOSDIS Elements
Vision Statement
•
NASA’s research communities have access to all EOS
data through services at least as rich as any contemporary
science information system.
•
The research and value-added provider communities use
EOS data interoperably with any other relevant data
sources (e.g., NPOESS, METOP, GPM, numerical models,
in situ systems) and systems (e.g., Global Earth
Observation System of Systems).
•
The EOS archive holdings are regularly peer reviewed for
scientific merit
Evolution of EOSDIS Elements
Vision, cont’d
• Mechanisms to collect and preserve the pedigree of
derived data products are readily available.
• Processing and data are mobile: processing can be
moved to data and/or data can be moved to
processing.
• NASA data systems have evolved into components
that allow fine-grained control over cost drivers.
• Expert knowledge is readily accessible to enable
researchers to understand and use the data.
• Community feedback directly to those responsible for
a given system element is readily available.
Closing
There are many challenges, both internal and external.
Those who are putting together tools and techniques –
be patient but remain aware of the policy roadblocks
which might be in your path.
Through, or maybe despite, all the challenges, the data
is not getting lost in the shuffle
“Of all national assets, archives are the most precious;
they are the gift of one generation to another and the
extent of our care of them marks the extent of our
civilization.”
Sir Arthur G. Doughty, Dominion Archivist, Canada
1904 - 1935