Access and use of NASA and other federal Earth science data
Ethan McMahonESIP Summer Meeting
July 8, 2014
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Today’s session
From the data user perspective
• Introduction• Panelists describe experiences of data users• Discussion
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The Problem
• There are many audiences of Earth science data (aka data users)– Researchers
– Interested public
– Software developers
• These users want data for different purposes• They want more and more data• What are their experiences and how can data
providers help?
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New data users
• Interested public (communities, non-profits)– Perform their own analyses
– Gather and interpret data (citizen science)
• Software developers– Create green apps
– Have the desire but not the context
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Experience with developers
• Developers try to find the data but many cannot– Some ask about the data and get answers from
experts
– Others try to use the data but are not successful• No experts• Poor documentation• Unusable formats
• How can we help them do good?
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Examples of federal Earth science data
• Global Change Master Directory• Giovanni• Earth Explorer• National Climatic Data Center• Environmental Dataset Gateway• Data.gov
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Big Earth Data Initiative
• Seek agreement on common approaches for– Discoverability via catalog services and search
engines
– Accessibility via online data services
– Usability via standard formats, metadata, vocabularies
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Today’s panelists
• Tamara Ledley of TERC• Janet Fredericks of Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution• Margaret Mooney of the UW-Madison
Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies
• Rob Carver of The Weather Channel
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Discussion
• What are your experiences in accessing and using these data?
• What are the patterns of these new data users?
• How can we help users use the data appropriately?
• What else can data providers do to help?
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Contacts
• Tamara Ledley– [email protected]
• Janet Fredericks– [email protected]
• Margaret Mooney– [email protected]
• Rob Carver– [email protected]
• Ethan McMahon– [email protected]
