Ramapriyan, H. K. | Engineering Papers

NASA NTRS2018

The Importance of User Feedback in Sustaining Trusted Repositories

The NASA Earth Observation System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) has been operating since 1994 and is serving a global user community with well-managed Earth science data in a variety of scientific disciplines. EOSDIS processes, archives and distributes data and information products resulting from spaceborne and airborne instruments as well as in situ measurements from field campaigns. The Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center manages EOSDIS with its 12 Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) located across the United States. During the entire life of EOSDIS, the ESDIS Project and the DAACs have deployed many different mechanisms for user feedback, which have proven extremely valuable to their evolution and performance in their service to user communities. Some of the inputs from our user groups have resulted in fundamental changes in the architecture, design and operations of EOSDIS, while others have provided novel ideas for incremental changes. The EOSDIS DAACs have User Working Groups (UWGs) that represent broad user communities in the Earth science disciplines served by the DAACs. The UWGs meet periodically to assess and provide feedback on dataset and service priorities. As regular users of the data and services of the DAAC and experts in the scientific disciplines, the UWG members provide valuable inputs for planning and prioritizing the services, as well as addition of new datasets, for the benefit of the community. The EOSDIS is evaluated annually through an independently administered survey of its users resulting in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The survey provides an ACSI score as well as free-text suggestions from users, which are also helpful in making specific system improvements. In addition, each of the DAACs has a user services group that address on-going requests for help and other comments from users. The ESDIS Project has established a mechanism through the "earthdata" website (http://earthdata.nasa.gov) for users to provide feedback of any kind and these questions/comments are routed to the appropriate individuals in the Project or the DAACs. These various forms of receiving user feedback and responding to them continue to be extremely valuable in evolving and sustaining our Earth Science repository.

Behnke, Jeanne↗

NASA NTRS2018

Information Quality Cluster and Usability

The Information Quality Cluster (IQC) of the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) has been active since 2014 with membership from multiple organizations including NASA and NOAA. The purpose of this presentation is to foster collaboration between the IQC and the ESIP Usability Cluster. The IQC's activities are motivated partly by the guidelines on information quality from several federal agencies. The agencies developed the guidelines complying with a request in 2002 from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The OMB request resulted from a congressional mandate, namely, Section 515 of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (Public Law 106-554; H.R. 5658). NASA's guidelines, for example, emphasize the need for high information quality indicating the various types of public users of information from NASA's missions and programs. The IQC's vision is to become an authoritative and responsive resource of information and guidance to data providers on how best to implement data quality standards and best practices, so that the implementations comply with the various agencies' guidelines, as well as provide users with the best quality of information possible. The IQC interacts with various national and international organizations and encourages collaboration for exchange of information. The IQC considers four aspects of information quality: Scientific Quality, Product Quality, Stewardship Quality and Service Quality. The IQC has considered several use cases to identify issues in capturing, describing, providing access to, and enabling use of information on quality. Several of these use cases point to issues about the usability of information. Collaboration between the IQC and Usability Cluster will be beneficial for arriving at solutions to such issues.

Remote Sensing; Data Systems; Information Quality;↗

NASA NTRS2017

Earth Science Informatics - Overview

Over the last 10-15 years, significant advances have been made in information management, there are an increasing number of individuals entering the field of information management as it applies to Geoscience and Remote Sensing data, and the field of informatics has come to its own. Informatics is the science and technology of applying computers and computational methods to the systematic analysis, management, interchange, and representation of science data, information, and knowledge. Informatics also includes the use of computers and computational methods to support decision making and applications. Earth Science Informatics (ESI, a.k.a. geoinformatics) is the application of informatics in the Earth science domain. ESI is a rapidly developing discipline integrating computer science, information science, and Earth science. Major national and international research and infrastructure projects in ESI have been carried out or are on-going. Notable among these are: the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), the European Commissions INSPIRE, the U.S. NSDI and Geospatial One-Stop, the NASA EOSDIS, and the NSF DataONE, EarthCube and Cyberinfrastructure for Geoinformatics. More than 18 departments and agencies in the U.S. federal government have been active in Earth science informatics. All major space agencies in the world, have been involved in ESI research and application activities. In the United States, the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), whose membership includes over 180 organizations (government, academic and commercial) dedicated to managing, delivering and applying Earth science data, has been working on many ESI topics since 1998. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)s Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) has been actively coordinating the ESI activities among the space agencies.The talk will present an overview of current efforts in ESI, the role members of IEEE GRSS play, and discuss recent developments in data preservation and provenance.

Remote Sensing↗

NASA NTRS2017

Earth Science Informatics - Overview

Over the last 10-15 years, significant advances have been made in information management, there are an increasing number of individuals entering the field of information management as it applies to Geoscience and Remote Sensing data, and the field of informatics has come to its own. Informatics is the science and technology of applying computers and computational methods to the systematic analysis, management, interchange, and representation of science data, information, and knowledge. Informatics also includes the use of computers and computational methods to support decision making and applications. Earth Science Informatics (ESI, a.k.a. geoinformatics) is the application of informatics in the Earth science domain. ESI is a rapidly developing discipline integrating computer science, information science, and Earth science. Major national and international research and infrastructure projects in ESI have been carried out or are on-going. Notable among these are: the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), the European Commissions INSPIRE, the U.S. NSDI and Geospatial One-Stop, the NASA EOSDIS, and the NSF DataONE, EarthCube and Cyberinfrastructure for Geoinformatics. More than 18 departments and agencies in the U.S. federal government have been active in Earth science informatics. All major space agencies in the world, have been involved in ESI research and application activities. In the United States, the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), whose membership includes over 180 organizations (government, academic and commercial) dedicated to managing, delivering and applying Earth science data, has been working on many ESI topics since 1998. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)s Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) has been actively coordinating the ESI activities among the space agencies.The talk will present an overview of current efforts in ESI, the role members of IEEE GRSS play, and discuss recent developments in data preservation and provenance.

Remote Sensing↗

NASA NTRS2017

NASA's EOSDIS, Trust and Certification

NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) has been in operation since August 1994, managing most of NASA's Earth science data from satellites, airborne sensors, filed campaigns and other activities. Having been designated by the Federal Government as a project responsible for production, archiving and distribution of these data through its Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs), the Earth Science Data and Information System Project (ESDIS) is responsible for EOSDIS, and is legally bound by the Office of Management and Budgets circular A-130, the Federal Records Act. It must follow the regulations of the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) and National Archive and Records Administration (NARA). It must also follow the NASA Procedural Requirement 7120.5 (NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management). All these ensure that the data centers managed by ESDIS are trustworthy from the point of view of efficient and effective operations as well as preservation of valuable data from NASA's missions. Additional factors contributing to this trust are an extensive set of internal and external reviews throughout the history of EOSDIS starting in the early 1990s. Many of these reviews have involved external groups of scientific and technological experts. Also, independent annual surveys of user satisfaction that measure and publish the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), where EOSDIS has scored consistently high marks since 2004, provide an additional measure of trustworthiness. In addition, through an effort initiated in 2012 at the request of NASA HQ, the ESDIS Project and 10 of 12 DAACs have been certified by the International Council for Science (ICSU) World Data System (WDS) and are members of the ICSUWDS. This presentation addresses questions such as pros and cons of the certification process, key outcomes and next steps regarding certification. Recently, the ICSUWDS and Data Seal of Approval (DSA) organizations merged their Core Trustworthy Data Repositories Requirements and require that members be recertified every three years. Given the rigor with which NASA manages the ESDIS Project and the DAACs, the recertification through WDSDSA, while involving some additional work, is a relatively simple process.

Certification↗

NASA NTRS2017

Earth Science Informatics - Overview

Over the last 10-15 years, significant advances have been made in information management, there are an increasing number of individuals entering the field of information management as it applies to Geoscience and Remote Sensing data, and the field of informatics has come to its own. Informatics is the science and technology of applying computers and computational methods to the systematic analysis, management, interchange, and representation of science data, information, and knowledge. Informatics also includes the use of computers and computational methods to support decision making and applications. Earth Science Informatics (ESI, a.k.a. geoinformatics) is the application of informatics in the Earth science domain. ESI is a rapidly developing discipline integrating computer science, information science, and Earth science. Major national and international research and infrastructure projects in ESI have been carried out or are on-going. Notable among these are: the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), the European Commissions INSPIRE, the U.S. NSDI and Geospatial One-Stop, the NASA EOSDIS, and the NSF DataONE, EarthCube and Cyberinfrastructure for Geoinformatics. More than 18 departments and agencies in the U.S. federal government have been active in Earth science informatics. All major space agencies in the world, have been involved in ESI research and application activities. In the United States, the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), whose membership includes over 180 organizations (government, academic and commercial) dedicated to managing, delivering and applying Earth science data, has been working on many ESI topics since 1998. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)s Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) has been actively coordinating the ESI activities among the space agencies.

Data Systems↗

NASA NTRS2016

ESIP Information Quality Cluster (IQC)

The Information Quality Cluster (IQC) within the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) was initially formed in 2011 and has evolved significantly over time. The current objectives of the IQC are to: 1. Actively evaluate community data quality best practices and standards; 2. Improve capture, description, discovery, and usability of information about data quality in Earth science data products; 3. Ensure producers of data products are aware of standards and best practices for conveying data quality, and data providers distributors intermediaries establish, improve and evolve mechanisms to assist users in discovering and understanding data quality information; and 4. Consistently provide guidance to data managers and stewards on how best to implement data quality standards and best practices to ensure and improve maturity of their data products. The activities of the IQC include: 1. Identification of additional needs for consistently capturing, describing, and conveying quality information through use case studies with broad and diverse applications; 2. Establishing and providing community-wide guidance on roles and responsibilities of key players and stakeholders including users and management; 3. Prototyping of conveying quality information to users in a more consistent, transparent, and digestible manner; 4. Establishing a baseline of standards and best practices for data quality; 5. Evaluating recommendations from NASA's DQWG in a broader context and proposing possible implementations; and 6. Engaging data providers, data managers, and data user communities as resources to improve our standards and best practices. Following the principles of openness of the ESIP Federation, IQC invites all individuals interested in improving capture, description, discovery, and usability of information about data quality in Earth science data products to participate in its activities.

data products↗

NASA NTRS2015

Earth Science Informatics - Overview

Over the last 10-15 years, significant advances have been made in information management, there are an increasing number of individuals entering the field of information management as it applies to Geoscience and Remote Sensing data, and the field of informatics has come to its own. Informatics is the science and technology of applying computers and computational methods to the systematic analysis, management, interchange, and representation of science data, information, and knowledge. Informatics also includes the use of computers and computational methods to support decision making and applications. Earth Science Informatics (ESI, a.k.a. geoinformatics) is the application of informatics in the Earth science domain. ESI is a rapidly developing discipline integrating computer science, information science, and Earth science. Major national and international research and infrastructure projects in ESI have been carried out or are on-going. Notable among these are: the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), the European Commissions INSPIRE, the U.S. NSDI and Geospatial One-Stop, the NASA EOSDIS, and the NSF DataONE, EarthCube and Cyberinfrastructure for Geoinformatics. More than 18 departments and agencies in the U.S. federal government have been active in Earth science informatics. All major space agencies in the world, have been involved in ESI research and application activities. In the United States, the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), whose membership includes nearly 150 organizations (government, academic and commercial) dedicated to managing, delivering and applying Earth science data, has been working on many ESI topics since 1998. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)s Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) has been actively coordinating the ESI activities among the space agencies. Remote Sensing; Earth Science Informatics, Data Systems; Data Services; Metadata

Remote Sensing; Earth Science Informatics↗

NASA NTRS2015

The Role and Evolution of NASA's Earth Science Data Systems

One of the three strategic goals of NASA is to Advance understanding of Earth and develop technologies to improve the quality of life on our home planet (NASA strategic plan 2014). NASA's Earth Science Data System (ESDS) Program directly supports this goal. NASA has been launching satellites for civilian Earth observations for over 40 years, and collecting data from various types of instruments. Especially since 1990, with the start of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Program, which was a part of the Mission to Planet Earth, the observations have been significantly more extensive in their volumes, variety and velocity. Frequent, global observations are made in support of Earth system science. An open data policy has been in effect since 1990, with no period of exclusive access and non-discriminatory access to data, free of charge. NASA currently holds nearly 10 petabytes of Earth science data including satellite, air-borne, and ground-based measurements and derived geophysical parameter products in digital form. Millions of users around the world are using NASA data for Earth science research and applications. In 2014, over a billion data files were downloaded by users from NASAs EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS), a system with 12 Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) across the U. S. As a core component of the ESDS Program, EOSDIS has been operating since 1994, and has been evolving continuously with advances in information technology. The ESDS Program influences as well as benefits from advances in Earth Science Informatics. The presentation will provide an overview of the role and evolution of NASAs ESDS Program.

Remote Sensing↗

NASA NTRS2015

NASA's Earth Science Data Systems

NASA's Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program has evolved over the last two decades, and currently has several core and community components. Core components provide the basic operational capabilities to process, archive, manage and distribute data from NASA missions. Community components provide a path for peer-reviewed research in Earth Science Informatics to feed into the evolution of the core components. The Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is a core component consisting of twelve Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) and eight Science Investigator-led Processing Systems spread across the U.S. The presentation covers how the ESDS Program continues to evolve and benefits from as well as contributes to advances in Earth Science Informatics.

Data Systems↗

NASA NTRS2011

Report from the Passive Microwave Data Set Management Workshop

Passive microwave data sets are some of the most important data sets in the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), providing data as far back as the early 1970s. The widespread use of passive microwave (PM) radiometer data has led to their collection and distribution over the years at several different Earth science data centers. The user community is often confused by this proliferation and the uneven spread of information about the data sets. In response to this situation, a Passive Microwave Data Set Management Workshop was held 17 ]19 May 2011 at the Global Hydrology Resource Center, sponsored by the NASA Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project. The workshop attendees reviewed all primary (Level 1 ]3) PM data sets from NASA and non ]NASA sensors held by NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs), as well as high ]value data sets from other NASA ]funded organizations. This report provides the key findings and recommendations from the workshop as well as detailed tabluations of the datasets considered.

Armstrong, Ed↗

NASA NTRS2009

NASA's Earth Observing Data and Information System

NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) has been a central component of NASA Earth observation program for over 10 years. It is one of the largest civilian science information system in the US, performing ingest, archive and distribution of over 3 terabytes of data per day much of which is from NASA s flagship missions Terra, Aqua and Aura. The system supports a variety of science disciplines including polar processes, land cover change, radiation budget, and most especially global climate change. The EOSDIS data centers, collocated with centers of science discipline expertise, archive and distribute standard data products produced by science investigator-led processing systems. Key to the success of EOSDIS is the concept of core versus community requirements. EOSDIS supports a core set of services to meet specific NASA needs and relies on community-developed services to meet specific user needs. EOSDIS offers a metadata registry, ECHO (Earth Observing System Clearinghouse), through which the scientific community can easily discover and exchange NASA s Earth science data and services. Users can search, manage, and access the contents of ECHO s registries (data and services) through user-developed and community-tailored interfaces or clients. The ECHO framework has become the primary access point for cross-Data Center search-and-order of EOSDIS and other Earth Science data holdings archived at the EOSDIS data centers. ECHO s Warehouse Inventory Search Tool (WIST) is the primary web-based client for discovering and ordering cross-discipline data from the EOSDIS data centers. The architecture of the EOSDIS provides a platform for the publication, discovery, understanding and access to NASA s Earth Observation resources and allows for easy integration of new datasets. The EOSDIS also has developed several methods for incorporating socioeconomic data into its data collection. Over the years, we have developed several methods for determining needs of the user community including use of the American Customer Satisfaction Index and a broad metrics program.

Mitchell, Andrew E.↗

NASA NTRS2008

NASA's Earth Science Data Systems: A "Bit of History" and Observations

NASA has significantly improved its Earth Science Data Systems over the last two decades. Open data policy and inexpensive (or free) availability of data has promoted data usage by broad research and applications communities. Flexibility, accommodation of diversity, evolvability, responsiveness to community feedback are key to success.

Ramapriyan, H. K.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Intelligent Archives in the Context of Knowledge Building Systems: Concepts for the Future

The technical objectives are: 1. Formulate concepts and architectures that support data archiving for NASA science research and applications in the 10 to 20 year time frame. 2. Focus on architectural strategies that will support intelligent processes and functions. 3. Identify and characterize science and applications scenarios that drive intelligent archive requirements. 4. Assess technologies and research that will need the development of an intelligent archive. 5. Identify and characterize potential research projects that will be needed to develop and create an intelligent archive.

Ramapriyan, H. K.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Intelligent Systems Technologies and Utilization of Earth Observation Data

The addition of raw data and derived geophysical parameters from several Earth observing satellites over the last decade to the data held by NASA data centers has created a data rich environment for the Earth science research and applications communities. The data products are being distributed to a large and diverse community of users. Due to advances in computational hardware, networks and communications, information management and software technologies, significant progress has been made in the last decade in archiving and providing data to users. However, to realize the full potential of the growing data archives, further progress is necessary in the transformation of data into information, and information into knowledge that can be used in particular applications. Sponsored by NASA s Intelligent Systems Project within the Computing, Information and Communication Technology (CICT) Program, a conceptual architecture study has been conducted to examine ideas to improve data utilization through the addition of intelligence into the archives in the context of an overall knowledge building system (KBS). Potential Intelligent Archive concepts include: 1) Mining archived data holdings to improve metadata to facilitate data access and usability; 2) Building intelligence about transformations on data, information, knowledge, and accompanying services; 3) Recognizing the value of results, indexing and formatting them for easy access; 4) Interacting as a cooperative node in a web of distributed systems to perform knowledge building; and 5) Being aware of other nodes in the KBS, participating in open systems interfaces and protocols for virtualization, and achieving collaborative interoperability.

Ramapriyan, H. K.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Conceptual Study of Intelligent Data Archives of the Future

A conceptual architecture study is under way to address the problem of getting the most scientific value from the large volumes of Earth and space science data that NASA expects to accumulate in the future. This involves efficient storage and access, but goes beyond that to facilitate intelligent data understanding and utilization through modeling realistic virtual entities with predictive capabilities. The objective of the study is to formulate ideas and concepts and to provide recommendations that lead to prototyping and implementation in the period from 2010 to 2020. The approach consists of the definition of future scenarios and needs for data usage in applications (in consultation with scientific and applications users), projection of advances in technologies, and an abstraction of an intelligent archive architecture. Strategic evolution is considered in various areas such as storage, data, information and knowledge management, data ingest and mining, user interfaces, and advances in intelligent data understanding algorithms.

Ramapriyan, H. K.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Update - The Earth Observing System (EOS) forward and return link data processing and communications services

An overview is presented of the EOS ground support services in order to identify interfaces to and drivers of the data processing and communication systems. Generic system requirements are compared with those specifically needed for EOS, including processing requirements for forward link and return link data. Communications requirements for transporting the forward link data from the EOS Operations Center and for the transfer of level zero data to the EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Distributed Active Archive Centers are specified. The forward and return link processing requirements of the EOS instruments from the international partners are also addressed. The overall context of EOSDIS in the Mission to Planet Earth Program is addressed.

Ramapriyan, H. K.↗

NASA NTRS1991

The development of the EOS data and information system

The architecture of the Earth Observing System (EOS), a major component of NASA's contribution to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, is described with emphasis on its development strategy. It is noted that the EOS is comprised of a scientific research program, a space measurement system, and an EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS). Details are presented concerning the EOS program and its candidate instruments. Major components of EOS include Version 0 (V0) built on existing Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs), the EOSDIS core system (ECS), DAAC-unique functions, science computing facilities (SCF), and independent verification validation of the ECS. Requirements for EODIS are also reviewed noting that, among other requirements, it must keep up with an orbital average data rate of more than 30 Mbps as well as store, distribute, and manage information about tens of Petabytes of data during and after the 15-year mission.

Taylor, Thomas D.↗