NSIDC DAAC Update 2016 UWG Annual Meeting Boulder, CO Brian R. Johnson, DAAC Manager

2016 Highlights & Accomplishments NSIDC data system moved to Space Sciences Data Center ICESat-2 development on track for launch in December 2017 SMAP released validated L2-L4 data products and expecting enhanced products NSIDC Sea Ice Products: completed transition to DMSP F16/F18 [Donna] Operation IceBridge portal updated laying ground work for data service “bridge” NSIDC DAAC assigned to manage JPL’s Airborne Observatory (ASO) and NASA SnowEx airborne campaign data sets [Amanda] ESDIS commercial cloud prototypes underway with DAAC participation [ESDIS update, Brian/CATEES] 2

Data System Equipment Move to SPSC Space Science Data Center Facility (SPSC) New facility on CU’s east campus providing space for up to 100 racks with 12 kW per rack; goal of reducing energy costs and carbon footprint Design influence by NSIDC green data center Robust UPS/diesel generator power backup Room to grow Physical security and restricted access (24/7) Status: Move Completed! July 12-14: Non-ECS equipment moved July 18-21: NASA ECS equipment moved 3

Locations CU Space Science Data Center NSDIC NSIDC Distributed Active Archive Center

2016 Highlights & Accomplishments NSIDC data system moved to Space Sciences Data Center ICESat-2 development on track for launch in December 2017 SMAP released validated L2-L4 data products and expecting enhanced products NSIDC Sea Ice Products: completed transition to DMSP F16/F18 [Donna] Operation IceBridge portal updated laying ground work for data service “bridge” NSIDC DAAC assigned to manage JPL’s Airborne Observatory (ASO) and NASA SnowEx airborne campaign data sets [Amanda] ESDIS commercial cloud prototypes underway with DAAC participation [ESDIS update, Brian/CATEES] 5

ICESat-2 Mission Support & Preparations NSIDC DAAC Role: Responsible for public distribution of ICESat-2 data and long-term science data archiving Launch planned: December 2017 Mission operations readiness (MOR) review completed (8/2-8/3) Achievements: Installed GridFTP in ECS for ingesting data ESDTs/L0 data from EDOS for GRT-4 EASE Grid 2 and DOI presentations to SDT Data Services development Requirements definition & development priority with SDT ESDIS established coordination telecon Established EED-2 delivery schedule to NSIDC (goal to have subsetting, reformating before launch) Ice sheets Sea ice Vegetation 6

2016 Highlights & Accomplishments NSIDC data system moved to Space Sciences Data Center ICESat-2 development on track for launch in December 2017 SMAP released validated L2-L4 data products and expecting enhanced products NSIDC Sea Ice Products: completed transition to DMSP F16/F18 [Donna] Operation IceBridge portal updated laying ground work for data service “bridge” NSIDC DAAC assigned to manage NASA SnowEx airborne campaign data sets and evaluate distribution of JPL’s Airborne Observatory (ASO) data [Amanda] ESDIS commercial cloud prototypes underway with DAAC participation [ESDIS update, Brian/CATEES] 7

What drives the DAAC tasks/priorities Adapted from PO.DAAC presentation - thanks

Progress on Initiatives Data Access & Services (Amanda) Data Access, Discoverability and Usability initiative (DADU) to improve workflow and services for our research community Big Earth Data Initiative: Developing a Polar-focused map utilizing GIBS imagery Operationalizing LP DAAC AppEEARS access to MODIS snow products Data Tools Evaluation (Shannon session) User Services: re-envisioning how to best serve the DAAC and its user community (Lisa) Data Documentation: where is our greatest value in our guide documents? 9

Guidance from HQ From Kevin Murphy Program Executive, Earth Science Division DAAC Managers F2F meeting Jan, 2016 10

Communities/Disciplines we support NSIDC DAAC serves the cryospheric research and broader Earth sciences, applications and education communities Polar science traditionally an interdisciplinary research endeavor: Involving collection and management of large, diverse data sets composed of satellite observations and dedicated airborne and field measurements Operational agencies also use DAAC data products: Air Force Weather (Near-real-time snow water and cover) USDA (weekly snow products) U.S. Forest Service (MODSI 8-day snow cover) NOAA (sea ice concentration) Canadian Metrological Centre (PM sea ice concentration) Snow Sea Ice Glaciers Ice Sheets Soil Moisture Permafrost Data and information products (from 2014 ACSI survey results) 11

Changing mission needs EOS Missions Decadal Survey Missions Data products to support mission science objectives and facilitate processing Provide infrastructure to meet User needs ... enable assimilation of data from multiple sensors and sources Need to provide infrastructure for ‘users’, i.e. that meets user needs as opposed to mission needs. Need tools that remove culture divide between experts and novices (Currently data sets are developed to facilitate mission scientists and processing, not users) Expand definition of ‘decadal missions’ to include other missions and measurements from other sources besides NASA including international missions, other US agencies Addition of applications communities to missions Notes from Decadal Survey Data System Workshop (2007) 12

How should we focus our priorities? Our primary NASA cryospheric research community Interdisciplinary Earth science researchers Earth science research applications community From Kevin Murphy Program Executive, Earth Science Division DAAC Managers F2F meeting Jan, 2016 Super user: mission scientists & highly published cryospheric scientists Power user: routinely downloads large volumes of data or uses advanced computer hardware, web services, software programming languages Non-expert in remote sensing data Graduate/undergraduate students 13

Enhancing our engagement with science communities New approaches: Onsite visits … request from Tom Wagner User Profiles being developed by USO User Forum being studied Changing emphasis in USO: tapping our science and data expertise in User Services and Technical Writers Summer graduate student intern(s) & visiting scientists Workshops, science-driven hackathons as a means to better understand scientific workflow and data services pain/gain points 14

Guide documentation study Study conducted by Science Communications Group (Led by Ann Windnagel) Answer several questions about our Documentation Example: What are we trying to accomplish with our guide documents and how do we know if we are succeeding? Expected outcomes: 1.) Want users to find what they need as quickly and painlessly as possible. 2.) Want writers to be able to be thorough but efficient, so need to know where to spend their time. “Ensure data is documented precisely and fully, …” “... new data products at lower cost … data available … as soon as it is ingested.” 15

Methodology Consulted 7 sources for information Other NASA DAAC web sites USO’s Zendesk ticketing system NASA ACSI survey user comments and scores UWG user comments and action items from UWG 33, 32, and 31 NASA DAAC Blink study USO survey about effectiveness of our guide docs Tech Writer survey on most challenging aspects of creating guide docs 16

Top 5 Problems Uncovered Users not finding information that is available Projection/Grid info, software tools, processing steps When users do find the information, it isn’t always written or coded in a way that is immediately usable Projection and Grid information – users want this in a certain format or file that is easily plugged into other software Users not able to read/use files Usually for binary files but other files types come up with respect to how to get them into GIS Users have trouble deciding what data set to use Tech writers overwhelmed with the number of data sets coming in - need ways to be efficient to complete all the work but still meet the users’ needs 17

Study Next steps Study just completed Science Comm. Group creating some action items; expect this “body of Knowledge” will help inform several ongoing and planned activities: Levels of Service Usability testing Evolution of our Landing Pages Re-Projection tools 18

Challenges Breadth of user community needs and differing expectations among stakeholders Balancing our ongoing core activities like mission and user support, and data systems operations and sustainment with making progress on engineering, applications development & ESDIS initiatives Cross functional skills required; i.e. SA, Operations, User services and technical writer staff support needed in projects Some new potential challenges with cross-DAAC collaboration projects Focus has been on enabling project development (ECC, etc.) but sustainment is another major factor: system maintenance, change control, user support Timing of ESDIS cloud technology studies & adoption NSIDC will want to identify an “on-ramp” that does not interfere with ongoing ICESat-2 or SMAP mission support 19

Looking Ahead … Strategic Priorities: Engagement with our science and applications user communities Focus on new mission and science support Adopting an “integrated” approach to data discover and usability NSIDC DAAC Activities ICESat-2 data services development starting w/ availability of test products SMAP enhanced products (Dec. 2016) MEaSUREs: Enable data services via OPenDAP; Several product releases/updates SSM/I-SSMIS: Updating data sets through F17 period: 0046, 0192, 0116, 0611 Release of VIIRS snow products SnowEx 1st snow off flights in Sept. 2016/snow on in early 2017 NASA ESDIS Commercial Cloud Study Ingest/archive prototype Continuing with CATEES 20