Polar Pathfinder Sampler An Assessment by Mark Parsons 8 February 2000

History n Told PoDAG we had plenty of money for Pathfinders (~$60,000 extra) n An idea was born: – Special session at AMS – 2 years P-Cube – NCEP CD as model n DSRB considered n Siri Jodha presented plan (~10 months work) n DSRB cautioned, but product went ahead

Goals from DSRB (13 Apr 98) n Advertise the Products to expand the audience. n Include the P-Cube for a reasonable time period. n Product should be scientifically useful or relevant in its own right. n Demonstrate HDF-EOS and associated access tools. n Gain experience with HDF-EOS. n Accommodate many researchers, especially the attendees of AMS and IUGG meetings. n Include distribution plan and method for assessment

Product overview n Overviews of cryosphere, Pathfinder Program, and instruments n Sampler: – AVHRR 5km: Browse and animations of albedo, temp., and brightness temp.; HDF data composites – AVHRR 1.25km: Browse and animations of albedo, skin temperature, and ice motion – Passive Microwave: Browse of T B s and snow cover, extent, and depth; flat binary data of T B s – TOVS: Movies and browse of temperature and water vapor; HDF data of select days for full data set

Product overview (cont.) n P-Cube: – Browse and animations of various data combinations – Two years data in HDF n Tools: – IDL routines to browse and visualize the P-Cube data – ENVI Freelook for basic viewing, data selection, and data quality assessment – HDF Fortran wrapper routines – Links to NCSA and other free tools for HDF

New or different aspects of this product n Multiple PIs and data providers n Multiple audiences n Combination of promotion and data n Multi-media

What it cost n >25 person-months n ~$250,000 n Heavy emotional toll inside and outside the data center

Major products and projects delayed n EASE Grid Land Classification n Various DEMs n IPA Permafrost Map in EASE grid n Snowmelt Onset Using SMM/I Data n SMMR Pathfinder n Various Info Products n ARCSS DIFs n December 98 issue of NSIDC Notes n Report on the Impacts Assessment Project n General Web maintenance n Web Overhaul

Requests for Pathfinder products Totals: T B s66 Sampler186 TOVS33 16 users of Sampler subsequently ordered other Pathfinder Products

Achievement of Goals n Advertise the Products to expand the audience. – Products advertised, but audience not significantly increased n Include the P-cube for a reasonable time period. – P-Cube distributed n Product should be scientifically useful or relevant in its own right. – I think so

Achievement of Goals n Demonstrate HDF-EOS and tools. – Current state of tools demonstrated n Gain experience with HDF-EOS. – Gained some good experience n Accommodate many researchers – Unclear n Include distribution plan and method for assessment – Sacrificed in the interest of a timely release

Lessons learned n Multiple external PIs can complicate matters – Make sure everyone agrees to goals and schedule – Clearly define roles and decision points – Recognize that editing and review will take much longer – Recognize and accommodate different communication methods n Scale project to time/resources available – Product “packaging” took more than we anticipated – Flexibility on the nature of the product helps

More lessons n Be sure of your data (and tools) and it’s availability (don’t promote what you don’t have) n Be sure of your distribution forum and track it. n Inform the client (PoDAG) when project exceeds original scope

My personal assessment n We developed a sophisticated, complex, quality product very quickly. It’s more than a sampler. n Interfaces are important, complex, and time consuming, especially with multi-media n We learned a lot about data formats, tools, data provider relations, and project management n We introduced our users to HDF-EOS n We’ll do much better on future multi-provider, multi-audience products (e.g., EWG Met Atlas) n Samplers are rarely worth it