1. NSIDC UWG Telecon
April 6, 2017

2. Agenda High level update from DAAC (Amanda)
High level update on actions from 2016 annual meeting (Donna)
User needs (Lisa Booker )
OIB update (Steve Tanner)
Membership (Donna/Gina)
Annual meeting (Donna/Gina)

3. Key Actions
NSIDC to provide a “lesson’s learned” for data management of airborne campaigns based on experience from OIB into DAAC processes moving forward with future missions (e.g. ASO, SnowEx) and to other DAACs and the ESDSWG airborne working group.
Make use of the UWG to assess usability and functional capabilities of the polar map application, the DAAC’s internal Dataviewer tool and AppEEARS.
Facilitate a workshop meeting with mountain snow researchers and applications users at the university, NSIDC, NCAR, NOAA and other local organizations to discuss science community needs for new or existing data sets and data services needs.
As the SnowPex snow products inter-comparison activity wraps up this summer, NSIDC should provide a news article on its website summarizing information about the relevant data products.

4. User Needs UWG science talks User needs gathering
Frequently referenced during ESDIS User Needs Working Group meeting
Incorporated in to USO user needs database
Using the information in ESDIS Data Transformation Working Group
User needs gathering
USO will be working on activities for the upcoming meeting to support further user needs gathering.
Improving usability testing
User Needs

5. User Needs Repository

6. Common User Themes Page

7. Site Visits Subsetting & Visualization
OIB
Site Visits
Subsetting & Visualization

8. OIB Site Visits
Tom Wagner (NASA Program Scientist for the cryosphere) requested that we undertake a series of site visits in an effort to better understand our user’s needs
Focus on ”power users”
Spend some time simply observing how they interact and use data
Provide outreach/tutorials etc. on DAAC provided data/tools/services
Perform usability testing of the Operation IceBridge Data Portal

9. Site Visits
Initial Visit – University of Maryland Cryospheric researchers with some CRREL folks mixed in
We had thought these researchers were well versed in our DAAC
However, we found they did not know about many tools and services offered
The two-way communication was very productive and is now on-going
Follow up tutorial on API use will be held this Friday
Feedback on the portal was specific and actionable
No fuzzy “make it better” commentsAdditional visits are underway or planned at a number of other “Power User” locations
Scripps is happening this week
University of Washington and JPL are planned for the near future

10. Subsetting Subsetting of Operation IceBridge data for ICESat-2
Icesat-2 Science Definition Team wants to easily use/subset data across:
ICESat-1
Operation IceBridge
ICESat-2
Operation IceBridge is an airborne campaign
The data is heterogeneous and not as well defined as for an orbital mission.
The instruments are changed/updated frequently and the data formats are often in flux

11. Subsetting – ATM & LVIS
With large and changing numbers of formats and versions, we opted for a single point-cloud approach for data management. It eliminates the need to develop many different subsetters
ATM
4 formats (ASCII, HDF5, Qfit little-endian, Qfit big-endian)
2 versions for some data sets
LVIS
3 formats (ASCII, Binary, HDF5)

12. Subsetting – Valkyrie prototype
Prototype a point-cloud-based database for power-users to test and comment on
Access to ILATM1B (all formats) and ILVIS2 data
Spatial Subsetting supporting both rectangular and closed-polygon boxes
Temporal Subsetting
Access via a URL in a users browser or command line.
Using a tool like wget
Output is an HDF5 file

13. Jakobshavn Visualization
Data access through the portal: Down to the granule level but no further
3D view of each specific ATM data point and their value, using the point-cloud database

14. Membership Leaving us Recommendations
Ben Livneh
Leigh Stearns
Recommendations
From Ben
Mark Raleigh (CIRES/NSIDC) dust on snow
John Knowles (CU/INSTAAR/Geography) climate, terrestrial hydrology
At 2016 annual meeting UWG discussed the need for ice-sheet and sea-ice/ocean modeling representation. In addition, focus on visible/IR/thermal remote sensing expertise
Ideas 2015: resilience (societal benefit), ICESat2 early adopter, glacial hazards, general user

15. Annual Meeting
Boulder, CO
When?

16. Walk Ons?