Preliminary Principles and Guidelines for Archiving Environmental and Geospatial Data at NOAA: Interim Report
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
Support for this project was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Contract No. DG133RO4CQ0009. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
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COMMITTEE ON ARCHIVING AND ACCESSING ENVIRONMENTAL AND GEOSPATIAL DATA AT NOAA
DAVID A. ROBINSON (Chair),
Rutgers University, New Jersey
DAVID C. BADER,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California
DONALD W. BURGESS,
University of Oklahoma, Norman
KENNETH E. EIS,
Colorado State University, Fort Collins
SARA J. GRAVES,
University of Alabama, Huntsville
ERNEST G. HILDNER,
NOAA Space Environment Center (retired)
KENNETH E. KUNKEL,
Illinois State Water Survey, Champaign
MARK A. PARSONS,
University of Colorado, Boulder
MOHAN K. RAMAMURTHY,
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
DEBORAH K. SMITH,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
JOHN R. G. TOWNSHEND,
University of Maryland, College Park
PAUL D. TRY,
Science and Technology Corporation, Williamsburg, Virginia
STEVEN J. WORLEY,
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
XUBIN ZENG,
The University of Arizona, Tucson
NRC Staff
IAN KRAUCUNAS, Study Director
CHRIS ELFRING, Board Director
ELIZABETH A. GALINIS, Research Associate
ROB GREENWAY, Senior Program Assistant
BOARD ON ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES AND CLIMATE
ROBERT J. SERAFIN (Chair),
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
M. JOAN ALEXANDER,
NorthWest Research Associates/CORA, Boulder, Colorado
FREDERICK R. ANDERSON,
McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, Washington, D.C.
MICHAEL L. BENDER,
Princeton University, New Jersey
ROSINA M. BIERBAUM,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
MARY ANNE CARROLL,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
CAROL ANNE CLAYSON,
Florida State University, Tallahassee
WALTER F. DABBERDT,
Vaisala Inc., Boulder, Colorado
KERRY A. EMANUEL,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
DENNIS L. HARTMANN,
University of Washington, Seattle
PETER R. LEAVITT,
Weather Information Inc., Newton, Massachusetts
JENNIFER A. LOGAN,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
VERNON R. MORRIS,
Howard University, Washington, D.C.
F. SHERWOOD ROWLAND,
University of California, Irvine
THOMAS H. VONDER HAAR,
Colorado State University/CIRA, Fort Collins
ROGER M. WAKIMOTO,
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
Ex Officio Members
ANTONIO J. BUSALACCHI, JR.,
University of Maryland, College Park
ERIC F. WOOD,
Princeton University, New Jersey
NRC Staff
CHRIS ELFRING, Director
PAUL CUTLER, Senior Program Officer
AMANDA STAUDT, Senior Program Officer
IAN KRAUCUNAS, Associate Program Officer
CLAUDIA MENGELT, Associate Program Officer
ELIZABETH A. GALINIS, Research Associate
LEAH PROBST, Research Associate
ROB GREENWAY, Senior Program Assistant
DIANE GUSTAFSON, Administrative Coordinator
ANDREAS SOHRE, Financial Associate
Preface
The National Research Council of the National Academies empanelled this Committee in response to a request from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NOAA-NESDIS) to provide advice on how to archive and provide access to its environmental and geospatial data. The Committee’s full statement of task is reproduced in Appendix B.
NOAA is to be commended for addressing data archiving and access, and for seeking external advice for such critical endeavors. In this interim report, the Committee proposes principles and guidelines that NOAA can use to begin planning specific archiving strategies for the environmental and geospatial data it currently collects. It is important to emphasize that these preliminary principles and guidelines are intended to provide a foundation for further discussions with NOAA and its community of data users on the topic of data archiving; they will be further developed and expanded by this Committee, incorporating community input, in a final report that also addresses data access issues.
As part of its deliberations in preparing this report, the Committee met twice, received briefings from representatives of each of the NOAA divisions involved in data archiving activities, and reviewed the existing and planned observational and derived data streams collected by NOAA and its partners, along with some of its current data management procedures and legal requirements. The Committee also considered the relative costs of saving certain types of derived data products versus regenerating these data from archived first-stream input, as well as the current and potential value to society of archiving a broad variety of environmental and geospatial data. We look forward to the second phase of our activities, which will focus on expanding these preliminary principles and guidelines to include guidance on the extent to which a wide variety of data sets and derived products should be made available.
The Committee would like to thank the following invited speakers for their input: Thomas Karl, Christopher Fox, John Bates, Richard Brooks, Kurt Schnebele, Bonnie Ponwith, Susan McLean and Richard Beeler. The insights of Robert Serafin, Chair of the National Research Council’s Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (NRC BASC) were also appreciated. Lastly, on behalf of the entire Committee, I want to express gratitude to Chris Elfring, Ian Kraucunas, Elizabeth Galinis, and Rob Greenway of the NRC BASC for their excellent support of this initial Committee effort.
David A. Robinson, Chair
Committee on Archiving and Accessing Environmental and Geospatial Data at NOAA
Acknowledgments
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
William J. Emery, University of Colorado, Boulder
Kelvin K. Droegemeier, University of Oklahoma, Norman
Vincent V. Salomonson, University of Utah, South Jordan
Steven F. Clifford, University of Colorado, Boulder
Robert Chadduck, Electronic Records Archives Program, College Park, Maryland
Suzanne Carbotte, Columbia University, Palisades, New York
Steve Williams, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
Scott Kirkpatrick, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Margaret A. LeMone, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
Lee R. Raymond, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Irving, Texas
Although the reviewers listed above have provided constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the report’s conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Sheldon S. Alexander, Pennsylvania State University, and Carl Wunsch, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Appointed by the National Research Council, they were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring panel and the institution.