Key Investigator: Gary L. Angelici
Technology, especially the technology of remote sensing, allows scientists to obtain enormous quantities of data quickly. However, the value of the data often is diminished because it is stored in such a manner that few scientists know of its existence or have ready access to it.
Ames Research Center scientists are cooperating in a NASA pilot project that will enhance communication among university and government scientists, increase the efficiency of data utilization and decrease costs by improving access to remotely sensed data and ancillary data on global change. This effort is of singular importance because the launch of new satellite systems directed toward specific studies of global change is due to occur before the end of the century. Without resolution to the problems of data access and manipulation, it is likely that the analysis of these data will be delayed or indefinitely postponed.
This pilot project is creating a data base at Ames Research Center that will be the repository for data obtained by ecosystem scientists. This data base will include sensor data from a number of airborne and space-borne systems and data obtained through ground based measurements. These data all address issues related to regional ecosystem modeling. Scientists from across the United States and Canada involved in the ecosystem project will have access to these data from their respective laboratories through dial-up connections and national computer networks.
The ecosystem modeling data base will be operational in late 1990. Experimentation with the operations of the data base will generate recommendations for expanding the data base and how to handle much larger data sets with efficiency.
MAP: National Data Management Network
COLLABORATORS: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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