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The Earth Science Data System Working Groups (ESDSWG) is a NASA organization established under the auspices of NASA Headquarters in 2004. The chartered role of the ESDSWG focuses on the exploration and development of recommendations derived from pertinent community insights of NASA's heterogeneous and distributed Earth science data systems.

The ESDSWG is comprised of working groups organized around key technology and information system issues. Each Working Group functions independently establishing their own work plans on germane data system issues and topics. The ESDSWG members are drawn from a broad range of NASA-funded science and technology projects, NASA information technology experts, affiliated contractor staff and other interested community members from academia and industry.

News and Events

12/21/2012 - 

Following the review of the 2013 ESDSWG working group proposals, below is the list of working groups that have been approved for 2013 together with the nominated ESDIS POCs and technical chairs. Thanks to everyone who submitted proposals, participated in a very productive ESDSWG meeting, and contributed to the proposal review process.

• Cloud Computing
• Earth Science Collaboratory
• Geospatial Working Group
• Mobile Computing Working Group
• Open Source Working Group
• Semantic Mashups
• Technology Infusion
• User Needs Analysis
• Visualization Working Group

ESDSWG Interest Areas

In the interest of consolidating related, small scale/short term activities, we have created two ESDSWG “Interest Areas”.  These are “Data Stewardship” and “Standards”.  Each interest area has a lead POC.  Each individual task under them will have a Technical Chair/Lead.  Depending on the level of effort required they may or may not have an independent ESDIS POC.  The ESDIS POCs will work with the ESDSWG Manager to prioritize the activities.  Some may start immediately, while others may delay starting until later in the year depending on priority and the availability of resources.

Data Stewardship Interest Area

• Data Stewardship Activities/Groups:
  • Operationalizing the Use of DOIs
  • NASA ESDS Convention for HDF5
  • Preservation Information Architecture
  • PROV-ES Earth Science Extension to W3C PROV

Standards Interest Area

• RFC Review Activities/Groups:
  • Datacasting Standard TWG
  • Preservation Content TWG
  • GeoTIFF Standard TWG
  • KML Standard TWG
  • OpenSearch Standard TWG

Other proposals not going forward at this time

There were several proposals that will not be going forward as ESDSWG activities at this time.  They are the following:

• CMS Programming for ESDS – There were not enough people who volunteered to contribute to this to make it a viable activity.
• Data Documentation – This was withdrawn once it was realized that most of the proposed activities are already being pursued as part of ESDIS’s Metadata Architecture Phase II study.
• Data Quality – This is a good thing for NASA to be involved with.  However, there was not enough detail in the proposal to sufficiently distinguish this from activity already taking place in ESIP.  We recommend that the people who volunteered to contribute to this activity take a look at the ESIP Data Quality Cluster if they are not involved already.
• NASA ESDS Convention for ISO 19115 Metadata – It was decided that the primary goals and activities in this proposal are already being pursued, in one form or another, as ESDIS-directed activities.  Most of those who volunteered to contribute to this are already supporting the existing ESDIS ISO 19115 efforts.  When the time comes to evaluate the output of those efforts, we plan to leverage to ESDSWG to provide feedback and review.

What happens next?

The intention is that the working group chairs will review the action plans by the end of the year (or, more realistically, before the ESIP meeting) and agree the final action plan with their ESDIS POC. I will be contacting the technical chairs and POCs with some details on what needs to be done. The new groups should be ready to start work immediately following the January ESIP meeting.