Working Group (UWG) Charter

1.0 Preface

The Land Atmospheres Near-real time Capability for EOS (LANCE) User Working Group (UWG) shall be responsible for providing guidance and recommendations concerning a broad range of topics related to the LANCE system, capabilities, and services. In these regards, the UWG shall be responsible for representing the broad needs of the LANCE applications user communities. In addition the UWG members shall have close ties with the various Science Teams for the instruments included in LANCE. Any recommendation by the UWG shall not constitute an implementation instruction but shall indicate that ESDIS should engage NASA HQ concerning the feasibility and cost of implementation. Final authority shall rest with the latter.

2.0 LANCE Mission and Services

The LANCE system is responsible for generating and distributing near-real time data products for a number of instruments on the EOS Terra, Aqua and Aura missions with a high degree of reliability. In particular the LANCE system involves a number of elements: MODIS, AIRS, MLS, OMI and AMSR-E instrument data. All Level 1 and 2 data products are distributed within 3 hours of observation. LANCE provides a number of services including user registration, web services, user services, data metrics, browse products, and tools for generating sub-setted products and products using a variety of data formats.

3.0 LANCE User Working Group

3.1 Responsibilities

Topics for consideration by the LANCE UWG shall include but are not limited to:

• Assessing the efforts of the LANCE elements in the implementation of prior recommendations made by the UWG.
• Providing an assessment of the quality of the services provided by the LANCE elements and a determination of the extent to which the products reflect the needs of the applications communities.
• Suggesting modifications to existing product and services that will improve the degree to which LANCE meets the end user requirements
• Reviewing the suggested enhancements that have been made for the LANCE elements by UWG members, ESDIS staff, the LANCE element’s staff, or the end users and developing recommendations for NASA HQ concerning which of these should potentially be implemented in the next 12 month interval. The UWG shall also recommend the priorities for implementation.
• Identifying the possible evolution of the LANCE system on a 1-2 year timeframe.

3.2 Membership

To the extent possible, the UWG in its entirety shall include representatives from all sectors of the user communities which are serviced by LANCE products and services and shall be cognizant of the science aspects of the data products. The UWG shall be limited to 15 members and shall include representatives from U.S. civilian and military agencies, universities, the private sector, and foreign organizations. The term for the members shall be 2 years and the failure to attend two consecutive UWG meetings will automatically terminate membership. The terms shall be renewable. The responsibility for identifying the UWG Chair, the UWG members shall rest with ESDIS and NASA HQ. In addition to the 15 members representing the user communities, there shall be 6 ex-officio members: a representative from NASA HQ (Vice Chair), a representative from ESDIS, and the 4 element leads for MODIS, AIRS/MLS, OMI, and AMSR-E.

3.3 Meeting Schedules and Procedures

A minimum of one face-to-face meeting and one teleconference per year shall be scheduled by the Chair and the Vice Chair. If necessary, additional teleconferences may be required to discuss, for example, system upgrades that are time-critical in nature as determined by the user community. For these ad hoc meetings a quorum shall be the UWG member(s) representing the instrument involved and the potential user community, the Chair and Vice Chair, the ESDIS representative, and the element lead(s) involved with the potential system upgrade. ESDIS shall be responsible for generating minutes for all UWG meetings. In addition, ESDIS shall generate quarterly reports for the UWG identifying system status, system updates, and ongoing development activity in the context of the UWG recommendations. These items shall be included on the LANCE web site.

The format for the face-to-face meetings shall be determined by the Chair and Vice Chair. In general, the meeting shall include the status of each element and a report on ESDIS activity and a discussion/recommendation session organized around the suggested system upgrades. ESDIS shall be responsible for distributing the meeting agenda.