NASA scientific mission data are valuable resources that need to be preserved for the benefit of future generations. Dataset preservation means to retain and provide easy access to the background information and knowledge used to create the data being preserved.
In the near term, while the mission data is being actively used in scientific research, the purpose of preservation is to provide easy access to the data and to provide services commensurate with current information technology. With regards to the longer term, when the research community focus shifts away from a dataset, the purpose of preservation is to provide the information needed so that a future new user can understand how the instrument data were processed and used to derive products, information, knowledge and policy recommendations. If properly archived, future users should be able to “repeat the experiment” to ascertain the validity and possible limitations of past conclusions and to provide confidence in derived long term trends.
NASA is not legislatively mandated to preserve data permanently, unlike other federal agencies such as the USGS, NOAA, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). However, it is essential for NASA to preserve all the data and associated content beyond the mission to meet the near-term objective of providing access to data and services for active scientific research. By collecting the information now, we ensure that needed associated content is saved for transition to permanent archival agencies.
This page provides access to data, metadata, and associated documentation that is to be preserved beyond the life of these NASA Earth Science Division missions. The preservation contents are divided into eight categories: Preflight/Pre-Operations, Products (Data), Product Documentation, Mission Calibration, Product Software, Algorithm Input, Validation, and Software Tools.
