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Data Curation for Discovery

The Data Curation for Discovery (DCD) project focuses on assisting other agencies in incorporating NASA Earth observation data into their workflows. DCD focuses on improving the discoverability of NASA Earth science data in trusted catalogs and platforms. The DCD team collaborates with various partners including Data.gov, Geoplatform.gov, and the U.S. Global Change Research Program to achieve these goals. Several of these partners also oversee interagency working groups and programs that the DCD team collaborates with on an ad hoc basis. 

The primary needs for DCD’s stakeholders are to be provided with systematic workflows, management plans, and best practices to incorporate into their normal routine. DCD acts as “pathfinders” to increase data discovery, usage, and interoperability, while still preserving the utmost integrity and authority from federal sources.

Incorporating NASA Data into Workflows Outside of NASA

The DCD project assists other agencies in the incorporation of NASA Earth observation data into their research efforts. For example, DCD promotes the use of NASA Earth science data within various platforms and assists other agencies with their data needs.

Improving Discoverability of NASA Data Used in Trusted Platforms

The DCD project improves the discoverability of NASA Earth science data and other curated Earth observation data in trusted catalogs and platforms, such as Data.gov and GeoGlatform.gov.

Understanding the Earth Observation Needs of other Federal Agencies

The DCD project assists agencies with expressed data needs or identified barriers to data use. For example, the team creates an agency needs profile captured via responses to the federal-civil satellite needs survey conducted by the USGEO Satellite Needs Working Group. DCD is a resource for these agencies to find and use NASA data.

Screenshot of the Geoplatform Resilience web site.

The GeoPlatform Resilience Community.

In 2019, the DCD team successfully launched the Resilience Community website on geoplatform.gov. The Resilience Community is an interactive web portal promoting the geospatial data collection from the climate portion of data.gov.

The DCD team also developed a promotional graphic for the Resilience Community.

See our poster presented at the 2019 Marshall Space Flight Center Poster Expo to Celebrate Science, Tech, Engineering.

The DCD team actively collaborates with several external partners including Data.gov, GeoPlatform.gov, and the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). DCD currently serves as a curator and maintainer of the climate-focused section of Data.gov. The DCD team also maintains the GeoPlatform Resilience Community web-portal, pictured below, that promotes the geospatial data assets from Data.gov's climate collection. 

While some collaborations are ongoing, other collaborations arise to meet specific needs. For example, in 2019, the DCD team collaborated with USGCRP's Global Change Information System (GCIS) to add 54 new science keywords to NASA's Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Keyword Management System (KMS). These keywords were incorporated into the GCIS in order to tag relevant articles, figures, and other metadata resources from the National Climate Assessments (NCA), in order to make them more discoverable within the GCIS. 

Through these types of sustained collaborative engagements with stakeholders, open government data will become more discoverable and accessible to a growing, multidisciplinary user community.