For more than 50 years, NASA has collected airborne and field data during field campaigns applicable to many science disciplines, including meteorology, hydrology, oceanography, and terrestrial studies. Data collected from these campaigns have been stored in various locations making them difficult to locate and access. 

To improve the discoverability and accessibility of NASA campaign data, the Airborne Data Management Group (ADMG) has built a detailed airborne and field inventory called the Catalog of Archived Suborbital Earth Science Investigations (CASEI).

CASEI provides information about NASA campaigns, platforms, instruments, data products, and other contextual details needed for future data use. CASEI is built upon a carefully designed metadata model that is based upon formalized definitions. Inventory curators use decision trees to ensure consistent decisions are made in placing the metadata into the inventory. This ensures good organization and clear communication of the variety of airborne and field campaign metadata.

The CASEI interface allows users to easily learn about, locate, access, and utilize airborne and field data for scientific research, applications, and decision making. The highly interlinked information makes it easy to explore across all contents. An API is available for more advanced users to access the inventory database contents.

Why is CASEI Needed?

The dispersed nature of existing NASA airborne and field data requires one central location for data discovery with an interface designed to meet the needs of various types of airborne data users. CASEI was developed as a centralized location for data discovery. Users need to search for airborne and field data by parameters or variables such as location and time frame, flight track information, relevant publications about the campaigns, and instrumentation details.

What Does CASEI Do?

Users can access details of existing, past, and upcoming NASA airborne and field campaigns. Users can also search for the data from campaigns and instruments using multiple parameters such as date range, geographical region, science focus area, or platform. Once users have identified the airborne and field data they need, they are directed to data product landing pages where they can download and access data.