Long-Term Data Preservation Data Lifecycle, Standardisation Process, Implementation and Lessons Learned

Science and Earth Observation data represent today a unique and valuable asset for humankind that should be preserved without time constraints and kept accessible and exploitable by current and future generations. In Earth Science, knowledge of the past and tracking of the evolution are at the basis of our capability to effectively respond to the global changes that are putting increasing pressure on the environment, and on human society. This can only be achieved if long time series of data are properly preserved and made accessible to support international initiatives. Within ESA Member States and beyond, Earth Science data holders are increasingly coordinating data preservation efforts to ensure that the valuable data are safeguarded against loss and kept accessible and useable for current and future generations. This task becomes increasingly challenging in view of the existing 40 years’ worth of Earth Science data stored in archives around the world and the massive increase of data volumes expected over the next years from e.g., the European Copernicus Sentinel missions. Long Term Data Preservation (LTDP) aims at maintaining information discoverable and accessible in an independent and understandable way, with supporting information, which helps ensuring authenticity, over the long term. A focal aspect of LTDP is data Curation. Data Curation refers to the management of data throughout its life cycle. Data Curation activities enable data discovery and retrieval, maintain its quality, add value, and allow data re-use over time. It includes all the processes that involve data management, such as pre-ingest initiatives, ingest functions, archival storage and preservation, dissemination, and provision of access for a designated community. The paper presents specific aspects, of importance during the entire Earth observation data lifecycle, with respect to evolving data volumes and application scenarios. These particular issues are introduced in the section on 'Big Data' and LTDP. The Data Stewardship Reference lifecycle section describes how the data stewardship activities can be efficiently organised, while the following section addresses the overall preservation workflow and shows the technical steps to be taken during Data Curation. Earth Science Data Curation and preservation should be addressed during all mission stages - from the initial mission planning, throughout the entire mission lifetime, and during the post- mission phase. The Data Stewardship Reference Lifecycle gives a high-level overview of the steps useful for implementing Curation and preservation rules on mission data sets from initial conceptualisation or receipt through the iterative Curation cycle

The United States' next generation of atmospheric composition and coastal ecosystem measurements : NASA's Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) Mission

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 93 (2012): 1547–1566, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00201.1.The Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) mission was recommended by the National Research Council's (NRC's) Earth Science Decadal Survey to measure tropospheric trace gases and aerosols and coastal ocean phytoplankton, water quality, and biogeochemistry from geostationary orbit, providing continuous observations within the field of view. To fulfill the mandate and address the challenge put forth by the NRC, two GEO-CAPE Science Working Groups (SWGs), representing the atmospheric composition and ocean color disciplines, have developed realistic science objectives using input drawn from several community workshops. The GEO-CAPE mission will take advantage of this revolutionary advance in temporal frequency for both of these disciplines. Multiple observations per day are required to explore the physical, chemical, and dynamical processes that determine tropospheric composition and air quality over spatial scales ranging from urban to continental, and over temporal scales ranging from diurnal to seasonal. Likewise, high-frequency satellite observations are critical to studying and quantifying biological, chemical, and physical processes within the coastal ocean. These observations are to be achieved from a vantage point near 95°–100°W, providing a complete view of North America as well as the adjacent oceans. The SWGs have also endorsed the concept of phased implementation using commercial satellites to reduce mission risk and cost. GEO-CAPE will join the global constellation of geostationary atmospheric chemistry and coastal ocean color sensors planned to be in orbit in the 2020 time frame.Funding for GEO-CAPE definition activities is provided by the Earth Science Division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.2013-04-0

The European Space Agency BIOMASS mission: Measuring forest above-ground biomass from space

The primary objective of the European Space Agency's 7th Earth Explorer mission, BIOMASS, is to determine the worldwide distribution of forest above-ground biomass (AGB) in order to reduce the major uncertainties in calculations of carbon stocks and fluxes associated with the terrestrial biosphere, including carbon fluxes associated with Land Use Change, forest degradation and forest regrowth. To meet this objective it will carry, for the first time in space, a fully polarimetric P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Three main products will be provided: global maps of both AGB and forest height, with a spatial resolution of 200 m, and maps of severe forest disturbance at 50 m resolution (where “global” is to be understood as subject to Space Object tracking radar restrictions). After launch in 2022, there will be a 3-month commissioning phase, followed by a 14-month phase during which there will be global coverage by SAR tomography. In the succeeding interferometric phase, global polarimetric interferometry Pol-InSAR coverage will be achieved every 7 months up to the end of the 5-year mission. Both Pol-InSAR and TomoSAR will be used to eliminate scattering from the ground (both direct and double bounce backscatter) in forests. In dense tropical forests AGB can then be estimated from the remaining volume scattering using non-linear inversion of a backscattering model. Airborne campaigns in the tropics also indicate that AGB is highly correlated with the backscatter from around 30 m above the ground, as measured by tomography. In contrast, double bounce scattering appears to carry important information about the AGB of boreal forests, so ground cancellation may not be appropriate and the best approach for such forests remains to be finalized. Several methods to exploit these new data in carbon cycle calculations have already been demonstrated. In addition, major mutual gains will be made by combining BIOMASS data with data from other missions that will measure forest biomass, structure, height and change, including the NASA Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation lidar deployed on the International Space Station after its launch in December 2018, and the NASA-ISRO NISAR L- and S-band SAR, due for launch in 2022. More generally, space-based measurements of biomass are a core component of a carbon cycle observation and modelling strategy developed by the Group on Earth Observations. Secondary objectives of the mission include imaging of sub-surface geological structures in arid environments, generation of a true Digital Terrain Model without biases caused by forest cover, and measurement of glacier and icesheet velocities. In addition, the operations needed for ionospheric correction of the data will allow very sensitive estimates of ionospheric Total Electron Content and its changes along the dawn-dusk orbit of the mission