Within the IARPC Collaboration Team activities of 2016, Arctic in-situ and remote earth observations advanced topics such as :1) exploring the role for new and innovative autonomous observing technologies in the Arctic; 2) advancing catalytic national and international community based observing efforts in support of the National Strategy for the Arctic Region; and 3) enhancing the use of discovery tools for observing system collaboration such as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Arctic Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA) and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Arctic Collaborative Environment (ACE) project geo reference visualization decision support and exploitation internet based tools. Critical to the success of these earth observations for both in-situ and remote systems is the emerging of new and innovative data collection technologies and comprehensive modeling as well as enhanced communications and cyber infrastructure capabilities which effectively assimilate and dissemination many environmental intelligence products in a timely manner. The Arctic Collaborative Environment (ACE) project is well positioned to greatly enhance user capabilities for accessing, organizing, visualizing, sharing and producing collaborative knowledge for the Arctic

Casas, Joseph

NASA Technical Reports Server

1The Importance of Earth Observations and Data Collaboration within
Environmental Intelligence Supporting Arctic Research
By Joseph Casas1)
1) NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, USA
(Received June 21st, 2017)
Within the IARPC Collaboration Team activities of 2016, Arctic in-situ and remote earth observations advanced topics
such as :1) exploring the role for new and innovative autonomous observing technologies in the Arctic; 2) advancing catalytic
national and international community based observing efforts in support of the National Strategy for the Arctic Region; and
3) enhancing the use of discovery tools for observing system collaboration such as the U.S. National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Arctic Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA) and the U.S.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Arctic Collaborative Environment (ACE) project geo reference
visualization decision support and exploitation internet based tools. Critical to the success of these earth observations for both
in-situ and remote systems is the emerging of new and innovative data collection technologies and comprehensive modeling
as well as enhanced communications and cyber infrastructure capabilities which effectively assimilate and dissemination
many environmental intelligence products in a timely manner. The Arctic Collaborative Environment (ACE) project is well
positioned to greatly enhance user capabilities for accessing, organizing, visualizing, sharing and producing collaborative
knowledge for the Arctic.
Key Words: Observations, Environmental, Decision-support, Situational awareness
1.  Introduction
Created by the U.S. Congress [1] and now a subcommittee of
the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in the
Executive Office of the President, the Interagency Arctic Research
Policy Committee (IARPC) contributes directly in a critical role by
advancing scientific knowledge and understanding of the changing
Arctic through research planning. The IARPC exercises this role
through coordination across 16 Federal agencies [2] and
collaboration activities focused in seven research areas with
outside federal government partners through an implementation
structure which has been comprised of 12 IARPC Collaborations
Teams [3]. Never has there been a better time and greater need for
such strategic and sustained collaboration on a USA National and
international basis. Each of these research areas poses unique
challenges to scientists, operators, policy makers and public
communities. However, together these research areas promise
profound insights into the physical, biological, and human
dimensions of the region-insights that will inform researcher,
operators, decision-makers and the public which will guide the
Nation as we work to mitigate and adapt to rapidly changing
conditions in Arctic communities and around the world.
Within the IARPC Collaboration Team activities of 2016[4],
Arctic in-situ and remote earth observations advanced topics such
as :1) exploring the role for new and innovative autonomous
observing technologies in the Arctic; 2) advancing catalytic
national and international community based observing efforts in
support of the National Strategy for the Arctic Region; and 3)
enhancing the use of discovery tools for observing system
collaboration such as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) Arctic Environmental Response
Management Application (ERMA) and the U.S. National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Arctic
Collaborative Environment (ACE) project geo reference
visualization decision support and exploitation internet based tools.
Critical to the success of these earth observations for both in-situ
and remote systems is the emerging of new and innovative data
collection technologies and comprehensive modeling as well as
enhanced communications and cyber infrastructure capabilities
which effectively assimilate and dissemination many
environmental intelligence products in a timely manner.
2. Approach
The NASA Earth Science Division (ESD) is one of many
highly regarded international organizations that conducts a
wide range of satellite suborbital, aircraft, balloon and
ground truth missions to observe Earth's land surface and
interior, biosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere, and oceans as part
of a program to improve understanding of Earth as an
integrated system. Earth observations provide the foundation
for critical scientific advances, situational awareness,
environmental data collection and modelling products derived
from these observations are used in research, operations,
education, economics, resource management and many
decision making processes as this environmental intelligence
enhances significantly an extraordinary range of societal
applications including weather forecasts, climate projections,
sea level conditions, water management, disease early warning,
agricultural production, and the response to natural disasters.
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20170008157 2019-08-29T23:24:35+00:00Z
2As the complexity of societal infrastructure and its
vulnerability to environmental disruption increases, the
demands for deeper scientific insights and more actionable
information continue to rise. To serve these demands, NASA's
ESD is challenged with optimizing the use of its finite
resources among measurements intended for exploring new
science research areas, care, characterizing long-term changes
in the Earth system, and supporting ongoing societal
applications with both research and operational environmental
intelligence data tools. This challenge is most acute in the
decisions NASA makes supporting measurement continuity of
earth observation data sets that are critical components of Earth
science research programs, the development of new
measurement and user application tool capabilities such as the
Arctic Collaborative Environment (ACE) project
environmental intelligence geo reference visualization and
collaboration decision support and exploitation internet based
tool.
3. Arctic Collaborative Environment (ACE) Project
The ACE project is a joint project between NASA Marshall
Space Flight Center, the USA Department of Defense Office of
the Secretary of Defense, Joint Capability Technology
Demonstration Program Office, U.S. Army Aviation and
Missile Research Development and Engineering Center and the
International Arctic Research Center at the University of
Alaska Fairbanks. The goal of the ACE project is to enhance
awareness and understanding of the Arctic environment, and
will support international research, resource management,
climate studies, and cooperative operational response to
regional events with both content and context awareness,
access and a collaborative use capability for both operational
and environmental intelligence information.
3.1. Environmental Intelligence (EI)
Traditionally, researchers collect data, develop models, and
communicate results through well-established channels that are
often slow and inefficient. While the vetting of scientific results
ensures that the conclusions are of the highest quality, the
process is not well-aligned with the need for rapid information
delivery to potential users among research, operations and
directly affected public. Environmental Intelligence (EI) is a
system through which information about a particular region or
process is collected for the benefit of decision makers through
the use of more than one inter-related source. EI is timely,
reliable and suitable for decision matrix support and integrates
observations with modeling, effective data management and
data dissemination. The environmental intelligence cycle
includes the collection, processing, analysis, assessment and
application of both content and context information that then
informs the next round of information collection. The faster the
environmental intelligence cycle can be performed, the more
responsive an entity or agency can be to the needs of
stakeholders within the research, operations, education and
public user communities. EI is geospatial and other knowledge
derived and used in the space and time domain for the purpose of
gaining situational awareness and understandings to support
research, education, operations, public needs and policy decisions
(communities of interest) can be categorized into two basic types
of critical knowledge contribution, content and context intelligence.
Environmental data and information derived from earth
observations such as weather, ocean conditions and
climatology has long been used as context intelligence to
support operational awareness, research and planning for all
communities of interest. The need to know and the capability
to use environmental context information has been increasing
rapidly within the research, education, operations, public and
policy decisions maker communities in order  to better
understand and predict a much more comprehensive awareness
of the current, future and past influences  on specific user
Arctic content intelligence. Our ability to observe, collect,
display and predict environmental context information is
growing, when we provide situational observational data or
make predictions, decision makers, the public and operators are
taking advantage of this added value context awareness and are
demanding rapidly increasing amounts of Environmental
Intelligence. Environmental Intelligence is actionable
information based upon well founded research and is derived
from robust application of science principles, observations,
monitoring, assessment, forward and backward modeling, data
accessibility and user capable tools .The successful use of geo
spatial environmental intelligence derived from earth
observations requires a strong, timely and reliable collaborative
relationship among the research, operational and public
communities. In order to contribute to this success goal, the
ACE project is addressing multiple near term, mid-term and
long term objectives:
Near-Term, Tactical
•Provide web application, map-based tools for collaborative
response to regional activities, studies, and events
•Enable sharing of Arctic geo-referenced maritime and
terrestrial data from existing and new remote sensing assets,
models, operational status, and in-situ observations
•Provide a real-time collaborative platform for a common
Arctic Awareness, study capability, and observation
assimilations
Mid-Term, Operational
•Encourage open sharing of operational, research, and
educational data and models
•Execute interagency technology development and
deployment
•Facilitate international Arctic research
• Identify existing data gaps, new instruments to obtain this
data, and formulate enabling missions to enhance Arctic
understandings through the use of ACE
Long-Term, Strategic
•Engage the International Arctic Community
• Identify new opportunities for technology
• Identify and define new data sets, instruments, and
3infrastructure to support situational awareness, research,
observations, and missions that will provide enhanced
research, operational, and societal benefits within the Arctic
region.
3.2. ACE Web Based Application
The ACE tool provides an open source software application
that is Internet based, open-access, and Arctic-focused, for
collaborative climate analysis, environmental research, and
situational awareness decision-support. The ACE web based
tool integrates geo-referenced data from existing earth remote
sensing assets, models, and in situ observations and provides
for collaborative monitoring, analysis, and visualization based
on earth observation data, imagery, and modeling thus
enhancing local, regional, and international cooperation and
coordination of research and operational activities supporting
long-term environmental planning and near-term actions in
response to climatic, environmental, and situational changes
occurring in the Arctic Region. The ACE tool enables the
exchange and real-time sharing of multi-layer visualization
workspaces of data, imagery, and models for use in the Arctic
Region and provides a collaborative environment for common
areas of interest for the Arctic Nations including collaborative
chat with automatic language translation. The ACE tool is in
the final stages of development for full public release and is a
future collaborative and organizing software tool that could be
highly important to earth observation data and modeling users
working towards understanding and communicating critical
environmental intelligence for the Arctic.
4. Conclusions
A sustainable Arctic observing system that supports sharing
of data, knowledge and understanding will not only be heavily
reliant on robust autonomous earth observation technology but
equally on enhanced environmental intelligence gathering,
interpretation, application, distribution and collaboration
supporting improved research, operational situational
awareness, decision support and communities of engagement
on a National and international basis. ACE is endorsed by the
International Arctic Council as an approved project supporting
the Sustaining Arctic Observing Network. In addition, ACE
was identified by the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy Arctic Research Plans for FY2012- FY2016
and FY2017-1021 as a strong potential tool for supporting the
cyber infrastructure to support the Arctic research and
operational communities. The ACE project is well positioned
to greatly enhance the capabilities for data organizing, access,
visualization, sharing, collaboration and understandings to
support users within the research, operations and public
communities of interest for the Arctic domain.
References
[1] The Arctic Research and Policy Act of 1984 (ARPA), Public
Law 98-373, July 31, 1984, as amended by Public Law 101-609,
November 16, 1990.
[2] National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 66, Homeland
Security Presidential Directive/HSPD 25: Arctic Region Policy,
The White House, Washington DC, 2009.
[3] National Strategy for the Arctic Region, The White House,
Washington DC, 2013
[4] IARPC Collaborations: www.iarpccollaborations.org


The Importance of Earth Observations and Data Collaboration within Environmental Intelligence Supporting Arctic Research

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

NASA Technical Reports Server