NASA data are the most comprehensive and accurate resource for addressing many of the most important global issues, but these data often aren't used to their full potential. This is especially true in communities that are not already part of the core NASA user community. Often, major improvements in broadening the impact of NASA data can be made by simply making these data more accessible and useable in the context of specific user communities.
NASA's Understanding Needs to Broaden Outside Use of NASA Data (UNBOUND) project employs a series of coordinated domain-specific workshops designed to match influential analysis and visualization practitioners in target communities with NASA data scientists and others knowledgeable in the field. This collaboration will help define barriers to using these data and implement high-impact activities that will put NASA data at the forefront of policy decisions and dramatically broaden the use of NASA Earth Science data in communities outside of the NASA research community.
Upcoming Workshops
Air Quality Series (February and March 2023)
UNBOUND for Air Quality (UNBOUND AQ) is a multi-session workshop to identify how to make NASA data products more discoverable and suitable for analyses to address air quality needs. The workshop is a collaboration between ESDS and Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP). Register by February 3, 2023.
The UNBOUND AQ workshop aims to engage air quality data practitioners who are not currently using NASA data products or do not use much NASA data. Workshop participants will be asked to commit to three workshop sessions to be held in late February and March 2023. Between workshop sessions, participants generally conduct some kind of analyses or evaluation on data of interest and report back. Participants must be prepared to evaluate NASA data products in actual analyses and make specific recommendations for removing barriers to use in terms of such data-centric issues such as format, data size, sub-setting, discoverability, etc.
If you have additional questions, please reach out to ESIP at staff@esipfed.org.
Past Workshops
Environmental Justice Series
April - June 2022
UNBOUND builds on NASA Earth Science Division (ESD) objectives on equity and environmental justice. ESD is committed to ensuring that the investment the nation has made in NASA satellites and science benefits people across the U.S. and helps them make informed decisions about the very real challenges they face in their communities.
View Workshop Report (PDF, 48.7MB)
Environmental Predictors of Species Distributions
January - February 2022
The University of Montana’s Spatial Analysis Lab hosted a virtual workshop on broadening the use of NASA datasets by the Species Distribution Modeling (SDM) community. As part of the SDM workshop, five subgroups (Vegetation, Surface Water/Marine, Edaphic, Climate, and Human Disturbance) made general recommendations for improving access and usability by SDM practitioners. In many cases, workshop participants and subgroup teams explored NASA datasets in detail and provided product-specific recommendations detailed in the workshop report.