The Airborne Data Management Group (ADMG) works with NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) to ensure good communication and effective airborne and field data stewardship. Various policies and procedures exist to help bring consistency and user satisfaction to DAAC support of the heterogeneous data collected over the past five decades.

Airborne and Field Data Assignment

Each campaign, facility instrument, or major airborne instrument has an assigned DAAC that is responsible for coordinating the archiving of data and information from the campaign or instrument. The assigned DAAC works with the data producers (research scientists that make the data products) and other DAACs to ensure future data users have the access and information they need.

NASA Headquarters is responsible for DAAC assignment in collaboration with NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project and ADMG. The ADMG is responsible for creating and sharing a summary of each field activity requiring assignment to provide everyone in the decision-making process with access to the same information about the activity. The DAAC assignment process can take several months; therefore, it is best to alert ADMG as soon as a new campaign activity is funded. Early DAAC assignment tends to significantly improve campaign data stewardship.

DAAC Standards and Policies

NASA's data and metadata standards are managed by ESDIS. Since many standards and policies were developed with a NASA satellite perspective, ADMG works to augment existing documents or develop new standards or policies for improving airborne and field data management at NASA DAACs. The latest information can be found on the Airborne and Field Working Group Earthdata wiki (limited access; Earthdata login required)

Additional data stewardship resources are listed below that DAACs may find useful. If you have questions or feel additional resources would be helpful, please contact ADMG (admg@uah.edu).

DAAC Resources