ADMG Support for Earth Science Airborne and Field Investigations

• Resources for Investigation PIs and Data Managers
• Data Delivery and Publication Process for Airborne and Field Investigations
• Types of NASA Airborne and Field Investigations

Resources for Investigation PIs and Data Managers

The Airborne Data Management Group (ADMG) supports data producers and users of NASA airborne and field investigation data by helping to develop processes and best practices for airborne data handling, metadata, documentation, discovery, distribution, and preservation.

NASA's data and metadata standards are managed by NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). ADMG works with the ESDIS Project and the Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) to provide data producers with information and access to requirements and standards relevant to airborne and field data production and data handling.

Authoritative document sources are listed below. If you have questions or feel additional resources would be helpful, please contact ADMG.

 

Best Place to Start

• Adding Data from Orbital Missions and Airborne Investigations

NASA Data Standards and Templates

• EOSDIS Data Standards and Templates 
• Data Management Plan Template for Data Producers (PDF)
• ADMG Guide to the Data Management Plan Template for Data Producers — Available on request. Contact ADMG. 
• ADMG Airborne and Field Data Inventory Definitions
• Airborne Investigation Data System Requirements (PDF) 
• ESDIS Standards Coordination Office (ESCO) Data and Metadata Standards 
• Level of Service Model for NASA Earth Science Data 
• EOSDIS Preservation Requirements (PDF) 
• EOSDIS Acronyms 
• EOSDIS Definitions

Resources for DAACs

• Airborne Science Program: Contains aircraft, instrument, and campaign information. 
• Airborne Science Program Mission List: List of all airborne campaigns flown by the airborne science program, contains description and logo. 
• Airborne Science Newsletters and Annual Reports: Excellent resource for finding past aircraft, flight, and campaign information. 
• ADMG

Data Delivery and Publication Process for Airborne and Field Investigations

NASA airborne and field investigations are an important part of regional and scientifically focused studies. The manner in which airborne and field data are observed, prepared, delivered, archived, and distributed varies from that of satellite data. Most significantly, in airborne and field investigations, the individual instrument scientists are responsible for collecting, structuring, checking, and transferring data to the assigned NASA data center. This places responsibility for data product design, metadata assignment, and data formatting onto the investigation scientists.

During investigations, a field archive is used and maintained by the investigation data manager to collect and organize the data and to provide open access to all project science team investigators. Within the required six-month time period, the data are then transferred from the field archive to the assigned Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). Some data may be passed directly from the data producer to the DAAC.

The assigned NASA DAAC is responsible for checking the data, developing or improving documentation, assigning data product Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) and distributing  and supporting the public data. Services are improved to make the data accessible and usable. In addition, the DAAC organizes preservation materials and makes all information available to data users. Data support is provided for as long as the DAAC distributes the data. The diagram below outlines the movement of data through these various steps.

 

Image

Types of NASA Airborne and Field Investigations

Several types of airborne investigations exist. Each is associated with one of the research elements of NASA's Earth Science Division (ESD), including the Earth Venture Suborbital (EVS) program, the Research and Analysis (R&A) program, and the Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) which funds the development of new instrument design and validation. All these programs either directly fund airborne and field investigations, or fund the instruments that are flown or used in the field.

The ADMG Inventory of Airborne and Field Investigations provides investigation, aircraft, instrument, data product, and other important contextual information for NASA projects. Investigations funded by other government organizations are included in the inventory if NASA was a significant participant. Descriptions of current and past investigations and instruments are provided below as examples for each group of investigations or instruments.

Earth Venture Suborbital

EVS is one component of NASA's Science Mission Directorate/Earth Science Division's Earth Venture (EV) program. This program has routine funding calls and approximately five investigations are selected every four years. The selected investigations are specialized campaigns utilizing a variety of suborbital assets to gather science data. The investigations may contain airborne as well as ground and/or water in situ or remote measuring instruments.

The Earth Venture Suborbital funding call occurs every four years. So far, there have been three rounds of funding (EVS-1, EVS-2, and EVS-3). Funded investigations are listed below (with the most recent listed first). 

EVS-3 Investigations

The list below contains the EVS-3 investigations and the assigned NASA DAAC that archives the investigation data.

Investigation Name	Description
ACTIVATE	Aerosol Cloud Meteorology Interactions over the Western Atlantic Experiment Status: First deployment in February 2020 Funding Dates: January 2019–January 2024 Deployments: February/March and May/June in 2020, 2021, 2022 DAAC: ASDC
DCOTSS	Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere   Status: First deployment in 2020 Funding Dates: January 2019–December 2023 Deployments: March/April and June–August 2020; April–June and July–September 2021 DAAC: ASDC
IMPACTS	Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms   Status: First deployment in January 2020 Funding Dates: January 2019–December 2023 Deployment Dates: January/February in 2020, 2021, 2022 DAAC: GHRC
Delta-X	Delta Exchange   Status: First deployment in May 2020 Funding Dates: January 2019–December 2021 Deployment Dates: May and September 2020 DAAC: ORNL
S-MODE	Submesoscale Ocean Dynamics and Vertical Transport   Status: First deployment in 2020 Funding Dates: June 2019–May 2024 Deployment Dates: April 2020 (test) and April/September 2021 DAAC: PODAAC

EVS-2 Investigations

The list below contains the EVS-2 investigations and the assigned NASA DAAC that hosts the archived investigation data.

Investigation Name	Active Dates	DAAC
ACT-America	2/1/2015 - 1/31/2020	ORNL (ACT-America)
ATom	4/1/2015 - 3/31/2020	ORNL (ATom)
CORAL	7/30/2015 - 9/30/2018	OB.DAAC (CORAL)
NAAMES	1/15/2015 - 1/14/2020	ASDC (NAAMES) OB.DAAC (NAAMES)
OMG	4/1/2015 - 12/31/2020	PO.DAAC (OMG)
ORACLES	2/1/2015 - 1/31/2020	ASDC (ORACLES)

EVS-1 Investigations

The list below contains the EVS-1 investigations and the assigned NASA DAAC that is archiving the investigation data.

Investigation Name	Active Dates	DAAC
Discover-AQ	2011 - 2014	ASDC (Discover-AQ)
ATTREX	2011, 2013 - 2014	ASDC (ATTREX)
HS3	2012 - 2014	GHRC (HS3)
CARVE	2012 - 2014	ORNL (CARVE)
AirMOSS	2012 - 2015	ORNL (AirMOSS)