parsons scidatacon2016

Unless otherwise noted, the slides in this presentation are licensed by Mark A. Parsons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

Ever expanding access and use of cryospheric data

Mark A. Parsons Secretary General Research Data Alliance

with special thanks to Karen Baker, Ruth Duerr, Walt Meier, and Roger Barry.

SciDataCon Denver, CO 13 September 2016

Reference: Baker K S; Duerr, R E; and Parsons, M A. 2016. Scientific knowledge mobilization: Co-evolution of data products and designated communities. International Journal of Digital Curation 10 (2): 110-135. http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.2218/ijdc.v10i2.346

http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.2218/ijdc.v10i2.346

doi:10.2218/ijdc.v10i2.346 Baker, Duerr and Parsons | 122

factors that stimulate interest in data products by new audiences are suggested by the

Arctic product development case examples: 1) external events as triggers for data

product development, 2) access to diverse data products at differing levels of generality

and interpretation, and 3) delivery of products using new modes of communication.

Data product development: Multi-cycle trajectory

The development of a collection of data products over time summarized in Table 1

reveals data product development as part of a multi-cycle trajectory. While vastly

oversimplifying what is actually a complex series of interactions between audiences,

funding sources, and repositories, this cycle is shown in Figure 2. The occurrence of an

event is portrayed as triggering interest of a new audience with particular needs that are

met by new products. In such cases, development responds to what Wallis et al. (2014)

describe as “opportunities for known reuse.” New events may then trigger the product

development cycle anew. The availability of passive microwave brightness temperatures

from satellites prompted passive microwave sea ice experts to recognize the need for an

agreed upon time-series of sea ice products, which led to gridded sea ice concentration

products. Recognition of a statistically significant decrease in Arctic sea ice extent,

together with the desire for more attractive, dynamic, and reusable graphics, stimulated

the interest of climatologists. This led in turn to recognition of their need for

climatologies, monthly mean values and anomaly maps that resulted in the development

of the sea ice index. Event triggers may take many forms – an unanticipated

environmental disturbance, widespread media coverage, availability of data products, a

new collaborative forum, an organizational realignment, or perhaps the timely arrival of

a new leader. Table 1 shows early triggers related to availability of data products, while

the last two entries document large-scale environmental events that prompted interest

from research communities as well as the public.

Figure 2. A simplified view of the continuing development of scientific data products. Each

cycle is initiated by one or more events that create a new audience that leads to

generation of a new data product in response to the needs of a recently identified

designated user community.

Data product diversity: Multi-level collection

Sea ice data product dependencies are outlined in Table 2. The multiple products

originate from a single data source but differ in important ways. Earth science data

products have a range of temporal resolutions as well as spatial extents and resolutions,

IJDC | Peer-Reviewed Paper

Operational Image of Water Vapor Content EDR values from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I). 29 January 1996 (FNMOC)

Designating User Communities by Parsons and Duerr; CODATA, Berlin, 8 Nov. 20045

Example of differences in SSM/I derived ice concentration values calculated with three different passive microwave algorithms (Meier et al. 2001)

Designating User Communities by Parsons and Duerr; CODATA, Berlin, 8 Nov. 20046

Data: Projections and Grids

Mercatur

Mollweide

Polar Stereographic

Lambert-Azimuthal

Evolution of sea ice data products at NSIDC, presented by Ruth Duerr March 10, 2015, RDA 5th Plenary, San Diego

The many representations (and conceptions) of sea ice

Evolution of sea ice data products at NSIDC, presented by Ruth Duerr March 10, 2015, RDA 5th Plenary, San Diego

Figure courtesy Donna Scott

Some observations

• Designated communities evolve in response to events and new knowledge and data access is a ongoing process

• More audiences = more knowledge bases and contexts = differing conceptions of open or useful

• Interaction is key to understanding different knowledge bases—need to consider "pre-ingest".

• Product teams help ensure robustness of data while maintaining different perspectives and values — situational awareness

• Adaptation is rarely funded, at least at first

• In-house scientific competence adds great value to the data sets but producers are often NOT the best to advise on reuse.

Timeline

• 1972 - first pm satellites sensors launched

• 1978 - start of consistent time series • mid-late 90’s increased interest corresponding with increased interest of Arctic data as a bellwether of climate change

• C. 1995 1st “information products” • c. 1996 1st data jam and data product teams

• Late 90s Sea Ice FAQ—comparison of pros and cons of different products—controversial, NSIDC as honest broker (specifically, not Jim) • 2002 - release of Sea Ice Index (NOAA funded)—maps, images and trends of averages, climatologies, and anomalies

• last 10% made it palatable— consistent images popped up in all sorts of presentations and publications

• ASINA sorta starts as a skunk works — later got a little NASA money • 2007 - Extreme Sea Ice minimum

• Front page of NYT • NW passage open

• Al Gore visits • 2008 ASINA becomes regular to prepare for increased interest as melt season starts • 2011 IceLights—Background and Q&A on Ice and Climate

• 2012 Another Record • research on new ways of represents si semantically • leads to better products for on ice safety and operational shipping

• 2014— polar bear posters

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