Earth Observing System: Broader Involvement of the EOSDIS User Community is Needed

A review was made various aspects of the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System EOSDIS. NASA has initiated a program, called the Earth Observing System EOS, to collect an integrated set of data to study the earths atmosphere, bio- sphere, oceans, land surfaces, and polar regions as a complete system over a 15- year period. The data from EOS will be processed, archived, and distributed by EOSDIS. As part of your request, you asked us to determine the extent to which users have provided input in defining EOSDIS requirements. This report describes the degree of user involvement and its importance in the EOSDIS planning and development process. NASA has not done enough to ensure that input from the full range of anticipated EOSDIS users is incorporated in the systems design. The predominant users of EOSDIS are expected to be the thousands of earth scientists who are not affiliated with the EOS program. However, NASAs planning for the system thus far has relied largely on input from the relatively small number of researchers funded directly by NASA. NASAs guidelines and mechanisms for obtaining further user input in the future do not provide assurance that all segments of the user community will be adequately represented.