Updates on the CEOS IDN Jianping Mao On Behalf of Lola Olsen, IDN, Task Team Lead CEOS/WGISS-25 February 25-29, 2008

Table of Contents 1.Reemergence of the Interoperability Forum/Communications 2.Update on Directory Population and Usage 3.New in MD9.8 – early spring 4.Finding Earth Observation Platforms and Instruments: Feedback from WGISS Action Items 5.Progress in Development of Controlled Vocabularies 6.Nodes Reports/Collaborations

IDN Interop Forum Use the Interop Forum as a mechanism to inform and discuss innovations and modifications for IDN future. –Message #1 - MD9.7 –Message #2 - DIF/SERF XML schema changes in future releases.

DIF Population Growth Holds ~ 21,000 metadata records (References > 20 petabytes ) SERF Population Growth

Revised, New, and Deleted DIFs in 2007

Population of New DIFs in 2007

DIF Population by Earth Science Topic

Searches by Controlled Keyword 4/2000 – 12/2007

AW Stats – Total Hits

AW Stats – Unique Visitors

New in MD9.8 – early spring release New User Comment Form to discover: Who are users? MySQL database to replace Oracle. Website to highlight portals and keywords. Update DIF/SERF/AD Writers Guide. Embedded link checker to update broken URLs. International characters using UTF-8 (to please IDN users.) Private field for data/service providers to restrict access to data sets/services not ready for public access. DIF display for horizontal spatial coverage extended to poles and also extended to the vertical domain.

Finding Earth Observation Platforms & Instruments WGISS Action Item by IDN Tyler Stevens to coordinate the group of Bernd Ritschel, Jolyon Martin, Jean-Pierre Antikidis, Karen Moe, Wyn Cudlip and Terence van Zyl to create a list of requirements for evaluation by the IDN team and presentation at WGISS-25. These requirements shall describe a cross- mission search capability, which would enable users to search missions and sensors by application.

RecommendationIDN Response Formalize the ancillary description by following a schema and XML standard. GCMD ancillary descriptions do follow an XML schema. Follow ISO19139 XML encoding recommendation. GCMD uses the ISO XML encoding. Make each field a valid element. Each field is a valid element. Our schema validates properly against the W3C's schema validating tool. Tools such as OxygenXML work properly with our tags and schema. There is no geo-position information for sensor. This may be of interest to end users when they want to find all the sensors available for a certain location. Describe the position, orientation, and location of sensor. Information appears to be data-set specific. Instruments and Platforms are associated with data-sets; therefore, users can conduct a search based on these parameters and refine by geospatial location. Follow the ISO19130 geo-location clause. Information is data-set specific and can be found in the associated metadata.

RecommendationIDN Response Fixed GCMD keywords may not be the only keywords that the scientists want to use. It may be better to follow the design of SensorML, which uses codeScope to allow the use of alternative keyword lists, such Dublin core. Any new keywords can be formally recommended and considered using through the Interoperability Discussion list. Offering a specific set of keywords enhances the search for information, although the IDN keywords have been mapped to the ECVs, etc. There is no geometric and radiometric quality indicators associated with the sensor. A set of radiometric quality indicators should be defined. The IDN should consider coordinating with CEOS Cal/Val WG because they are very interested in this subject. Again, we believe this information is data-set specific and can be found in the associated DIF metadata. There is no price, accessibility (e.g. copyright, real- time accessibility), or security information. The IDN should follow ISO to add related fields. However, ISO applies to data sets. Extend ISO applicability from data to sensor. [Price, Accessibility, Security] This is valuable information, but does not aid the user in the discovery of the Platforms and Instruments, which is the primary mission of the IDN. This information may be added to the summary. A tasking authority should be required to assure the proper access of sensors and their observations. Descriptions for NASA ancillary information rely on the tasking authority responsible for NASA's Earth Science Reference Handbook. Other ancillary information relies on the tasking authority responsible for the CEOS Earth Observation Handbook and individual data centers.

Requirements: Platform/Instrument Search Interface Capitalize on existing platform and instrument ancillary information: CEOS Earth Observation Handbook NASA Science Reference Handbook GCMD Descriptions Utilize new technology to create an intuitive interface. Provide capability to sort platform and instrument information by columns in sequential order. Enhance capability to refine search within interface. Link directly from instrument to platform descriptions and vice-versa, and to associated metadata and then to data.

Associate Metadata with Platform/Instrument Platform and Instrument Link to Platform/Instrument Description

Platform & Instrument Descriptions AquaAIRS

Earth Science Keyword Status In 2007, the keyword hierarchy was expanded (internally) to two additional levels. –A new TOPIC, Biological Classification, was added and inspired the extension of the entire science keyword taxonomy to five levels. –The TOPIC, Hydrosphere, was clarified by adding the modifier,Terrestrial". The number of digits in the version number was thus extended to five to include Variable Levels 2 and 3. Thus, the Version Number now stands at , because of the changes at the Topic level (Level 1) and should be cited as:GCMD Keywords, Version The "Detailed Variables" continue to serve as a critical component of the keyword taxonomy, by providing a level to specify uncontrolled, descriptive keywords of the authors choosing.

Earth Science Keyword Status Because of the broad usage of the GCMD keywords in other systems around the world, we remain respectful of those who wish to incorporate changes. Therefore, we are dedicated to providing mappings of the changes. These mappings will be provided to the user community through our new MySQL database, which handles triggers of these changes more capably than the Oracle database. More work remains on extending the thousands of keywords to controlled Variable Levels 2 and 3. The release of the new database is planned to precede the completion of these keywords to accommodate the extended keyword sets and the synchronization of modifications. The public will be informed when this work is completed. Work is in progress!

Node Reports/Collaborations Portals : Total: 117 United States: 41 International: added in 2007: Find NASA Data (June 2007) THREDDS (Thematic Realtime Environmental Distributed Data Services) OBIS-SEAMAP (Ocean Biogeographic Information System - Spatial Ecological Analysis of Megavertebrate Populations) Netherlands Polar Programme (Antarctic Master Directory (AMD), National Data Center) EBA: AMD Project (Scientific Programme on Evolution and Biodiversity in the Antarctic) GEOSS Wildfire Data; Wildfire Data Services, InSitu Instruments ESA Pacific Islands Global Climate Observing System* NACP (National American Carbon Program)* Essential Climate Variable* MERRA (Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications)* SOLAS (Surface Ocean-Atmosphere Study)* ICED (Integrating Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics in the Southern Ocean)* EBM (Gulf of Maine Ecosystem Based Management Pilot Projects)*