Lola Olsen and IDN Staff

1. Lola Olsen and IDN Staff CEOS WGISS 26IDN Task Team

2. IDN Agenda Introduction/Final Response to User Working Group (UWG) Recommendations Usage and Content Statistics Extending Keyword Vocabularies Interoperability Forum Climate Diagnostics Portal (CL-06-02-14)

3. I. Introduction/Final Response to User Working Group (UWG) Recommendations

5. II. Usage and Content Statistics

6. DIF Population Growth (February 2004 - August 2008) Approaching 20,000!

7. SERF Population Growth (February 2004 - August 2008) Approaching 2,000!

8. New, Updated, and Deleted DIFs (January 2007 - August 2008) Updates coincide with internal release of Link Editor in 2008 NCDC AADC LSI

9. New and Updated Platforms and Instruments (January 2007 - August 2008) Expanded Platform and Instrument Descriptions AGU LSI

10. DIF Population by Science Keyword

11. SERF Population by Service Keyword

12. International Users - CEOS IDN Countries (January 1999 - August 2008)

13. History of GCMD Hits 48,165,6879 Average Per Month: 4 million 47,333,812 42,664,019 32,373,773 (as of August)

14. Unique Visitors (January 2007 - August 2008) Average Unique Visitors Per Month: 43,283

15. Earth Science Keyword Searches (January - August 2008)

16. Service Keyword Searches (January - August 2008)

17. How Do Users Find the IDN? (January - August 2008)

18. When Do Users Visit the IDN? Most Popular Day of the Week (January - August 2008)

19. When Do Users Visit the IDN? Most Popular Time of Day (January - August 2008)

20. Popular Keyword Searches (January - August 2008) Full-Text Searches: Global Warming AMD Jamstec China Temperature OBIS/SCARMARBIN Global Africa Wind GIS Science/Service Keyword Searches: Oceans Atmosphere Climate Indicators Agriculture Data Centers Land Surface Data Analysis & Visualization Location Solid Earth Models

21. Website Searches by Interface (December 2005 - August 2008) Releases: 9.6 (July 2006) 9.7 (April 2007) 9.7.1 (June 2007) 9.8 (June 2008)

22. Free-Text Searches (December 2005 - August 2008) Release 9.7 (April 2007) changed location of free-text search boxes on homepage

23. III. Extending Keyword Vocabularies

24. Mutually exclusive • Six level hierarchy (with detailed keywords) • Refinements based on the input of data providers and the science community • Useful for creating ontologies • Supported by actual metadata content GCMD Science Keywords and Essential Climate Variables (ECV) GCMD Science Keywords • Two-level hierarchy • Highly respected: created by top scientists • Not based on actual metadata content Essential Climate Variables

25. CDR: Climate Data Records EDR: Environmental Data Records FCDR: Fundamental Climate Data Records ** ESDR: Earth System Data Records TCDR: Thematic Climate Data Records SDR: Sensor Data Records ECV: Essential Climate Data Variables ** SBA: Societal Benefit Areas ** Development of Climate Data Classifications

26. IV. Interoperability Forum

27. Reminder of INTEROP Email • Access from IDN website or email directly. • Is monitored to diminish spam - not to restrict usage. • Possible topics: • Feedback on website • Requests related to metadata standards (DIF/SERF) • Requests or suggestions of keyword changes • Requests for new Portals ceos-idn-interop@lists.nasa.gov

29. V. Climate Diagnostics Portal Action item (CL-06-02-14):

30. Mission Statement: This "Climate Diagnostics" web site was inspired by the ideas and foresight of Mitchell D. Goldberg, NOAA/NESDIS, SaTellite Applications and Research (STAR), and Chief of the Satellite Meteorology and Climatology Division. Mitch is the Committee on Earth Observation Systems (CEOS) Climate Societal Benefit Area (SBA) lead and responsible for CEOS's Global Climate Observing Systems (GCOS) actions. The Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) had used the CEOS International Directory Network (IDN) to provide a portal to data through the GCOS Essential Climate Variables, in order to focus a CEOS GCOS task for CEOS agencies to make data related to these variables available.

31. Mission Statement Continued Upon viewing this portal, Mitch's vision was to offer a resource that would provide information to enhance the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) by providing visualizations of climate trends and variability. He envisioned that the visualizations (climate diagnostics) could be more easily interpreted by decision makers, for the benefit of society than the data alone. The climate visualizations are targeted to address the Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs) related to: Disasters, Health, Energy, Climate, Water, Weather, Ecosystems, Agriculture, and Biodiversity. Every description of a climate visualization in the directory is tagged with one or more of the potentially significant Societal Benefit Areas. The visualizations are created from scientific data by a multitude of providers. The site is designed to offer visualizations that could be readily interpreted by decision makers. If a better understanding of the significance of the science can be achieved, the societal benefits of scientific research would be enhanced by providing these visualizations for long-term diagnostic analyses. The visualizations, also known as "Climate Diagnostics", are expected to be supportive and useful in decision-making processes. They have been based on the careful analysis of significant variables. Anticipating future consequences related to climate in the nine Societal Benefit Areas could be pivotal to our survival.

32. The Challenges of Creating the Infrastructure • Assumption: all portals are virtual subsets of the directory. Climate Diagnostics does not fit this assumption. • Researched climate diagnostics sources relevant to societal benefits (journals, agency bulletins, universities, instrument theme pages, etc.). • Attempted to use current infrastructure. • Discovered that unique content and user base required new software infrastructure and keywords. • Implemented new requirements for content, design and database. • Refined requirements as content evolved {such as added Societal Benefit Area (SBA) keywords and mapped to Essential Climate Variables (ECV)}

33. Early Feedback on Creating Content “I spent some time just using Piclens on the Firefox browser to look at hundreds and hundreds of images that come up using "climate diagnostics" […]. One discovers precious few results […] but they are far flung and often just isolated images. At this point I still have little idea where these resources are supposed to come from. Without being directed to a particular provider of such visualizations, it seems like a fool's errand to just search for them. [Observation from external source]

34. The Challenges of Creating the Infrastructure • Time Span: seeking climatologies 20-30 years (settled for GT 5 years). • Continuous Coverage - A continuous coverage with very few gaps. • Descriptions - Good descriptive summaries detailing the trend in the visualization. Guidelines:

35. The Challenges of Creating the Infrastructure Unique content required the following: 1) New metadata fields needed: • File Attributes • Personnel Role • Renaming of fields: • Visualization Provider • Visualization Description • Visualization Citation 3) New sets of controlled keywords: • Analysis Types • Visualization Types • Format • Personnel Role

36. File Attributes

37. File Attributes Visualization URL - Field created to store URL visualization to be accessed. - URL needed by the user to obtain the file and to display with selected entry on screen. Thumbnail URL - This URL points to the sample that the website will display on the results interface. - Thumbnails used on the Climate Diagnostics homepage to randomly display the different types of climate visualizations in the Portal.

38. File Attributes Visualization Type Created to inform the user of the dimensional type of the visualization. Analysis Type Created to inform the user of analysis/statistical method used to create the visualization.

39. File Attributes Visualization Duration This is a required field if the visualization is an Animation or video to inform the user the run-time length of the animation or video. Format The field is to notify the user of the type of graphic file format used for the visualization.

40. File Attributes Viewing Specifications Created to inform the user of any special application required to view the visualization. Applications that might be needed are QuickTime, MS Player, or Google Earth. Visualization File Size The file size field was created to allow the user to know how much disk space is required to download the visualization file.

41. Climate Diagnostics

42. Climate Diagnostics

43. The Evolution of the Interface

44. The Evolution of the Interface Display Pages

45. The Evolution of the Interface Display Pages

46. Future Goals for the Portal • Gather feedback from diverse communities (data community, policy makers, educators, etc.). Are the visualizations adequate to relay the information? Does the users understand and use these diagnostics? Is this having the societal benefit impact intended? • Create use case scenarios to demonstrate usability of these climate diagnostics. • Further evaluate user base audience. • Continue caretaking - funding would be required to continue the population effort and maintaining the website. • Advertise website through CEOS, AGU, AMS etc. Possible use within GEOSS.

47. Initial Comments Mitchell D. Goldberg: “This addition will help the climate community and decision makers with easier access to climate information.”

48. VI. Land Surface Imaging Portal

50. Instrument/Platform Interface