NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) is a coordinated series of satellites designed for long-term earth observations. The practical benefits, uses, and applications of EOS data is growing, and along with it, the operational community who uses satellite observations is increasing in its sophistication. As new Earth science missions are planned, scientific and applications-oriented goals of the mission can complement one another, as science enables improved decision-making and the practical benefits build interest in further scientific discovery.
Data latency, (the time between the instrument observation and when the resulting product is available for use by the community), is a major factor in the utility of data products for applied and operational uses, as well as some scientific investigations. Many of NASA¹s upcoming missions have data products that may serve to be
more valuable if they reach the applied communities in a form and a time
that is most suitable for the application or use.
Objectives
This study seeks to assess options for meeting latency desires for new NASA missions without unduly driving-up the mission costs. Some current ways of serving short-time data latency, such as ‘direct broadcast’, may not necessarily be the option of choice in future years given technological developments and potential improvements of ground-based data delivery mechanisms.
This professional review seeks to gather community input relative to the importance of rapid delivery of NASA data products. This information will be reported back to NASA's Earth Science Division for use in the current and future Decadal survey missions, and will be available in a report to be posted on the NASA web site. Thank you for your participation.