NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) and FAIR – A Self-Assessment

Abstract:

This paper addresses the challenge of evaluating a long-term, multi-disciplinary institutional network of data repositories against the relatively recent criteria that constitute FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data. NASA’s Earth Observation System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), with its 12 discipline-based Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs), preceded the definition and popularization of FAIR by over two decades. Given its requirement to provide long-term support for NASA’s Earth science data to accommodate changing community expectations over time, EOSDIS has been designed as an evolutionary system. The following is a brief list of examples of actions showing how EOSDIS is addressing the FAIR principles.

• F:
  • Adoption and on-going assignment of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to all datasets
  • Facilitating discovery using the Common Metadata Repository with rich metadata
• A:
  • Use of https and provision of both human- and machine-accessibility
  • Data and services consistent with NASA’s free and open policy
  • User login for tracking usage metrics and informing users about changes to data and/or services
  • Landing pages for superseded versions of collections and providing pointers to later versions
• I:
  • Controlled keyword vocabulary of Global Change Master Directory
  • Structured metadata in a Unified Metadata Model (UMM)
  • Use of internationally accepted standard formats for data and metadata
• R:
  • Metadata fields and documentation references provided in the datasets and their landing pages to inform users about the scope and limitations of the data
  • Documentation of known issues
  • Quality flags and indicators to enable users to filter data before use
  • Progress is being made towards capturing more complete provenance and context information to ensure future reusability – NASA has developed a preservation content specification (PCS) and led the development of an ISO standard (ISO 19165-2) based on PCS and CEOS adopted Long-Term Data Preservation Contents

The above assessment serves as a gap analysis to identify system improvements to be more fully FAIR-compliant.