Description:

Many research agencies collect, process, and release data from a variety of observational platforms for anyone in the world to use. Individually, these datasets give an incomplete picture, but when combined with our physical understanding of Earth systems, we can generate products that are not only complete, but easier for people to understand and utilize. Development of these products depends on cooperation between scientists across a wide range of disciplines, often hailing from multiple institutions. Co-development of these data products with stakeholders throughout projects maximizes the impact and usability of these products. Cyberinfrastructure also plays a critical role in the success of such synthesis activities -- data systems with consistent, widely-used Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) greatly facilitate analyses involving a variety of datasets, while analysis-in-place capabilities enabled by modern cloud computing democratize access to large-scale computation. Finally, the most effective "information products" are rarely just numbers stored in files, but rather also include interactive, user-friendly interfaces that invite exploration and facilitate interpretation; both front- and back-end design of such interfaces requires specialized software engineering and design skills. Collectively, we use the term "information systems" to describe such projects involving collaboration between researchers, stakeholders, data scientists, and software developers.

In this session, we showcase examples of such information systems and their application to a variety of thematic areas. We invite contributions describing entire information systems, including their scientific foundation, organization, technical design, and approach to stakeholder engagement. We also invite contributions describing individual components in existing information systems, or which could be leveraged by future information systems. Lastly, we invite perspectives from both scientists and stakeholders on general strategies for successful production and dissemination of Earth Science information, and how the Earth Science community can improve.