Building Community to Strengthen Convention Consistency and Develop Widely Applicable Standards to Support FAIR and Open UxS Data

In recent years, the use and capability of uncrewed systems for collecting Earth science observations has exponentially increased across the spectrum of terrestrial, marine, and atmospheric domains. These emergent technologies are being embraced across federal, private, and international organizations, with much focus on the improvement of sensor resolutions and extending platform/payload endurance. Most, if not all, of the observations collected in these efforts augment more traditionally-collected datasets, bolstering on varying scales the density of a robust observational record.

However, challenges inherent in managing UxS-collected data and the lack of a clearly defined and widely adopted set of guidelines for metadata and data formats have resulted in a piecemeal approach to data management across the many disciplines and science communities already incorporating these observations into analyses. This lack of a harmonized convention or data standard has led to a severe paucity of FAIR UxS data, i.e.: these data are less interoperable and less reusable across agencies/organizations, support very limited user discovery, and often lack transparent data provenance or lineage. In some cases, individual groups have developed domain-specific data and metadata conventions, but these silo-esque standards are not universally adopted or even applicable.

This presentation will highlight an incipient effort to build an interagency community of practice aimed at strengthening the FAIRness of uncrewed Earth observations. Aligning the evolving frameworks of metadata and data management practices within and across UxS communities, consistent data stewardship will enable increased discovery and (re)use of these data in more traditional science analyses as well as in emerging methods reliant on artificial intelligence and cloud computing.