NASA's Near Real-Time Data System: Bridging the Gap between Research and Time-Sensitive Decision Making

NASA’s Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for Earth observations (LANCE) has been providing data and imagery to bridge the gap between research and operations for over 15 years. Originally developed to support the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service in its wildfire management activities, it soon became clear that the data and imagery could be used for a range of applications. LANCE continues to evolve, identify opportunities to expand, and respond to user needs. LANCE operates as a one-stop shop for users who require rapidly generated data products to implement time sensitive decision making, modelling, and forecasting activities. Using a consistent set of requirements for data products and imagery, LANCE has facilitated the uptake of NASA Earth Science data as a trusted source of actionable information. LANCE partners with multiple NASA data centers and NASA science facilities through a collaborative approach to make available a range of data products that are consistently generated in under three hours from observation to user access. LANCE efficiently curates over 250 NASA earth science products to inform a suite of time sensitive decision making activities focused on air quality, wildfires, drought, severe storms, flooding, vegetation monitoring, dust storms, and more. Data provisioned through LANCE supports activities across scales, from an individual, local scale wildfire event to a global scale emissions forecast. Sitting at the intersection of NASA’s Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) and NASA’s Earth Action program, LANCE provides a ready conduit to support NASA’s new Earth Science to Action strategy that straddles both ESDS and Earth Action; this strategy will drive NASA’s Earth Sciences activities in the future. LANCE increasingly collaborates with NASA’s Mission Engagement team and the Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG). By interacting with NASA’s Mission Engagement team, LANCE can advocate for the need to embed NRT considerations into mission design to ensure that future time-sensitive applications continue to be supported. This joint effort is also helping to ensure that mission decisions that impact low latency opportunities are understood and accepted by all. Through engagement with the SNWG, LANCE can further support the expanding needs for time-sensitive information amongst multiple federal agencies by helping to identify potential NRT solutions and hosting NRT solutions approved through the SNWG. LANCE employs a user-centric approach in its evolution through engagement with a User Working Group (UWG). This UWG is composed of representatives from a wide range of user communities who provide feedback, guidance, and suggestions on the continued evolution of LANCE to support an increasingly diverse stakeholder base. In this presentation, we will highlight the evolution of LANCE. We will present the infrastructure of LANCE to convey the collaborative partnership between LANCE and multiple NASA centers that underpins LANCE. We will also provide multiple use cases that highlight the research to applications gaps that have been bridged through LANCE, and we will discuss the barriers that can exist in bridging the gap between research and operations.