Construction of an Airborne Data Inventory for Improved Data Discoverability and Access

NASA conducts airborne investigations to study geophysical features and physical relationships as well as for use in satellite validation. The data have historically been scattered across NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) and stored on scientist or organization hard drives making it difficult to find, retrieve, and use. The NASA Airborne Data Management Group (ADMG) located within the Interagency Implementation and Concepts Team (IMPACT) is currently working to make airborne data more discoverable and accessible by building a query-based NASA airborne data inventory for improved data and information access. Potential end-user surveys were conducted to help with determining future inventory use patterns and desired information queries. The results indicated detailed metadata were needed that did not exist, especially for older investigation data. ADMG scientists spent much of the past year laboriously compiling the needed investigation, aircraft, and instrument metadata from historic investigations using journal publications, reports, and personal contact to fill in missing metadata. Throughout the process, the standardization of existing metadata was addressed. The inventory database will initially provide access to all data already published at NASA DAACs and enable intelligent data search and retrieval. The inventory structure and function, as well as content and potential use will be described and demonstrated. The purpose of this presentation is to bring awareness to this effort, highlight and describe the issues and complications in the airborne inventory development, and increase user interest prior to public release of the inventory later in 2020.