NOAA's Environmental Data Management: Commitment to Stewarding a National Resource

One of NOAA's most important missions is to observe, monitor and predict changes in the world's oceans and atmosphere to conserve our precious coastal and maritime resources and support our Nation's economy and society. NOAA acquires, quality controls, and preserves a vast amount of data to characterize the environment from the ocean floor to the surface of the sun. This unique and vital mission drives NOAA to efficiently and effectively manage the complete lifecycle of its data from collection through in-situ and remote sensors to the distribution of archived raw data and derived products and services to the public. Mandates for transparent access to federal data, increases in data volume and complexity, breakthroughs in storage and processing technology, and the growing demands of decision makers for more reliable data all require NOAA to stay at the cutting-edge of data management capabilities. This presentation will summarize NOAA's current activities to improve its data stewardship through strengthening policies and directives, investing in an enterprise IT infrastructure, leveraging community data formats and transfer protocols, expanding data discovery and access, redefining scientific data stewardship, and developing a data management workforce.