A field of study such as oceanography, meteorology, geology, or marine biology.

Successful identification and location of data products of interest. 

Any service that helps the user to identify and locate EO resource starting from his needs. 

See also: Search and Discovery.

DRRs evaluate the readiness of the project and the flight system for execution of the spacecraft disposal event.

EOSDIS is designed as a distributed system, with major facilities at Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) located throughout the United States. These institutions are custodians of EOS mission data and ensure that data will be easily accessible to users. EOSDIS DAACs process, archive, document, and distribute data from NASA's past and current Earth-observing satellites and field measurement programs. Acting in concert, DAACs provide reliable, robust services to users whose needs may cross the traditional boundaries of a science discipline, while continuing to support the particular needs of users within the discipline communities. User services include:

• Assistance in selecting and obtaining data
• Access to data-handling and visualization tools
• Technical support and referrals

The allocation of ESDIS elements to various locations to take best advantage of each location's different institutional capabilities and science expertise.

 Earth central angle: the angular distance between two points on the surface measured from the center of the Earth.

A series of small- to intermediate-sized spacecraft that is the centerpiece of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise (ESE). Planned for launch beginning in 1999, each of the EOS spacecraft will carry a suite of instruments designed to study global climate change. ESE will use space-, aircraft-, and ground-based measurements to study our environment as an integrated system. Designing and implementing the ESE is, of necessity, an international effort. The ESE program involves the cooperation of the U.S., the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japanese National Space Development Agency (NASDA). The ESE program is part of the U.S. interagency effort, the Global Change Research Program.

NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is a key core capability in the Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program. It provides end-to-end capabilities for managing NASA Earth science data from various sources—satellites, aircraft, field measurements, and various other programs. For the EOS satellite missions, EOSDIS provides capabilities for command and control, scheduling, data capture and initial (level 0) processing. These capabilities, constituting the EOSDIS Mission Operations, are managed by NASA's Earth Science Mission Operations (ESMO) Project. 

The remaining capabilities of EOSDIS constitute the EOSDIS Science Operations, which are managed by NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project. These capabilities include: generation of higher level (levels 1-4) science data products for EOS missions; and archiving and distribution of data products from EOS and other satellite missions, as well as aircraft and field measurement campaigns. The EOSDIS science operations are performed within a distributed system which includes Science Investigator-led Processing Systems (SIPS) and distributed, discipline-specific, Earth science Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). 

The condition of balance between incoming solar shortwave radiation and outgoing longwave radiation emitted by the Earth into space.

NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project is a part of NASA's Earth Science Projects Division under the Flight Projects Directorate at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. ESDIS manages the science systems of NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). 

See Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS)

Each type of science data collected by an instrument aboard a satellite supported by the ECS is given a data type name to be stored or archived in the ECS inventory (e.g., MISR001.) ESDTs also define the Services which can be applied to the data and the metadata associated with the data. In addition, ESDTs are defined for all data referenced in the ECS inventory and this includes some non-satellite data, and some non-instrument data (e.g., science software archive packages, algorithm packages, pge tar files, and delivered algorithm packages).

NASA's Earth Science Mission Operations (ESMO) Project is responsible for spacecraft maintenance and operations for Earth Science missions conducted by NASA's Earth Science Projects Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. ESMO plays a significant role during the mission life cycle; from the formulation and approval phases through the implementation and evaluation phases, and eventual deactivation. 

The Project's role is to ensure the health and safety of the missions it manages by fulfilling the primary operational requirements for each mission, and providing the scientific community with high-quality data products in a timely manner. It also serves as a focal point for the mission on-orbit operations and the definition of support services required.

Data which describe the physical condition and operation of the platform and instruments on the platform. Parameters might include temperatures at specific points, filter(s) in use, switch settings, memory data, etc.

The infrastructure which provides NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) and other U.S. and international scientists a broad range of desktop services from NASA's discipline-specific Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). The ECS infrastructure also supports exchange of data and research results within the science community, across multiple agencies and internationally. ECS is the evolutionary base for accelerating the pace of Earth science research.

 A tabular statement of the spatial coordinates of a celestial body or a spacecraft as a function of time.

A term that is used for both "Data Format" and "Product Format" whose meaning should be understood by its context. 

See: Data Format

FRRs evaluate the readiness of the program and its projects, ground systems, personnel, and procedures for a safe and successful launch and flight/mission.

The rate of energy transfer by electromagnetic radiation.

Geographic area covered by an instrument's observation and its derived products.

The FA is prepared by the project to establish the technical and acquisition work that needs to be conducted during formulation and defines the schedule and funding requirements during Phase A and Phase B for that work.

The FAD is issued by the Mission Directorate Associate Administrator (MDAA) to authorize the formulation of a program whose goals will fulfill part of the Agency's Strategic Plan and Mission Directorate strategies and establish the expectations and constraints for activity in the Formulation Phase. In addition, a FAD or equivalent is used to authorize the formulation of a project. (See Appendix E.)

A term used in data processing when the data is moving from one version to another version.

 A satellite that remains over a fixed point because its rate of travel corresponds to the Earth's rate of rotation. Geostationary satellites follow a circular orbit at a fixed distance from the orbit's barycenter. 

An attribute that applies to either the entire file or the entire collection of files.

GIBS provides full resolution visual representations of NASA Earth science data in a free, open, and interoperable manner.

1. The smallest aggregation of data which is independently managed (i. e. described, inventoried, retrievable). Granules may be managed as logical granules and/or physical granules. 
   
   See also: Scene 
    
2. The smallest aggregation of independently managed (i.e., described, inventoried, retrievable) data at a DAAC. Some web applications and services provided by DAACs allow for the subsetting of granules. One granule usually comprises one file, more rarely multiple files. The latter is not optimal as it complicates data management by both the archive and users, and utilization by tools and services.

These are metadata elements that describe a single granule of a data product. Values of granule metadata apply to all of the data in that one granule. Typical metadata in this category describe spatial and temporal extent of the data as well as the quality and lineage of the data. 

See also: Granule.

The Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) is designed to facilitate managing and sharing scientific data. HDF includes two formats (HDF4 and HDF5), software for accessing data in HDF formats, and applications for working with HDF data. 

HDF is designed for efficient storage and access of high volume, complex data, and for mixing varieties of data types in a single container.

 A general term referring to water vapor in the air.

The ingestion function accepts data from different sources: ground segment reception, processing or data migration elements. The received data is quality checked and metadata including browse images are obtained from the data. The data and metadata form a data product. The product is consistently submitted to archiving and cataloguing.

The instrument calibration function is the determination of parameters describing instrument characteristics. They are to be used by the instruments and ground processing to generate calibrated and comparable physical values. These parameters vary for different instruments and modes. And they may vary over time in the long run (degradation).

IPAs are agreements between ESDIS and projects not managed by ESDIS. Generally, the projects involved agree on an exchange of support services and data. From the interface control viewpoint, these agreements identify the need for an interface and the scope of the interface.

ICDs are used to record design agreements for the interfaces between participating organizations. ICDs provide a means to evaluate and control all mutually interdependent and/or interacting design parameters of the interface.

IRDs define the requirements for data exchanges across an interface between separately managed systems or subsystems. The requirements statements in IRDs are derived directly from project requirements documents.

The ability of different information technology systems and software applications to communicate, exchange data, and use the information that has been exchanged. 

In Earth observation it includes e.g. interoperable discovery and access, i.e. the capability of the user interface and administrative software of one instance of a catalogue service to interact with other instances of catalogue services. E.g. the capability of accessing granules in one data format with APIs or services of another API.

The inventory function provides organization capabilities for archiving management. Data products can be grouped, searched and identified for retrieval, statistics and reorganization. Inventory is also referred to the list of available items stored and/or controlled in a storage warehouse system. 

In this latter case it is necessary to specify the kind of inventory, e.g. ICT Inventory for infrastructure inventory list.

 Flux divided by the area through which it passes, designated as watt per square meter (W/m²).

A key decision point (KDP) is the event at which the Decision Authority determines the readiness of a program/project to progress to the next phase of the life cycle (or to the next KDP).

LRRs evaluate a program/project and its ground, hardware, and software systems for readiness for launch.

LVs are rockets that send people and other payloads into space.

The act of maintaining information in a correct and independently understandable form over the long term, i.e. a period of time long enough to be concerned with the impact which changing technologies, including support for media and data formats, and changing user communities will have on the information being held in a repository. 

See: Preservation.

Data about data, contained in data sets, and which provides an understanding of the content and utility of the data set. Metadata may be used to select on data for a particular scientific investigation. 

Metadata is intended as information describing significant aspects of a resource (Earth Observation space data in this context). They are created for the purposes of data search, discovery and access management and may exist at various levels, typically from data collection through to the individual variables of each data file in a collection.

MCRs evaluate the feasibility of the proposed mission concept(s) and its fulfillment of the program's needs and objectives. MCRs also determine whether the maturity of the concept and associated planning are sufficient to begin Phase A.

MDRs evaluate the credibility and responsiveness of the proposed mission/system architecture to the program requirements and constraints, including available resources. MDRs also determine whether the maturity of the project's mission/system definition and associated plans are sufficient to begin Phase B.

MRRs evaluate the readiness of the program and its projects, ground systems, personnel, and procedures for a safe and successful launch and flight/mission.

The MRTP documents the strategy that will be used to verify and ensure that all system components working together meet design specifications and requirements for the mission.

An investigative technique that uses a mathematical or physical representation of a system or theory that accounts for all or some of its known properties. Models are often used to test the effects of changes of system components on the overall performance of the system.

A composite of two or more images put together to create one image.

 Direction toward the center of the Earth, i.e., directly down.

NGAP provides a NASA-compliant, secure, cloud-based Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) for hosting Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) applications.