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Answers to Earth System Science Questions— the Evolution of Informatics at the U.S. Geological Survey Data Discovery Map Servi

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Answers to Earth System Science Questions— the Evolution of Informatics at the U.S. Geological Survey Data Discovery Map Servi 2 Geoinformatics 2008—Data to Knowledge This presentation will, drawing on national and interna- and Department of Interior bureaus that will contain searchable tional examples, explore these challenges and the issues they metadata on data and materials such as core, rock samples, well raise. logs, engineering data, and maps. Map Services Answers to Earth System Science Questions— The Evolution of Informatics at the U.S. The USGS has created (and is constantly revising and Geological Survey updating) national, regional, and topical map-based data in a wide range of scales and resolutions. The National Map (http:// By Linda C. Gundersen1 nationalmap.gov/) provides imagery from a variety of sources, elevation and hydrographic data, geographic names, and land- 1U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va. cover data. The Mineral Resources On-Line Spatial Data service (http://mrdata.usgs.gov/) provides access to national databases The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS’s) science strategy and maps of mines, historical mining, mineral occurrences, (U.S. Geological Survey, 2007) identified data integration as geochemistry of rocks and sediments, lithology, geology, and one of its crosscutting strategic science directions and states geophysics of the United States. Both the National Map and the the following: “The USGS will use its information resources Mineral Resources On-Line Spatial Data service include map to create a more integrated and accessible environment for its browsers, download sites, and Web services. vast resources of past and future data. It will invest in cyber- infrastructure, nurture and cultivate programs in Earth-system Integrated Science Applications science informatics, and participate in efforts to build a global integrated science and computing platform.” The PAGER (Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes USGS is constructing a service-oriented architecture for Response) system is an automated system developed by the (SOA) for all USGS data and science applications, which is a USGS (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/pager/) to integrate complex challenge for a 129-year-old institution that has been multiple data streams; rapidly assess the number of people, collecting earth science data since its inception. This effort cities, and regions exposed to severe shaking by an earthquake; requires operating on many aspects of architecture creation and inform emergency responders, government agencies, and simultaneously while dealing with extensive legacy analog the media about the scope of the potential damage. PAGER and digital data. Projects are underway that include everything monitors the National and Global Seismological Networks; from building a federated database warehouse, developing retrieves shaking intensities reported by people in the epicenter Web services for discovery of data, creating community- region via USGS’s online “Did You Feel It?” system; generates specific data models, and building integrated-earth-system a site-specific ground-motion amplification map; and computes scientific applications. The complex issues of governance, the population affected at each intensity level. Within 15 to 30 platforms, standards, and active engagement in international minutes, depending on the location and size of the earthquake, and national informatics efforts require the development of the PAGER produces regional ground shaking estimates using the SOA to be collaborative, iterative, and experimental. The fol- reported intensities, the site-specific ground-motion amplifica- lowing provides highlights of projects underway to create this tion map, and seismic-wave-attenuation equations that account service-oriented architecture for earth-system science. for the variations of seismic shaking intensity with magnitude, distance, and depth. Final information is distributed in multiple Data Discovery formats and through multiple media, including Google’s online map display services, automatic e-mail alerts, and community As a first step, USGS is engaged in evaluating the agency’s standard Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) format. data holdings and is creating a searchable, spatially enabled Two significant USGS collaborative efforts that bring database tentatively named the “National Digital Catalog global communities together to address global-scale societal (NDC)” This catalog will provide discovery tools, metadata, a issues are the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS geospatial interface, and other information related to the nature NET) and the Delta Research and Global Observation Network of the materials or data. A Web-based pilot was recently devel- (DRAGON). The FEWS NET grew out of an effort started by oped to test hardware and software technology. This pilot, the the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Geospatial Management Information System (GMIS), provides wake of the devastating 1985 famine in Ethiopia. Today it is a one-stop access to different sources of USGS data, including modern network of multiple agencies supplying multiple data detailed information on the thousands of USGS science projects streams from both ground observations and satellite remote being conducted around the world. The system allows the user sensing. These data feed into a series of Web services and pro- to search information by topic and geographic area. Another grams to produce products ranging from key vegetation indexes part of the NDC under development is a catalog service for the to sophisticated daily flood models. The network identifies physical material collections of the State geological surveys and provides early warnings for famine in sub-Saharan Africa, Geoinformatics 2008—Data to Knowledge 3 Afghanistan, Central America, and Haiti. The USGS Earth pogenic driver, it becomes crucial to constantly monitor the Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Data Center (USGS world’s most climatically sensitive areas. Examples of such EDC) works in cooperation with USAID, the National Aeronau- areas include glaciers and ice sheets whose record melting tics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic is impacting communities on a global scale. In some cases, and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Chemonics regions that rely upon glacial water as a principle source of International, Inc., to provide the data, information, and analyses fresh water are witnessing the rapid dwindling of resources. In needed to support the FEWS NET activity. NASA and NOAA other cases, rising sea level, to which the melting of glacier ice are responsible for the collection and processing of satellite contributes, is threatening low-lying communities. Unfortu- data that provide the spatial coverage and temporal frequency nately, as is the case with the Greenland ice sheet, many such necessary for monitoring both vegetation condition and rainfall. areas are remote and dangerous, making spatially and tem- Chemonics maintains a staff of field representatives responsible porally comprehensive field measurements cost prohibitive. for key field observations and monitoring regional and country- Hence, we must rely on remotely sensed measurements from specific conditions. USGS EDC provides end-to-end data aircraft and satellites in order to fill in our knowledge gaps left management, processing, and analyses; GIS and remote-sensing by sparse field measurements. technical support; crop and flood modeling; and long-term data The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) archive and distribution services. The Africa Data Dissemination instrument (operational since 2000) is on board the Earth Service (ADDS) provides additional Web services. Observing System (EOS) satellite, Terra, which is in a sun- DRAGON is an effort recently initiated by USGS to synchronous polar orbit. MISR is uniquely suited for studying create a global science framework for comparing, integrating, the poles because of the continuous, overlapping coverage of and predicting the key drivers and management practices in data taken by its nine pushbroom cameras that are arrayed at large delta ecosystems. Large delta ecosystems provide the fixed angles ranging from 0° to 70.5° (from nadir) and sym- habitat for a broad diversity of flora and fauna as well as life- metric about the nadir camera. Each camera has four filters: sustaining agriculture, commerce, and fisheries for hundreds red, green, and blue (in the visible), and a near-infrared (NIR) of millions of people. The project will require an extensive at 866 micrometer (µm) wavelength. The multi-angle views effort to (1) make large volumes of ecological, hydrological, in conjunction with the 275-meter (m) resolution (available at geological, and biogeochemical information interoperable; (2) the visible red wavelength on all nine cameras) can be used to create a common data and discovery portal; and (3) develop compute a proxy of surface roughness of the observed target community tools and models through a global “community on a scale that is comparable to that of the Moderate Resolu- of practice” in delta system management. The pilot program tion Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 250-m data (Nolin partners the USGS with the Chinese Qingdao Institute for and others, 2002). We have elected to use MISR’s red-filtered Marine Geology to develop the conceptual frameworks for the C-cameras (60.0° fore and aft) in order to define and inves- Lower Mississippi Valley simultaneously with those for the tigate a proxy for ice surface roughness based on forward Huang He River. The resulting joint comparative model
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