PoDAG 21: Budget, Staffing Changes, and Follow-on Contract Update

1. PODAG.21October 15-17, 2003 Ron Weaver NSIDC DAAC Manager http://extranet.nsidc.org/nasa/daac/podag/21/index.html

2. Logistics NSIDC Travel Reimbursement PoDAG 21: Introduction

3. Topics • Budget/Fiscal Report • EOS/ECS Topics • Non-EOS/ECS Topics • PoDAG Housekeeping • Membership PoDAG 21: Introduction

4. Budget/Fiscal Report • Budget status • Staff Changes • NSIDC DAAC Follow-on Contract • NSIDC DAAC FY04/05 Workplan PoDAG 21: Introduction

5. NSIDC DAAC Budget • Budget was adequate through FY03, however we reduced our spending by about 5% from our NOA* • Total expenditure in FY03 was $ 5.0 my • FY04 NOA is $5.3 my. This is $.213 my below the POP03 amount for FY04. *NOA=New Obligation Authority PoDAG 21: Introduction

6. Budget: DAAC Expenses PoDAG 21: Introduction

7. Staffing Levels, FY03 by Functional Group PoDAG 21: Introduction

8. Staffing Changes • NSIDC Deputy Director Hired. • Dr. Clark Judy joined NSIDC in mid-August* • Operations • John Maurer moved to USO • Anjo Shah, replacement technician hired • (Operations now staffed at 5 technicians for extended hours) • USO • Kate Daniels left to go to law school • John Maurer hired (from OPS) • Brad McLean left to become self-employed • Com Group/Writers Team • Keri Webster interim com/writers team lead • Engineering • Anthony Veale hired as part-time Systems Administrator* • Science/Mission Coordination* • Dr. Tom Painter hired (part-time on DAAC), CLPX and VIS/IR responsibilities • Dr. Walt Meier (part-time on DAAC), Passive Microwave sea ice, and sea ice modeling • (Walt and Tom were hired as replacements for Anne Nolin, who departed for U Oregon in December of last year) • Dr. Drew Slater (part-time on DAAC) post-doc working with Mark Serreze, data assimilation • ECS/Raytheon • Dr Siri Jodha Singh Khalsa hired as a direct contractor to NSIDC. (He still works for L3, but now is paid by NSIDC contract and not Raytheon ECS contract) • Other • Vince Troisi on mini-sabbatical until January 2004, duties distributed to other existing staff • Julienne Stroeve on “TDY”/sabbatical until June 2004 • Roger Barry going on sabbatical in spring semester 2004 • Pat Hofman, long-time NSIDC library technician retired *(non-replacement position) PoDAG 21: Introduction

9. NSIDC DAAC Follow-on Contract • Contract ended May 31, 2003 • Letter contract from June 1 thru September 30, 2003 • 5 year contract signed September 30, 2003 • 12 hours before spending authority would have lapsed • Ron Weaver is PI, Roger Barry and Vince Troisi are Co-PIs • Total Contract value is $ 32.872 my for 5 years, with $2.231 my held back for optioned tasks (No we do not expect to receive all the contract value) PoDAG 21: Introduction

10. FY04 Workplan • Workplan due November 1, 2003 • Streamlined approach, focus on the work we have to do, schedules, resource needs, outcomes • Covers two years, FY04/FY05 • Will be sent to PoDAG shortly • FY04 themes: • Continue ECS Operations • Consolidate PM data sets • Develop and Consider ‘V0’ system options PoDAG 21: Introduction

11. EOS/ECS Topics • EOS Instrument Status • ECS Data Flows • ECS Follow on Contract • SWGD call for Data Access Workshop PoDAG 21: Introduction

12. EOS Instrument Status • Not covered here, see separate reports from Marilyn Kaminski and Melinda Marquis PoDAG 21: Introduction

13. EOS Data Flows ECS at NSIDC • Components • Ingest • Science Data Server • Distribution • Systems • Workstations • Mass Store • RAID • Output Devices Non ECS (V0 or Heritage) System at NSIDC • Components • Ingest • Production • Archive • Distribution • Information Services • Systems • Workstations/Servers • Mass Store • RAID • Output Devices AMSR AMSR L1A GLAS MODIS NISE SUBSETTER PDS VO GATEWAY NSIDC WEBSITE Data Pool EDG PoDAG 21: Introduction

14. ECS Follow-on Contract (EMD) • EMD =EOS Maintenance and Development • EMD was awarded to Raytheon • Staffing at NSIDC reduced from 7 to 6 • Roles of Raytheon staff at NSIDC will change somewhat • Some equipment maintained by Raytheon will transition to NSIDC responsibility, (with limited funding from ESDIS) PoDAG 21: Introduction

15. SWGD* Workshop on Data Access • Robert Wolfe of MODAPS is organizing a workshop on data access in November 5-6 • He has requested input from the UWGs • Why should the UWG care? • The SWDG has influenced system requirements and deployment priorities • A direct link from scientists via the SWGD to ESDIS Project • Actions requested from PoDAG • Is anyone interested to attend? • (NSIDC will send 1, maybe 2 persons) *SWGD=SWAMP Working Group on Data *SWAMP=Science Working Group AM Platform http://swgd.gsfc.nasa.gov/schedule.htm PoDAG 21: Introduction

16. SWGD PoDAG 21: Introduction

17. NON-EOS/ECS Topics These are topics for PoDAG to discuss during the meeting (not necessarily right now) • Historical “AWS” Climate Data • Melt On-set Data Set reprocessing • Sea Ice Motion Data Sets • SDO-EVE opportunity • Scatterometry Data Sets • F-10 SSM/I Wentz Tapes Status • Snow Water Equivalent Data Sets Page • HARA data updates • PARCA data sets PoDAG 21: Introduction

18. AWS Climate Data Records Julienne says … • I have been processing, or rather extracting from a NCDC data set all the historical AWS data from the Arctic and Antarctic. This has been quite a task. I'm attaching here a listing of the NH data files, a figure showing their locations and some sample data to give you an example. What we would now like to do is make this an official DAAC data set. • As part of this, we would really like to make a web interface where a user can click on the map that would bring up the stations and some information about them and then link them to ftp site where the data would reside. Ted was thinking that Jennifer could probably do something like this. • I've already produced the data set, and I'll be doing most of the documentation. We'll need some additional writer support to help get the guide doc complete, announce the data set, etc., some ops time to stage the data, and some web development time (1 month of Jennifer's time for example). • Questions to the DAAC (and to the UWG are: • - do we make this an official DAAC data set? • - do we set aside some DAAC resources to get this data set distributed. PoDAG 21: Introduction

19. AWS/Climate Station sites on Greenland and Iceland It is all basic synoptic meteorological data. 104 stations for Arctic and 136 for Antarctic. Data from 1913 to 2002 but there are lots of gaps. Creating an observational data set. The state of the data set is extracted and stored in ASCII format. Working on a guide doc and working on getting as much data into it as possible. Money has come though Chris Shuman at NASA via INSTAAR. Currently not in a format that anyone can use. Hoping to extract it out into a more useful version that other people can use. PoDAG 21: Introduction

20. Melt-Onset Dataset • The melt onset project has been raising a number of concerns • Problem: We cannot intercalibrate the melt-onset product in an understandable and predictable manner. • When the calibration coefficients used to adjust the Tbs, so that there is consistency between SMMR-F8-F11-F13-produce inconsistent results • We've found that the F11/F13 adjustments cause larger differences during the overlap period than not using them. (Mark Anderson however feels that we shouldn't just not apply the adjustments, since we don't know how it affects the F8/F11 consistency.) • We could look at the POLES air temperature during the 1995 F11/F13 overlap period and see which method matches better with the POLES data. This might shed some light on whether or not to apply adjustments to F11 or F13 Tbs. (We are doing some work in this area now.) • What we really should be doing is looking at the POLES data for the whole time-series to access how accurate the melt onset product really is. This is then becoming more of a research project. • We really do want to update the time-series (it now only goes through 1998) but in us trying to do that, all these other issues have surfaced. So do we just continue what was previously done, or do we try to make a more accurate product? • Questions to PoDAG • Suggestions on how to proceed? • How much resource to put into this product? • Continue with previous intercalibraiton methods, and document and caution users about the variability • Don’t do anything, leave product as ending in 1988? • Research methods and/or find a research partner to update? PoDAG 21: Introduction

21. Sea Ice Motion Data Set(s) • Sea Ice Motion Data Set SSMI, Blended, Buoy, AVHRR. • Has not been updated by providers (Fowler/Maslanik), they are not planning more updates. Do we want to take over the updating? • All done with Shell scripts or IDL routines. • Has a significant number of users. • Would require some resources to transfer code to NSIDC and run updates. (maybe a month of Fowler staff time) • Question to PoDAG: • Should NSIDC take on updates to this data set now (and on-going) PoDAG 21: Introduction

22. HARA Data Set Update • Mark Serreze says: • … In my opinion, we really need to consider whether this is a worthwhile expenditure of time and resources. The reason is that the NOAA "CARDS" effort has put together a global data set of all rawinsonde data which for many stations is updated through 2000. I've looked at the station inventories and all the Arctic stations are there. The CARDS home page is: • http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/cards/cards_homepage.html • … So, while it may sound like I'm passing the buck, NOAA seems to have the Arctic rawinsonde problem well in hand. My feeling is that HARA, while an excellent idea at the time, is obsolete. • Questions to PoDAG • Do we not update HARA, and instead build an interface to the CARDS data stream? PoDAG 21: Introduction

23. PARCA • NSIDC has basic metadata for and advertises 15 data sets, served by PIs. • Nine potential other data sets were listed in January 2000 PARCA status report. • Jump page seems to be working and we have heard no complaints from users. • May be renewed interest in these data when ICESat data becomes available. • What happens to these data in five to ten years? • If NSIDC is to archive these data, we should start now. It will be more difficult to fund in the future. • Questions to PoDAG: • Should we or NASA pursue the potentially missing data • Should we start to archive the data? (Cost: 2-4 weeks per data set) PoDAG 21: Introduction

24. PoDAG Housekeeping • Membership PoDAG 21: Introduction

25. PoDAG Members • New Chairman • Dr. Mark Anderson, University of Nebraska • Departures: • Greg Hunolt • Dave Bromwich? • Nominations for new members • Bert Davis, Technical Director, CRREL • A MODIS user PoDAG 21: Introduction

26. BACKUP SLIDES

27. Climate Data Modelled Precipitation Over Greenland—Bromwich Ice Sheet Melt Characteristics Derived from Passive Microwave Data—Abdalati Greenland Climate Network (GC-Net) Automatic Weather Station Data—Steffen Annual Accumulation Data from 1997 and 1998 PARCA Ice Cores—Thompson Scatterometer Climate Record Pathfinder Data—Drinkwater Greenland Dry Snow Zone Accumulation Rate Field from SMMR 6.6 GHz Data—Winebrenner Ice Motion Data Ice Velocities Around the 2000-meter Traverse in Greenland—Thomas Mass Balance Estimates by Comparing Ice Discharge Across the 2000-m Traverse—Thomas Ice Velocity of Outlet Glaciers in Greenland Velocity of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream—Joughin Ice Elevation, Elevation Change, and Thickness Data Elevation Change of the Southern Greenland Ice Sheet from 1978-88—Davis Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Balance Using Precision GPS—Hamilton Greenland Ice Surface Elevations from NASA ATM Airborne Lidar—Krabill Greenland Radar Ice Sheet Thickness Measurements—Gogineni Greenland 5 km DEM, Ice Thickness, and Bedrock Elevation Grids—Bamber (Archived at NSIDC) PARCA data advertised at NSIDC PoDAG 21: Introduction

28. Potential additions to the PARCA collection • Historical accumulation data Csatho, BalesSome data on the web in Arc format with little documentation • Swiss Camp Data Sets • Point estimates of accumulation from shallow (SHACO) and deep cores—BalesRelated to Annual Accumulation Data from 1997 and 1998 PARCA Ice Cores? • High-Resolution Isotope Profile (HIRIP) Snow Pits—Shuman • Ice velocity, ice sheet topography and grounding line positions for all major glaciers of northern Greenland—Rignot • Ice velocities derived from repeat visible imagery—Csatho, Vanderveen (We have the DISP imagery, but not the derived velocities) • Surface Gravity at 2000 meters—Csatho • Measurements of bedrock motion—Winester • Greenland GIS Database System (GGDS)—Csatho PoDAG 21: Introduction

29. Issues slides presented to ESDIS These slides were presented to Mary Anne Esfandiari, ESDIS Director, in July 2003. They are provided for your information.

30. Our DAAC Quarterly Response to Maryanne Esfandiari (MAE) request Top 3 Issues • Forced addition of functionality to ECS that we may not need, but requires support. New functions are delivered without rigorous test and validation. • ECHO (BMGT, verification of our metadata in ECHO) • Growth at NSIDC is challenging the current organizational structure. We are searching for an organizational model that fits size and still provides flexibility to take on new projects and copes with the as yet unclear SEEDS data management model. • EOS satellites have brought increased number of products and volumes of data to bear on cryospheric science issues. However, the community is requesting long-term climate data records. If NSIDC DAAC is to continue participation in development of climate data records, issues of how we become involved in EOS follow-on missions (e.g. NPP/NPOESS) and the how and where long term archival of current data need to be resolved

31. Issues from the DAAC • EMD Contract Management Coordination • We would like input into the management process • Alliance EMD Working Group a step in right direction • (We do have excellent local support and cooperation) • EMD Contract Staffing at NSIDC • NSIDC is unique from the other 3 ECS DAACS • Smaller staff – requires cross training • Prior decisions on skills split limit options now • Want flexibility to staff EMD and DAAC with optimal skills mix and to determine this locally

32. Issues from the DAAC • Local ECS Control, allowing modification of ECS, linkage of new functions • maintain local baseline. • Requesting better documentation of ECS software, APIs etc., ability to swap modules into ECS • Benefits: • Insertion of new modules specific to our needs • Improve cost containment • Facilitate insertion of non-EOS data into ECS • Shrink ECS core code baseline

33. Issues from the DAAC • ICESat Longevity and cyrospheric altimetry data management • ICESat has a shortened lifetime • LTA sooner than originally planned • Community will still require support and access to ICESat data, how will NSIDC provide it without mission? • SEEDS model only works if there’s infrastructure in place…the CLPx experience • CLP Experiment program manager came to NSIDC for DM services because of our reputation. • NSIDC could only accept work at the funding level offered because infrastructure was already in place.

34. Issues from the DAAC • LTA still unclear • Security and Privileged Access Issues • See next viewgraphs

35. Challenges • How do we stay focused on science community wishes? • Maintaining continuity of observations over the coming 10-15 years • How do we develop and/or maintain climate data records? • How does NSIDC maintain the staff skills needed to be responsive and flexible? • While operating a complex ECS • In the face of ESDIS cost reductions • We are small, 1 or 2 staff reductions mean loss of skill areas • Need to identify reward structure for improving efficiency