AQatESIP Jul07

Air Quality Sessions at ESIP Summer 2007

The ESIP Summer meeting features multiple sessions highlighting opportunities for interoperability among air quality related projects and initiatives.

During the poster sessions Wednesday evening, projects will present existing data and tools for air quality applications. The air quality projects and applications presented will provide some of the background material for Thursday’s “modified bar camp.” Bar camp refers to workshop style interaction where session content is participant-driven and open, rather than a series of presentations. Small ad-hoc breakout groups are expected during bar camp sessions where participants address focused topics. During bar camps, participants frequently jump between sessions and breakouts.

On Thursday, the USGEO Architecture and Data Management Working Group (ADM) is holding a session on applying service-oriented architecture concepts to USGEO near-term opportunities (NTOs). The ADM is currently preparing a white paper on the benefits of a service-oriented architecture approach to the Integrated Earth Observation System (IEOS), the US contribution to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). The Air Quality Assessment and Forecasting (AQ) NTO and the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) NTO groups have been identified as a possible ADM proof of concept project. Thursday morning will consist of simultaneous, but separate, meetings of the air quality and drought groups to identify existing data sets and web services within their respective communities. The breakout groups will also discuss cross-community applications, common services, and other opportunities for the two communities to collaborate in achieving more than could be achieved if the communities proceeded independently. Results from the morning sessions will be reported out at a Thursday afternoon joint session, at which the consensus opinion of the group will vote on the application(s) most likely to succeed. Time permitting, we will then try to do some designing, and possibly building, of those pieces we think are most viable. Ultimately, we’d like to be able to take advantage of the collaboration potential in the room, if not actually produce a beta-level tool that the Federation could then prototype and test.

The ESIP Air Quality Cluster will be meeting Thursday late afternoon to follow-up on the Wednesday and Thursday discussions and address opportunities for enhancing interoperability among air quality projects in support of USGEO and other networking efforts.

In summary, the air quality sessions during the ESIP meeting: