Air Quality Community Summer 2009 Meeting

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Goals

The Air Quality data landscape is evolving: a number of efforts are underway to improve access to data, make better use of that data for decision support, and build an interoperable system-of-systems to achieve as much as we can with the data we've invested in.

At the ESIP Summer 2009 Meeting we'll convene to

• Review important developments, including
  • Evolution of various systems (new tools, systems discontinued, connections formed)
  • Air quality community infrastructure developed in Phase 2 of the GEO Architecture Implementation Pilot
  • EPA OAQPS review of the AQ data systems they maintain and use
• Review Developing Strategies. EPA would like feedback on OAQPS's evolving Data Systems Strategy, from the larger ESIP community (not just air quality)
• Think about where to go next
  • Are we making progress on the goals from the 2008 Data Summit?
  • What's the next step for the GEO Architecture? Has AQ participation in the AIP been useful? What are the priorities for the next round?
• How do we build community? Feedback sought for the funding and policy crowd
• US agencies are on the hook to show AQ results from GEOSS at the November Washington DC GEO Plenary. We intend to use this as a hook to engage overseas colleagues too. Brainstorm on how to do this.

Logistical Notes and Call for Feedback

The entire meeting will be accessible remotely. We will use web conferencing software - probably DimDim (any comments on DimDim?) (Previous discussion was of a video conference; we'll use web conferencing instead.) Some presenters will use remote access and feedback on the agenda is welcome even if you won't be there in person.

The agenda is not fixed and your feedback is welcome. Editing the agenda table is tricky so add comments here or email them to David McCabe (McCabe dot David at epa).

Agenda: Overview

Broadly, we plan to use Wednesdya to brief/update and identify important issues, then use Thursday to more systematically work through those issues to identify areas of general agreement and direction, and end with advice to ourselves (ESIP-AQ and the AQ Community of Practice), USGEO/GEO, EPA and NASA.

The agenda looks more structured than it is, and this will be a user-interest driven discussion in the spirit of ESIP!

We propose to use Block 1 to get perspectives and quick updates (where appropriate) from some of the major institutions, connected, where possible to some or all the 5 questions (below). In Block 2 we seek perspectives on these questions from a few initiatives that are directly working to connect data to users in novel ways. From this we will discuss what Common Infrastructure we need, and what we have in GEOSS and other places. We will then review and discuss work EPA's OAQPS did subsequent to the Data Summit, on its own internal infrastructure.

In Block 3 we'll invite synthesis and observations from different parts of the funding foodchain: what are funder priorities and how do they relate to issues identified on Wednesday? We'll then move into a general brainstorm session to identify and refine a working set of key issues/opportunities. In Block 4 we propose to examine 1 - 2 use cases of aspirational AQ data value chains (e.g. our preferred 4 year future, starting from status quo) at an intermediate level of detail (e.g. 6 - 10 boxes with arrows). This is an experiment to see if we can flesh out applied examples to illustrate our broad goals of "interoperability" and "collaboration". Next we take these use cases and ask, "What would need to happen at key points to obtain this future?" and, "What barriers or incentives exist to make these things happen?".

After lunch, we'll seek a summary of the key insights. Then we'll apply that discussion to develop comments for how GEO and USGEO (Block 6) and ESIP-AQ and the broader AQ Community of Practice (Block 7) could work better to move us towards that preferred future.

Questions for Wednesday Presenters

Guidelines for Presenters: First, please note that presentations are very short (15 minutes including a few minutes for clarifying questions) and we intend these sessions to be informal. We suggest you start off with whatever key updates or new you think of interest to the group, and then address 2 - 4 of the questions below, as they seem relevant and interesting...we'll be capturing key points as we go to circle back to later in the discussion.

1. What user needs are you especially focused on now?

• What use cases, or application areas, are most active for you right now and what are you learning from them?

2. What externally re-usable services you are working to offer now or plan/aspire to offer in the future?

• What non-end-user / machine-consumable services are you working on now that you think are most important or needed?

3. What service(s) do you wish were available now from others? What would you do with them?

• can you name 1 - 2 data, analytic or other services you could put to use if they were more available?

4. What common infrastructure do you think is most needed to improve flows and utilization of AQ data?

• What does common infrastructure mean to you?

5. What specific barriers to establishing this common infrastructure?

• what do you see as the most important barriers to better availability and utilization of AQ data outside your organization?

Working Agenda Detail

Block	Time	Subject	Presenter
Block 1	1:00	Welcome, Objectives, Proposed Approach	Sweeny
Goals & Agency Perspectives		Quick briefing sessions: take clarifying questions, hold discussion till end
	1:15	GEO Perspective	Friedl
Weds. Afternoon	1:30	OAQPS perspective	Scheffe
	1:45	EPA GEO perspective	Keating
	2:00	NASA	Hilsenrath
	2:15	USGEO	Lindsay and Young
	2:30	ESIP AQ	Falke
	2:45	Time for Questions	Sweeny
	3:00	Break
----------	------	------------------------	-------------
Block 2		Continue to field clarifying questions and hold discussion questions
Technical & Strategic Happenings	3:30	VIEWS and CMAS	Shankar or McClure
	3:45	HTAP data connections	Husar
Weds. Afternoon	3:55	AQ Community Infrastructure developed under GEO AIP2	Robinson
	4:10	Panel discussion on Common Infrastructure - what is it? Is it what we need? (GCI and beyond)	Lieberman, Singh, Young, Falke, Lindsay
	4:40	OAQPS Air Assessment and Strategy	Mintz / Scheffe / Sweeny
	5:00	Identify cross-cutting themes to develop Thursday	Sweeny
	5:30	Adjourn
----------	------	------------------------	-------------
Block 3	9:00	What can funding agencies do to improve data use?	Keating and Friedl
Common Themes, Needs/Opportunities	9:30	Brainstorm and discussion on areas of interest and opportunity from Day 1 themes... Gaps? Discuss possible example Use Cases
Thurs. Morning	10:00	Break
----------	------	------------------------	-------------
Block 4	10:30	Facilitated Discussion: consider 1 or 2 use cases as thought experiments to spell out the interoperability we envision	Sweeny
Barriers and Practical Progress	11:15	Continue discussion. "What are barriers that prevent us from achieving those opportunities?"
Thurs. Morning		Walk through how concrete progress could occur in some example areas: "What incentives/connections/infrastructure are needed?"
		Generate examples of real improvements that could be made, to make systems interoperate
	12:30	Lunch
----------	------	------------------------	-------------
Block 5	2:00	Review of AM discussion and ID of key issues/opportunities/actions	Sweeny
Review of AM
Thurs. Afternoon
----------	------	------------------------	-------------
Block 6	2:30	An opportunity for the community to offer feedback on the GCI, the architecture of GEOSS, and the process and priorities for GEO and USGEO directly to USGEO members	Friedl, Young, Lindsay
Feedback for USGEO and GEO
Thurs. Afternoon
	tbd	Break
----------	------	------------------------	-------------
Block 7	tbd + 20	Where does ESIP-AQ go next, over the next 4 months / 1 year? How do we build an AQ Community of Practice and reach out, nationally and internationally, to capitilize on these opportunities? What concrete activities should the CoP take on?
Where does ESIP-AQ go next?
Thurs. Afternoon
	5:30	Adjourn

Other versions of the agenda

Previously the agenda was on this page; for clarity I have moved it here. Please edit / comment here instead of on that page.

Excel version of agenda