Draft Concept Outline by Dick Wertz

DRAFT

CONCEPT OUTLINE

FOR A JOINT FEDERAL-ESIP INITIATIVE AIMED AT ADVANCING US GEO’S NEAR-TERM OPPORTUNITY GOALS IN THE AREA OF AIR QUALITY

AUGUST 3, 2006

I. PURPOSE:

To advance the near-term opportunity goals of US GEO by creating an organizational structure that will allow federal agencies concerned with air quality to work with non-federal ESIP Federation partners to develop an information exchange that will give researchers, decision-makers and educators ready access to Earth observation data, research, models, decision support tools and simulations relating to air quality.

II. BACKGROUND:

The ESIP Federation has formed a series of “clusters” aimed at creating collaborative communities-of-practice relating to US GEO societal benefit areas and providing the content for the Earth Information Exchange, an electronic one-stop center for ESIP Federation Earth observation information. The Air Quality Cluster is Co-Chaired by Stefan Falke of Washington University and Northrop Grumman and Rudy Husar of Washington University.

The Architecture Data Management Working Group of US GEO has formed an Inter-Agency Committee to develop a strategy for achieving US GEO’s near-term opportunity goals in the area of air quality. Two members of the Inter-Agency Committee on Air Quality, Steve Young of EPA and Frank Lindsay of NASA have proposed that the ESIP Federation and the IACAQ work together to meet their common goals. The ESIP Federation’s leadership has strongly endorsed the Young-Lindsay proposal.

This Concept Outline will describe a plan for a joint federal-ESIP initiative aimed at advancing US GEO’s near-term opportunity goals in the area of air quality.

III. THE PLAN:

Organization: The ESIP Federation will reorganize its Air Quality Cluster to ensure that all federal agencies with air quality interests and responsibilities are directly involved in the work of the Cluster and its leadership.

A Steering Committee composed of one senior-level program manager from each federal agency and an equal number of non-federal ESIP Federation partners will be formed to establish goals, objectives and priorities for the Cluster and to serve as Stewards for the air quality portion of the Earth Information Exchange. The Co-Chairs of the Air Quality Cluster, Stefan Falke and Rudy Husar, will chair the Steering Committee.

Membership in the Air Quality Cluster will be expanded to include scientists and program administrators from all federal agencies with air quality interests and responsibilities that are not currently ESIP members. Members of Inter-Agency Committee on Air Quality will provide lists of individuals in their agencies who ought to be involved in Cluster activities. The ESIP Federation will issue invitations to participate to the individuals nominated.

Key federal agencies with air quality interests and responsibilities not currently sponsors of the work of the ESIP Federation will be invited to join NASA and NOAA as Strategic Partners of the ESIP Federation.

Oversight: The Air Quality Cluster Steering Committee will provide quarterly progress reports to the US GEO ADM Working Group and the ESIP Federation Executive Committee. When necessary the members of the Steering Committee will meet with these oversight bodies to clarify Cluster policies, seek direction and coordinate activities.

Staff Support: The senior-level federal program managers serving on the Steering Committee will form an inter-agency staff team to support the work of the Steering Committee and to ensure that appropriate air quality information is identified and registered in the air quality section of the Earth Information Exchange.

The ESIP Federation will work with the inter-agency staff team to identify resources in existing funded activities (NASA Decisions CAN awardees, EPA GEO projects, etc,) that can be used to support the work of the Air Quality Cluster.
The ESIP Federation will work with federal funding sources to craft new competitive funding opportunities aimed at supporting the work of the Air Quality Cluster.

Information Dissemination: The ESIP Federation’s Earth Information Exchange currently exists as a “community” within USGS’ Geospatial One Stop network. While this arrangement has allowed issue area clusters to begin to collect and organize their Earth observation information, it will not provide the robust capability needed for this initiative. Using an open source framework, the ESIP Federation will construct an air quality portal attached to the ESIP website. This portal will serve as a prototype information dissemination center for the Air Quality Cluster and as a testbed for US GEO’s near-term opportunity in the area of air quality.

The ESIP Federation’s Portal Working Group is currently evaluating the technology developed by the Earth Sun Gateway to determine if this portal package can be adapted for our purposes. If it can be, the ESIP Federation will partner with the ESG and GMU (which will house ESG’s server in the future) to implement a prototype air quality portal on the ESIP website. If the ESG technology is not appropriate for our purposes, we will initiate the air quality portal using an available lightweight open source portal framework. Note: second option dependent upon funding availability.

Until the website based air quality portal is operational, the Air Quality Cluster will continue to use the ESIP community in GOS to organize its inventories and the ESIP Wiki for Cluster communications.

The website based air quality portal will be linked to the ESIP community space in GOS and to other appropriate portal sites at NASA and EPA.

The ESIP Federation and the ADM will evaluate the ESIP Federation website based air quality portal after it has been operational for a reasonable period of time and determine where the Air Quality Cluster’s information system should ultimately be housed.

First Year Timetable:

By September 15, 2006:

Ø Initiate project.

By September 30, 2006:

Ø Appoint Steering Committee Members.

By October 15, 2006:

Ø Form inter-agency staff team;

Ø Issue invitations to federal agency nominees to participate in the Cluster.

By October 31, 2006:

Ø Identify initial air quality Earth observation data sets to be included in the Earth Information Exchange;

Ø Identify staff support resources in existing federally funded projects;

Ø Issue invitations for federal agencies to become ESIP Federation Strategic Partners;

Ø Find funding or a funded partner to initiate the air quality portal.

By November 15, 2006:

Ø Have air quality portal attached to the ESIP Federation website operational;

Ø Identify initial air quality decision support tools to be included in the Earth Information Exchange.

By December 15, 2006:

Ø Issue first progress report to the ADM and the ESIP federation Executive Committee;

Ø Identify initial air quality models and simulations to be included in the Earth Information Exchange.

By January 1, 2007:

Ø Have prototype of the Earth Information Exchange’s air quality portal available and operational for the ESIP Federation Winter Meeting.

By March 15, 2007:

Ø Issue second progress report to the ADM and the ESIP Executive Committee;

Ø Identify initial air quality educational materials to be included in the Earth Information Exchange.

By June 15 2007:

Ø Issue third progress report to the ADM and the ESIP Executive Committee;

Ø Hold conference of air quality information providers and end users.

September 15, 2007:

Ø Issue fourth progress report to the ADM and the ESIP Executive Committee;

Ø Significantly expand all air quality information available in the Earth Information Exchange.

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