Pre-Mission, Mission and Post Mission Data Management for NASA Field Campaigns

Field research campaigns are essential for observing and measuring actual Earth system phenomena and validating computer models that simulate Earth systems. Ultimately, field data have a wide variety of application in basic and applied research. Due to the nature of data collection during a field campaign the resulting data sets are discontinuous over the designated geographic region as well as in time. The management of aircraft based data must take these factors into consideration. The Global Hydrology and Resource Center (GHRC) and IT researchers at the University of Alabama in Huntsville have participated in a number of NASA field campaigns since 1998. For example The Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) experiment was a recent NASA Earth science field experiment conducted in summer 2010 to better understand how tropical storms form and develop into major hurricanes. NASA used the DC-8 aircraft, the WB-57 aircraft, and the Global Hawk Unmanned Airborne System (UAS) configured with a suite of remote sensing instruments used to observe and characterize the lifecycle of hurricanes. This campaign capitalized on a number of ground networks, airborne science platforms (both manned and unmanned), and space-based assets. Due to this history and expected participation in future campaigns; the GHRC is recognized as one of the main NASA data centers for this category of data. At the GHRC data from successive field campaigns are tied together through common procedures, consistent metadata, and archival systems making it easy to access data from instruments that have been employed across several missions. These data are also valuable when preparing for new field campaigns. This paper will focus on data management strategies employed prior to the mission, during the mission and after mission timeframes.