Actionable Earth Observations: Lessons Learned from NASA's ICESat-2 Applications Program

Enhanced applications research, increased collaboration and acceleration of applications are key goals of NASA's Applied Sciences Program in its work to make Earth Observations actionable. Since 2011, the NASA Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) mission has implemented an Applications Program guided by these three goals to encourage innovative and practical uses of ICESat-2's global surface elevation measurements. In this talk, we explore the lessons learned and best practices of a program that begun pre-launch of the mission and that now is in its second year after launch.

The ICESat-2 Applications program has been successful in engaging with users and raising the visibility of applications of the data. Active volunteer Early Adopters from the applications communities contributed significantly to the development of mission products, activities and events during the pre-launch period. Collaboration with the Science Team, Project Science Office and the selected center which distributes the data (National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center) has led to a vibrant and active applied science program. Significant effort has gone into meetings, publications, and the Early Adopter (pre-launch) and Applied Users (post-launch) programs, which has led to a much clearer understanding of the utility of precise elevation observations from space.

In this presentation, we share the Applications Program outcomes and summarize the lessons learned based on what we have found to be beneficial, good or adverse practices. Because engagement is entirely volunteer beyond the Applications Team, ensuring broad and deep networks and connections to institutions and organizations that may use ICESat-2 data to improve decision making in a variety of contexts is essential for success. We highlight findings from our community questionnaire and interviews with Early Adopters to present the Applications Program as a novel pathway for building partnerships between satellite data users and mission scientists. The ICESat-2 Applications Program serves as an example of how the NASA Earth science community is supporting the coproduction of knowledge for new earth science observations to increase the effectiveness of their use in societally relevant decision processes and actions.