Enhancing NSIDCs Passive Microwave SMMR-SSM/I-SSMIS Data Records by Adopting Community Driven Data Principles

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) produces and distributes passive microwave snow and ice data records from the Nimbus-7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR), Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and DMSP Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) spanning four decades. The creation of many of these data sets occurred before standards for data provenance, interoperability, and transparency matured. In recent years, the landscape has changed, setting expectations for data producers and repositories to demonstrate a level of trustworthiness through aspirational data principles outlined by FAIR and TRUST, and measured by certification through CoreTrustSeal. Historically, the SMMR-SSM/I-SSMIS suite of data records has been produced and distributed in simple formats (e.g. raw binary), which included minimal metadata, and limited options for data download and transformation. Data availability was dependent on the platform and sensor deemed the most reliable at that time (e.g. DMSP F-17 SSMIS), and data provenance was primarily captured through versioning information, which was also dependent on the platform and sensor used in the creation of a file. This presentation reviews the activities taken to adopt more recent data principles that better align NSIDC passive microwave data records with FAIR and TRUST, as well as adapting to an era of open data. It will describe efforts to transition the data to a more accessible data management system in NASA, reformat data from legacy binary format to self-describing NetCDF, and release all remaining, and available data from the DMSP sensors (F-16, F-17, F-18). Finally, it will examine the challenges faced when adapting legacy code and data products to more modern ideals in order to enhance the capabilities of the broadening cryospheric user community.