Earth Observing System

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has begun a program to collect comprehensive data on the earth's atmosphere, oceans, and land masses over 15 years. This information will be archived and distributed by the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). NASA has not done enough to ensure that input from all anticipated EOSDIS users is incorporated into the system's design. The main users of EOSDIS will likely be thousands of scientists who have no affiliation with the program. Yet NASA's system planning has relied largely on input from a relatively small number of researchers funded directly by NASA. NASA's methods for obtaining user input in the future provide little assurance that all segments of the user community will be adequately represented. Because of the uncertainty regarding the total number of ultimate EOSDIS users and the system work loads they will generate, a system development strategy is needed that can adapt to changing user needs.

GAO found that: (1) NASA has not done enough to ensure the incorporation of EOSDIS users' input in defining EOSDIS requirement and planning documents and in the system's design; (2) NASA expects the largest number of EOSDIS users to be earth scientists who are not affiliated with the Earth Observing System (EOS) Program, but despite recommendations from scientific committees, NASA has primarily obtained input from EOS investigators and other NASA-affiliated users; (3) during the EOSDIS design and development process, NASA developed three main sets of EOSDIS requirement and planning documents and used various mechanisms to obtain user input; (4) NASA has issued guidance and mechanisms for obtaining future user input during EOSDIS development, but has not ensured that all segments of the user community will be adequately represented; and (5) estimates of the number of EOSDIS users and the work load those users will generate are still uncertain, even though NASA has completed major portions of its conceptual development and system requirements process.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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