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Earth Observing System: Broader Involvement of the EOSDIS User Community Is Needed

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Report Type Reports and Testimonies
Report Date May 11, 1992
Report No. IMTEC-92-40
Subject
Summary:

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.

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