Enabling Earth Science in the Cloud

Since 1994 NASA Earth science data have been free and open to all users for any purpose. NASA's Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program is committed to providing the most efficient use of these data through the deployment of cloud-enabled data and tools. This cloud evolution benefits users by improving and streamlining operations to further encourage free and open access to data, investing in open source tools, increasing capabilities for data access and management, and engaging with strategic partners and the open-source community.

Delivering Efficiencies

Cloud computing improves the efficiency of NASA's data systems operations and furthers the free and open access to NASA data.

As the volume of data in NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) archive grows, so does the need for more flexible and scalable data access and management technologies.

ESDS has begun to migrate high-value datasets into commercial cloud archives. The first of NASA's Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) to move data to the cloud was NASA's Global Hydrology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center (GHRC DAAC), which completed its migration in October 2019. Additional datasets are being prioritized for migration based on user demand. The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich mission (launched in 2020) is NASA's first natively cloud-hosted mission.

A critical aspect of data migration is the set of strategies for maintaining data integrity, availability, and reliability. This includes providing support for downloading data from the cloud to external locations, a process known as data egress.

Facilitating Open Science

Having data in the cloud enables efficient use of Big Data collections and the collaborative work with these data.

The ESDS Program defines open science as a collaborative culture enabled by technology that empowers the open sharing of data, information, and knowledge within the scientific community and the wider public to accelerate scientific research and understanding. The launch of upcoming high-data-volume missions such as the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) and NASA-Indian Space Research Organisation Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) missions is projected to increase the volume of data in the EOSDIS collection to more than 250 petabytes by 2025. Having these data in the cloud enables users to work next to the data and then download the results of their analysis, significantly reducing computing time and cost. The cloud also enables teams of researchers in different locations to work collaboratively in real time with these data.

Learn more about ESDS work to evolve EOSDIS data into the cloud and how this furthers open science efforts.