The source code for NASA's Catalog of Archived Suborbital Earth Science Investigations (CASEI) is now fully and openly available. The codebase is accessible via a GitHub repository managed by NASA's Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team (IMPACT).
CASEI offers a searchable, comprehensive inventory of contextual metadata for NASA's airborne and field activities. As a solution that was developed in response to needs identified through the inaugural Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG) assessment cycle in 2016, CASEI makes data from airborne and field investigation observations more discoverable and open, enabling enhanced use and reuse of these data.
To officially achieve open status, NASA's Airborne Data Management Group (ADMG) spent several months completing an internal NASA compliance review and fulfilling security check requirements. Anyone from researchers to Earth science enthusiasts is now welcome to access CASEI code and documentation to more fully understand how the web application is constructed and managed.
Opening CASEI's source code supports the agency's Open-Source Science Initiative as well as the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) policy requiring SMD-funded projects to openly share products and tools with the public (SPD-41a). With the CASEI platform codebase open source, anyone can view, clone, and utilize the source code, providing users the same level of visibility afforded to CASEI curators and developers. This open sharing of code, processes, and knowledge as early as possible in the scientific process underscores NASA's commitment to open science and transparency.
As CASEI content and functionality continue to grow, ADMG team members are committed to offering unfettered access to the resource's codebase and encourage users to share feedback and ideas.
