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GEOSS S&T SERVICE SUITE
The GEOSS Science and Technology Service Suite (GSTSS) is currently being developed as a potential future part of the GEOSS Common Infrastructure of the Global Earth Observing System of System (GEOSS) and provides services that link relevant Science and Technology Communities to GEOSS.
The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) developed by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) aims to provide comprehensible Earth observations (EOs) in support of decision making in a wide range of societal benefit areas. The nine interdependent Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs) addressed by GEO require an interdisciplinary scientific approach, and scientific interpretation of the EOs provided by GEOSS is necessary in order to derive actionable information. A strong engagement of science and technology (S&T) communities in both the development and use of GEOSS is necessary to address the complex issues of the global integrated Earth system; improve interoperability between global observing, modeling, and information systems; facilitate data sharing, archiving, dissemination, and reanalysis; optimize the recording of observations, assimilation of data into models, and generation of data products; enhance the value of observations from individual observing systems through their integration in the SBAs; and harmonize well-calibrated, highly accurate, stable, sustained in-situ and satellite observations of the same variable recorded by different sensors and different agencies.
Many of the Participating Organizations in GEO have a focus on S&T. Most of the GEO Communities of Practice (CoPs) also have a strong S&T component. Nevertheless, there are still many relevant S&T communities that are not sufficiently linked to GEO and GEOSS. The GEOSS S&T Stakeholder Network facilitates input from S&T communities to GEO.
The S&T Road Map of GEO (GEO STC, 2010) defines a number of outreach activities in order to ensure a broad S&T support for GEOSS and a wide use of GEOSS products by S&T communities. The GEO Work Plan includes several Tasks focusing on the implementation of the S&T Road Map, and on improved linkage between S&T communities and GEOSS (including ST-09-02 in the 2009-2011 Work Plan and ID-03 in the 2012-2015 Work Plan). Infrastructure serving and linking S&T users communities has been developed by these Tasks. This infrastructure is integrated in the GSTSS.
The key elements of the GSTSS include:
- User Needs: The GSTSS User Needs utility responds to one of the key focus areas of activity of GEO, which was defined in the Ministerial Guidance of the 2014 Summit as “Develop a comprehensive interdisciplinary knowledge base defining and documenting observations needed for all disciplines and facilitate availability and accessibility of these observations to user communities.”. It include the GEOSS User Requirement Registry (URR).
- Observing System Services: The observing system services facilitate input from S&T communities to the GEO community and to GEOSS to support a development of GEOSS meeting the needs of the S&T communities.
- Outreach Services: The outreach services support the GEO community in outreach activities, particularly those that are focusing on DS&T communities.
- GEOSS Science and Technology Portfolio: The S&T Portfolio features compelling examples that show GEOSS at work for S&T communities and illustrate the linkages and mutual benefits for S&T communities and GEOSS.
- GEOSS Science and Technology Meeting Portal: The S&T meeting portal provides tools to coordinate and document GEO and GEOSS-related events at major international S&T meetings and allows the interactive organization of workshops organized by the GEOSS S&T Stakeholder Network.
Additionally, the GSTSS maintains a News page with news related to Earth observation that are of interest for S&T communities. A blog provides for discussions of S&T themes of interest for GEOSS S&T stakeholders.
ABOUT THE PAGES
The design of the GSTSS pages was done by Shelley Jules-Plag. The PHP5 code for the dynamic web pages and the underlying database was written by Cody Callahan. The background pictures were provided by Shelley Jules-Plag (Meeting Portal) and Hans-Peter Plag (all others).