This presentation uses a long-term case study to explore the socio-scientific aspects influencing what data products are created and made available for use. We examine two major satellite remote-sensing product collections from the National Snow and Ice Data Center—one on sea ice extent and another on Greenland ice sheet melt. We examine how the products and their curation have evolved over time in response to environmental events and increasing scientific and public demand over several decades. The products have evolved in conjunction with the needs of a changing and expanding designated user community. These changes in the user community were driven by increased interest in the Arctic partly because of the rapid change in the Arctic as characterized in these data, but also because of the increasing awareness (and controversy) around climate change and its impact. We find that a data product development cycle supported by a data product team with multiple perspectives is key to mobilizing scientific knowledge to multiple stakeholders. Furthermore, the expertise and approaches to making data open and truly useful must continually adapt to new perceptions, needs, and events. Effective data access is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. References Baker K S; Duerr, R E; and Parsons, M A 2016 Scientific knowledge mobilization: Co-evolution of data products and designated communities. International Journal of Digital Curation 10 (2): 110-135. http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.2218/ijdc.v10i2.346

1. Unless otherwise noted, the slides in this presentation are licensed by Mark A. Parsons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Ever expanding access and use of cryospheric
data
Mark A. Parsons
Secretary General
Research Data Alliance
with special thanks to Karen Baker, Ruth Duerr, Walt Meier, and Roger Barry.
SciDataCon
Denver, CO
13 September 2016
Reference: Baker K S; Duerr, R E; and Parsons, M A. 2016.
Scientific knowledge mobilization: Co-evolution of data products and
designated communities. International Journal of Digital Curation 10
(2): 110-135. http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.2218/ijdc.v10i2.346

3. f the sea ice index. Event triggers may take many forms – an unanticipated
nvironmental disturbance, widespread media coverage, availability of data products, a
ew collaborative forum, an organizational realignment, or perhaps the timely arrival of
new leader. Table 1 shows early triggers related to availability of data products, while
he last two entries document large-scale environmental events that prompted interest
rom research communities as well as the public.
Figure 2. A simplified view of the continuing development of scientific data products. Each
cycle is initiated by one or more events that create a new audience that leads to
generation of a new data product in response to the needs of a recently identified
designated user community.

4. Operational Image of Water Vapor Content EDR values from the Special
Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I). 29 January 1996 (FNMOC)

5. Designating User Communities by Parsons and Duerr; CODATA, Berlin, 8 Nov. 20045
Example of differences in SSM/I derived ice concentration
values calculated with three different passive microwave
algorithms (Meier et al. 2001)

6. Designating User Communities by Parsons and Duerr; CODATA, Berlin, 8 Nov. 20046
Data: Projections and Grids
Mercatur
Mollweide
Polar Stereographic
Lambert-Azimuthal

7. Evolution of sea ice data products at NSIDC, presented by Ruth Duerr
March 10, 2015, RDA 5th Plenary, San Diego

8. Unless otherwise noted, the slides in this presentation are licensed by Mark A. Parsons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

9. Unless otherwise noted, the slides in this presentation are licensed by Mark A. Parsons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

10. The many representations (and conceptions) of sea ice
Evolution of sea ice data products at NSIDC, presented by Ruth Duerr
March 10, 2015, RDA 5th Plenary, San Diego
Figure courtesy Donna Scott

11. Unless otherwise noted, the slides in this presentation are licensed by Mark A. Parsons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

12. Some observations
• Designated communities evolve in response to events and new knowledge and
data access is a ongoing process
• More audiences = more knowledge bases and contexts = differing conceptions
of open or useful
• Interaction is key to understanding different knowledge bases—need to consider
"pre-ingest".
• Product teams help ensure robustness of data while maintaining different
perspectives and values — situational awareness
• Adaptation is rarely funded, at least at first
• In-house scientific competence adds great value to the data sets but producers
are often NOT the best to advise on reuse.

13. Timeline
• 1972 - first pm satellites sensors launched
• 1978 - start of consistent time series
• mid-late 90’s increased interest corresponding with increased interest of Arctic data as a bellwether of climate change
• C. 1995 1st “information products”
• c. 1996 1st data jam and data product teams
• Late 90s Sea Ice FAQ—comparison of pros and cons of different products—controversial, NSIDC as honest broker (specifically, not Jim)
• 2002 - release of Sea Ice Index (NOAA funded)—maps, images and trends of averages, climatologies, and anomalies
• last 10% made it palatable— consistent images popped up in all sorts of presentations and publications
• ASINA sorta starts as a skunk works — later got a little NASA money
• 2007 - Extreme Sea Ice minimum
• Front page of NYT
• NW passage open
• Al Gore visits
• 2008 ASINA becomes regular to prepare for increased interest as melt season starts
• 2011 IceLights—Background and Q&A on Ice and Climate
• 2012 Another Record
• research on new ways of represents si semantically
• leads to better products for on ice safety and operational shipping
• 2014— polar bear posters