--H.K. Ramapriyan (rama@ulabsgi.gsfc.nasa.gov), ESDIS Project, Code 505, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 One of the issues discussed at the meeting of the EOSDIS Panel (a.k.a. the Data Panel) February 12-14, 1997, was the "tension between at least two communities in the EOSDIS world" (see David Glover, "Minutes of the EOSDIS Panel Meeting," The Earth Observer: Jan/Feb 1997, vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 3-6). It was recommended by the Panel that a "metadata workshop be held or better yet a series of metadata workshops," where "the users and implementers of the metadata" were to be "brought together for an open exchange of ideas." Skip Reber (Deputy Senior EOS Project Scientist and Acting Project Scientist for EOSDIS) volunteered to start the workshop series under the auspices of the Data System Working Group, which he chairs.
The first workshop in the series, called "Pre-Launch Metadata Workshop," was held at the George Mason University in Arlington, VA, during April 1 and 2, 1997. Moshe Pniel from the ASTER team chaired the workshop. Participants included data producers from each of the AM-1 and SAGE III instrument teams, end-user representatives from the Data Panel, the DAACs, the ESDIS Project, and ECS staff.
The primary purpose of the workshop was to expedite the development of metadata in the ECS for data production and distribution prior to the launches of Landsat-7, AM-1, and SAGE III, and to ensure a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the Instrument Teams, DAACs, ESDIS Project, and ECS in the provision of metadata. There were discussions of how metadata are created and used as well as the metadata needs of both the instrument teams and end-users. While changes to the metadata model for B.0 (the release of ECS ready for the launch of Landsat-7, AM-1, and SAGE-III) are very limited, and only minor changes can be accommodated to B.1 (the release to be delivered in January 1999), ways were discussed to simplify the metadata input process for the instrument teams while satisfying the needs of the end-users.
The format of the meeting included plenary sessions in the morning, which allowed for some training on the purpose and design of the metadata model and allowed for open discussion of issues and concerns regarding the model. Afternoon breakout sessions for each of the AM-1, Landsat-7, and SAGE-III instrument teams allowed for discussion and resolution of their specific concerns and needs. Each team included representatives from the ESDIS Project and ECS to answer detailed questions. In addition, ECS experts floated from team to team in order to answer detailed questions regarding the data model and the system.
Results of the meeting were very positive. Several instrument team representatives thought that significant progress was made in understanding of the data model and ECS issues and recommended that another metadata workshop be convened to discuss the Release B.1 metadata model. Issues identified are being worked by the ESDIS Project and ECS, and feedback on their resolutions will be provided to the concerned groups. Currently, the ESDIS Project and ECS are pulling together all of the information from the workshop to put on a web page. As soon as this is available we will send out a notification.