WDS Scientific Committee Blog Entries

We would to draw your attention to the following two WDS Blog entries submitted by Alex de Sherbinin and Toshihiko Iyemori of the WDS Scientific Committee (WDS-SC). We hope that you find them of interest.

Surveying User Satisfaction: The NASA DAAC Experience

A Blog post by Alex de Sherbinin (WDS Scientific Committee member)

It is often said—disparagingly—that America’s culture is a consumer culture. Although it may be true that America’s consumerism is problematic, not least for the planet, the flip side is how consumer culture drives a service mentality in businesses and government. The old adage that “the customer is king” does motivate US government agencies and government-supported centers, including NASA’s Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs), to innovate and improve services in response to user feedback and evolving user needs.

At the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) DAAC [WDS Regular Member], the ACSI results have been very helpful in getting a sense of how people are using ASF DAAC data and services. The free-text responses to questions regarding new data, services, search capabilities, and data formats are particularly informative. For example, one user suggested that it would be useful to have quick access to Synthetic Aperture Radar data for specific regions in the world for disaster response. A data feed was developed after the recent Nepal earthquake that notified users of any new Sentinel-1A data received at ASF DAAC for that specific area. This data feed quickly provided additional data for disaster responders and researchers studying this event. Data feeds are now available for several seismically active areas of the world that have been designated by the scientific community (i.e., Supersites).

Overall, the strong EOSDIS ACSI scores have been important in objectively demonstrating and documenting the continuing value of EOSDIS and the individual DAACs to the broad user community. The annual score is reported as one of NASA’s annual performance metrics, supporting NASA’s goal to provide results-driven management focused on optimizing value to the American public.