Coping with all the earth science data

A report on the NASA-sponsored Earth Science and Applications Data Systems (ESADS) Workshop is presented. The ESADS report is reviewed and the task groups of the workshop are listed. The program set up to implement the recommendations of the workshop is discussed. The priorities of the ESADS committee recommendations include the development of standards and guidelines for data and metadata exchange, the creation of interoperable catalogs and directories, the development of guidelines for ancillary data archives, development of standard user interfaces, providing greater bandwidth in the user environment, collecting information about data storage technologies, and providing improved network connectivity.