Toward a Common Earth Data Publication Framework

Data publication is an essential activity for all data archives. Each of NASA's twelve Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) have established publication workflows which account for the heterogeneous suite of missions, instruments, data providers, and datasets managed within the Earth Observation System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) program. Some aspects of data publication vary across DAACs: workflows range from manual to automatic, terms used to describe publication elements differ, and systems used to publish and manage data vary. Despite these differences, the DAAC data publication processes are generally the same: obtain the data and related information from data providers, describe the data with metadata and documentation, and release the data for access by the user community. In order to improve consistency and reduce the time required to publish data, we have developed a cross-DAAC initiative called the Common Earthdata Publication Framework (Earthdata Pub). Earthdata Pub seeks to: standardize communications and interactions with data providers; identify and standardize common workflows and steps in the data publication process; and design/implement a front-end system with features that include a common web interface, email & status tracking, and common application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate with various DAAC-specific software components (services and applications) on the back-end. We will present the latest updates on this effort's progress and future plans.