Welcome to the Winter Meeting for the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP)! The 2017 theme is Strengthening Ties Between Observations and User Communities. The theme is based on one of the goals in the 2015 - 2020 ESIP Strategic Plan, which provides a framework for ESIP’s activities over the next three years.
Following the NASA workshop on low-latency data products held in Sep 2016 at NASA Langley, more detailed information is needed to understand the timeline driving the decision makers in response to a disaster. The question is ‘what data is needed when and for whom’ so that data providers can be better prepared to supply the data products in a timely fashion. This session is planned to address decision-making data needs throughout a sample disaster event, such as Hurricane Matthew. The goal is to determine a timeline of data needs aligned with decisions that must be made from the earliest awareness of a disaster for incident planning and management, emergency and resource management, through to relief and recovery management. Such a timeline will help data providers design methods to assure that routine data and data products are readily discoverable and useable by identified users at specified times. Additionally, specific data must be requested (e.g., from other agencies) or tasked (e.g., from available satellites) such that they are available when needed, for example the media needs information at specific times for updates to inform the public. These non-routine products need to be collected and processed at key times by data providers and potentially some end users. National, regional and local organizations are expected to have their own timelines based on the communities and information needs they serve.
