Assessment of the Usefulness and Availability of NASA's Earth and Space Science Mission Data -- Copyright -- Preface -- Acknowledgment of Reviewers -- Contents -- Executive Summary -- AVAILABILITY AND USEFULNESS OF NASA'S SPACE MISSION DATA -- MANAGEMENT OF DATA WITHIN NASA -- INVESTMENTS IN SOFTWARE AND DATA ANALYSIS -- LONG-TERM MAINTENANCE OF DATA -- FEDERATED DATA SYSTEMS -- EARTH SCIENCES DATA SYSTEM -- USERS OF NASA DATA -- STRATEGIES FOR MEETING THE REQUIREMENTS OF THERESEARCH COMMUNITY -- 1 NASA: A Knowledge Agency -- INTRODUCTION -- SPACE SCIENCE ENTERPRISE -- Astrophysics: Origins and the Structure and Evolution of the Universe -- The Sun-Earth Connection -- Solar System Exploration -- EARTH SCIENCE ENTERPRISE -- THE CHANGING PARADIGM FOR NASA -- 2 Accessibility of Data: The Architectureof the Archives -- SPACE SCIENCE DATA SYSTEMS -- Astrophysics Data Systems -- Planetary Data Systems -- Solar and Space Physics Data Systems -- Solar Data Analysis Center -- Space Plasma Physics -- EARTH OBSERVING SYSTEM DATA AND INFORMATION SYSTEM -- STRATEGIC EVOLUTION OF ESE DATA SYSTEMS -- LONG-TERM MAINTENANCE OF DATA -- Space Science Data and the National Space Science Data Center -- Earth Science Data -- Conclusions -- 3 The Users of NASA Data -- USER PROFILE -- AVAILABILITY OF EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE DATA -- SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY USERS -- NONSCIENTIST USERS -- Education Community -- Formal Education -- Informal Education -- Usefulness of Data to the Education Community -- Online Outreach -- News Media -- Commercial Users and Decision Makers -- CONCLUSIONS -- 4 Strategies for Managing Earth andSpace Science Data -- A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO INFORMATION MANAGEMENT -- ISSUES OF BALANCE: ACQUISITION, ANALYSIS, AND ARCHIVING -- Data Analysis Funding -- Timeliness of Data Analysis -- FEDERATED DATABASES -- The National Virtual Observatory.

Planetary Data System -- Federation of Earth Science Information Partners -- ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE DATA MANAGEMENT -- Appendixes -- Appendix A Letter of Request -- Appendix B The Data Life Cycle -- Appendix C Questionnaire to the Active Archives, Data Centers,and Data Services -- Information Requested from the Space Science and Earth Science Facilities -- Additional Information Requested of the Space Science Active Facilities -- Additional Information Requested of the Distributed Active Archive Centers -- Appendix D Biographies of Task Group Members -- Appendix E Meeting Agendas -- Appendix F Acronyms.