DEVELOPMENT OF THE DATA AND INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR THE EARTH 
OBSERVING SYSTEM (EOS) 
E. G. Njoku* 
Earth and Space Sciences Division 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory 
Pasadena, CA 91109, USA 
G. W. Hunolt 
G. H. Ludwig 
Earth Science and Applications Division 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
Washington, DC 20546, USA 
T. T. Taylor 
Earth Observing System Project Office 
Goddard Space Flight Center 
Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA 
ABSTRACT 
The Earth Observing System (EOS) is the centerpiece of NASA's participation in the 
U.S. Global Change Research Program. The goals of the EOS mission are to provide 
an observing system to acquire global Earth science data on a long-term, sustained 
basis, and to provide the capabilities for processing these data into scientifi 
cally validated products. These processed data will in turn provide the basis for 
studies of Earth system science - the physical process studies, global modeling, 
and environmental monitoring which are essential for understanding and predicting 
global change. A central requirement of the EOS program is the development and 
implementation of a comprehensive data and information system which will provide 
the Earth science community with easy, affordable, and reliable access to the full 
suite of Earth science data and products from the Eos mission. 
The EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS) will provide capabilities for command 
and control of the EOS instruments on NASA's polar-orbiting platforms, with first 
platform launch scheduled for 1997. EOSDIS active archive facilities will handle 
the processing, archiving, and distribution of data for the duration of the fif 
teen year EOS mission. The early EOSDIS design and development activities are 
discussed here, with reference to a candidate architectural framework, existing 
capabilities, and transition steps towards full implementation of the final dis 
tributed system. 
KEY WORDS: Data, Information, Earth observation, Remote sensing 
1 EOS MISSION 
1.1 Historical Perspective 
The EOS mission is a continuation of a series of 
NASA Earth observations missions carried out 
over the past two decades. In recent years the 
launches and operations of Seasat (1978), 
Nimbus-7 (1978), SIR-B (1984), and ERBS (1984) 
missions, to name just a few, have provided a 
strong foundation of spaceborne remote sensing 
data for studies of the Earth's oceans, atmo 
sphere, and land surfaces. In the coming years, 
prior to the first platform launch of EOS, NASA 
plans include the launches of ATLAS (1991, -), 
TOMS (1991, -) , UARS (1991), LAGEOS (1991), 
TOPEX (1992), SIR-C/X-SAR (1992, -), Sea-WiFS 
(1993), and NSCAT (1995). These spaceborne mis 
sions, together with operational (NOAA), commer 
cial (Landsat), and international space 
missions, and a supporting program of aircraft, 
balloon, ground, and laboratory experiments, 
will provide the basis on which data from the 
EOS mission will build (NASA, 1988a) . In this 
context, EOS may be viewed as providing improve 
ments and continuity for existing measurements 
in addition to providing new observations of 
phenomena that have not previously been mea 
sured. In addition, EOS will provide a compre 
hensive, global, mapping capability for these 
measurements, which will remain in place for at 
least fifteen years to enable a more detailed 
and complete understanding of our global envi 
ronment (NASA, 1988b). The EOS Data and Infor 
mation System (EOSDIS) constitutes the in 
frastructure of the EOS mission, and will pro 
vide scientists and managers with access to the 
full suite of capabilities necessary to acquire, 
process, store, analyze, and distribute EOS 
data, as well as access to archives containing 
non-EOS data. Major challenges for EOSDIS lie 
in providing a complete information system that 
can accommodate the high data rates and data 
volumes from EOS, in improving the productivity 
of scientists in extracting new knowledge from 
the remotely sensed data, and in improving the 
quality and documentation of processed data such 
that their utility and information content will 
increase with time. 
1.2 Mission Outline 
EOS is an international, cooperative program in 
cluding five polar platforms and their follow- 
ons : two provided by NASA, two by the European 
Formerly with the Earth Science and Applications Division, 
Washington, DC 20546, USA. ^gg 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration,