Environment-dealing with the data deluge

The problem of making a flood of remote sensing data readily accessible to a growing international community of global-change researchers and policy makers is discussed. The ambitious data and information system being built by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with assistance from other agencies, is described. Called the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), it will manage the mountains of EOS and Earth-science satellite data and will also handle the harvesting and sharing of information, the dissemination of ideas, and the establishment of a community of collaborators that will be professionally close-knit but geographically dispersed both in the United States and elsewhere