NASA’s NPOESS Preparatory Project Science Data Segment: A framework for measurement- based earth science data systems

The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) Science Data Segment (SDS) provides a framework for the future of NASA´s distributed Earth science data systems. The NPP SDS performs research and data product assessment while using a fully distributed architecture. The components of this architecture are organized around key environmental data disciplines: land, ocean, ozone, atmospheric sounding, and atmospheric composition. The SDS thus establishes a set of concepts and a working prototypes. This paper describes the framework used by the NPP Project as it enabled measurement-based earth science data systems for the assessment of NPP products.