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We are a home for Earth science data and computing professionals. Our sessions bring together the community for hands-on, interdisciplinary deep dives as we explore "Bridging Divides: Data, Technology, Community" this year. Learn more about this theme on the ESIP Meetings page.

Session and plenary recordings will be published on the ESIP YouTube Channel.
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Thursday, July 30
 

7:30am CDT

Breakfast
Thursday July 30, 2026 7:30am - 8:30am CDT
Registration & breakfast

Audience
All meeting attendees
Thursday July 30, 2026 7:30am - 8:30am CDT
Zlotnik Foyer
  Meals & Breaks
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8:30am CDT

ESIP Plenary
Thursday July 30, 2026 8:30am - 10:00am CDT
ESIP Plenary

Audience
All meeting attendees
Speakers

Thursday July 30, 2026 8:30am - 10:00am CDT
Zlotnik Ballroom (1,2,3,4)
  Plenary
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10:00am CDT

Break
Thursday July 30, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am CDT
Break & socialize

Audience
All meeting attendees
Thursday July 30, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am CDT
Rowling Hall Floor 3 Foyer
  Meals & Breaks
  • format json

11:00am CDT

Bridging Tools: Consolidating and Advancing Functionality to Meet Evolving User Needs
Thursday July 30, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
Description
Tools enabling and simplifying data access, subsetting, visualization, and early-analysis are useful to Earth data users across a wide range of communities. In today's environment of quickly evolving computing, users need nimble tools that:
 - Function across multiple types of data, including data the tool was not originally designed to support
 - Integrate features presently found across different tools
 - Apply one or more tools' capabilities to data stored in multiple locations (ie: downloaded to a hard drive as well as in cloud)
 - Subset, parse, and/or merge data from multiple sources to analysis-ready formats that also conserve data volume to limit egress costs

In this session, we will interactively explore current functionality of several popular data-oriented tools with a focus on suborbital (non-satellite) Earth observations. The variety of capabilities, backend requirements to support functional needs, and some individual tools’ planned (or idealized) next steps will be discussed. Our interactive conversation will continue as attendees formulate a “wish list” of functionalities and enabling concepts and technologies (eg: metadata, formats, protocols, and data governance standards) to envision an idealized future state that consolidates several (though perhaps not all) existing tools.



Audience
Science data users (especially but not limited to suborbital data); data managers and stewards; data services and tools developers who want to voice needs and provide input

Connection to Theme
Many tools have been built/sustained by discipline-specific groups or entities, and the notion of tool consolidation almost literally requires bridging the functional capacities of the tools themselves, as well as the technical/developmental expertise of the tool makers/maintainers. This “bridging” also includes making connections across the various science communities using such tools.

Value to Participants
Voice your needs, contribute opinions and professional perspectives on needs, challenges, and limitations to both current tools and plans you hear (or have heard) discussed for the future.

Speakers
avatar for Rupesh Shrestha

Rupesh Shrestha

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
avatar for Doug Newman

Doug Newman

Science Data Systems Lead, NASA/ESDIS
NASA ESDIS Systems Engineer.
avatar for Geoffrey Stano

Geoffrey Stano

GHRC DAAC Scientist, University of Alabama in Huntsville

avatar for Stephanie M. Wingo

Stephanie M. Wingo

ADMG Team Lead, NASA ODSI / UAH
avatar for Sara Lubkin

Sara Lubkin

DAAC Engineer, NASA/ESDIS

Thursday July 30, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
Location TBA

11:00am CDT

NOAA NESDIS Data Technology and Infrastructure
Thursday July 30, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) provides public access to data and data products from NOAA-operated environmental satellites, oceanographic and atmospheric observing systems, and mission programs supporting understanding of our climate, weather, oceans, and coasts. This session focuses on generating awareness and discussion on Federal data technology and infrastructure, featuring talks by individuals and teams with moderated discussion and interactive elements. Topics include AI capabilities at NESDIS, integrating legacy marine data into the cloud enterprise data system, algorithm transition to operations within the NCCF, and cloud migration strategies.

Audience
NOAA NESDIS data infrastructure professionals and the broader earth science data community; those interested in Federal data technology, infrastructure, and cloud migration strategies
Speakers
avatar for Jessica Morgan

Jessica Morgan

NESDIS Assisstant Chief Data Officer, NOAA
Jessica is the Assistant Chief Data Officer (ACDO) of the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), a senior expert advisor on scientific data management, responsible for: managing the agency’s inventory of satellite data and archived data holdings... Read More →
avatar for Tyler Christensen

Tyler Christensen

Data Architect, NOAA / NESDIS / Office of Common Services (OCS)
Tyler is the chief data architect for the NESDIS Office of Common Services. OCS builds common services and products to enable partner missions and the NESDIS enterprise.
avatar for John Relph

John Relph

Data Archaeologist, NESDIS NCEI
Data Management, Metadata, Archival, Automation, Dogs
avatar for Jay Su

Jay Su

IT Specialist, NOAA/NESDIS/ACIO
Working at NOAA/NESDIS/ACIO bridging science and engineering, focusing on cloud, AI, and web etc.
avatar for Melissa Zweng

Melissa Zweng

Chief, Product Implementation Branch, NESDIS OCS/PMD
Melissa Zweng is the chief of the Product Implementation Branch (PIB) in the NESDIS Office of Common Services (OCS). PIB manages the product lifecycle, including Transition to Operations, of scientific products in the NESDIS Common Cloud Framework (NCCF). Our goal is to transform... Read More →
avatar for Brian Meyer

Brian Meyer

Associate Scientist, NESDIS/NCEI/COGSD/GSB
avatar for Courtney Bouchard

Courtney Bouchard

Oceanographer, NESDIS NCEI
avatar for Gian Villamil-Otero

Gian Villamil-Otero

Physical Scientist, NOAA/NESDIS/OCS/PMD
avatar for Angela Brown

Angela Brown

Data Management Specialist, NESDIS OCS/Cloud Management Branch
avatar for Inger Kittle

Inger Kittle

Physical Scientist, NOAA


Thursday July 30, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
Location TBA

11:00am CDT

The Human Infrastructure: Navigating Career Growth and Resilience in Earth Science
Thursday July 30, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
While we increasingly rely on AI and agents to bridge data divides, the development of these tools depends entirely on human connection and intuition. This interactive session addresses the challenges of navigating Earth science careers as the technical landscape shifts, focusing on social science aspects involved in building AI tools and professional survival. A panel of early, mid, and senior-career professionals from academia and industry will share transparent roadmaps and advice for the next generation. Beyond technical skills, the session uses group coaching techniques rooted in Energy Leadership and self-awareness to help participants move from survival mode to thriving. Leaders will share current job openings and the human insights they look for in candidates.

Audience
Early-career and mid-career professionals balancing family and work; participants from all levels of experience across public sector, private sector, and program management
Speakers
avatar for Aparna Radhakrishnan

Thursday July 30, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
Location TBA

11:00am CDT

Inform NASA Earthdata Progression and Utility for Earth Science Data Users
Thursday July 30, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
This session provides an interactive environment to inform updates for the gateway to NASA's freely available and openly accessible Earth science data repository. Finding the right Earth science data can be overwhelming given the volume of tools and technologies available for accessing petabytes of data. The session is designed for feedback but is rooted in discovery — participants may also learn new ways to find, access, and visualize data through the interactive session. Participants are encouraged to explore earthdata.nasa.gov in advance. Responses from session participants will inform the work plan for near-future feature development and content curation of NASA Earthdata.

Audience
Data novices, Earth science researchers, app developers, interdisciplinary scientists
Speakers
avatar for Andi Thomas

Andi Thomas

Project Manager/ NASA ESDS WSCT Lead, SSAI/ NASA
avatar for Tim Frankstone

Tim Frankstone

User Development Specialist, SSAI/NASA

Thursday July 30, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
Location TBA

11:00am CDT

Cell-Based Spatiotemporal Data Standards: Where Conventions Support, Where They Diverge, and What to Work on Together
Thursday July 30, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
The NetCDF-CF based Unidata Common Data Model has become the de facto abstract data model for interchange of cell-based spatiotemporal data, but related conventions are being substantially renegotiated. Zarr v3 was released in early 2025 with sharding and a formal extension mechanism. The Zarr community prototyped a modular Zarr Conventions framework at the October 2025 Zarr Summit. STAC became an OGC Community Standard with active work on aligning the datacube extension with the core bands construct. OGC API-EDR is developing rapidly. This session brings together community members working across these projects to discuss convergence, divergence, and coordination needs. The deliverable is a public seminar series proposal and specific actions, drafted live.

Audience
Data managers, cloud native specialists, oceanographic/atmospheric/landscape modelers, software developers, data modelers working with Zarr, NetCDF, STAC, CF, or OGC standards
Speakers
MJ

Max Jones

Cloud Engineer, Development Seed
avatar for Ethan Davis

Ethan Davis

Software Engineer, NSF Unidata - UCAR
avatar for David Blodgett

David Blodgett

Civil Engineer, U.S. Geological Survey


Thursday July 30, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
Location TBA

11:00am CDT

Teacher Workshop Session: Explore Resources from the Choose Energy Program
Thursday July 30, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
This session introduces Energy Excursions, an online curriculum for high school that helps you easily include energy topics into your classroom to meet required content standards; to showcase the integrated nature of STEM using applied energy topics, and to provide your students with online curriculum that covers the various levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, culminating in a design challenge for your students. The curriculum provides a window into the interdisciplinary nature of the skills, knowledge and creativity required to provide energy to a global society, as well as an understanding of the challenges that make energy projects exciting and the oversight and considerations that keep these projects safe for humans and their environment.

Outcome/Goals:
● Explore Energy Excursion units
● Engage in online activities
● Consider how you might incorporate an Energy Excursion into your teaching


Speakers
avatar for Sabrina Ewald

Sabrina Ewald

Program Manager for Education Outreach and Training, The University of Texas at Austin - Choose Energy K-12 Outreach Program
Sabrina Ewald is the Choose Energy program manager for education outreach and training. She spent 23 years in secondary science education teaching earth science and environmental science courses. She spent the past 18 years in Frisco ISD teaching AP Environmental Science, Earth and... Read More →
Thursday July 30, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
Pecos

12:30pm CDT

Lunch
Thursday July 30, 2026 12:30pm - 2:00pm CDT
Lunch & network

Audience
All meeting attendees
Thursday July 30, 2026 12:30pm - 2:00pm CDT
Tejas Dining Room
  Meals & Breaks
  • format json

2:00pm CDT

Unconference
Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Open unconference session — topics and format to be determined collaboratively by attendees on the day. All five rooms are available. Participants self-organize into groups around topics of shared interest and report back to the broader group.

Audience
All meeting attendees
Speakers
AF

Aaron Friesz

Technical Community Manager, Earth Science Information Partners
Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Location TBA

2:00pm CDT

Unconference
Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Open unconference session — topics and format to be determined collaboratively by attendees on the day. All five rooms are available. Participants self-organize into groups around topics of shared interest and report back to the broader group.

Audience
All meeting attendees
Speakers
AF

Aaron Friesz

Technical Community Manager, Earth Science Information Partners
Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Location TBA

2:00pm CDT

Unconference
Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Open unconference session — topics and format to be determined collaboratively by attendees on the day. All five rooms are available. Participants self-organize into groups around topics of shared interest and report back to the broader group.

Audience
All meeting attendees
Speakers
AF

Aaron Friesz

Technical Community Manager, Earth Science Information Partners
Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Location TBA

2:00pm CDT

Unconference
Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Open unconference session — topics and format to be determined collaboratively by attendees on the day. All five rooms are available. Participants self-organize into groups around topics of shared interest and report back to the broader group.

Audience
All meeting attendees
Speakers
AF

Aaron Friesz

Technical Community Manager, Earth Science Information Partners
Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Location TBA
  General
  • format json

2:00pm CDT

Unconference
Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Open unconference session — topics and format to be determined collaboratively by attendees on the day. All five rooms are available. Participants self-organize into groups around topics of shared interest and report back to the broader group.

Audience
All meeting attendees
Speakers
AF

Aaron Friesz

Technical Community Manager, Earth Science Information Partners
Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Location TBA

2:00pm CDT

Teacher Workshop Session: Data Jamboree: Explore Data and Data Tools from NOAA, NASA, USGS, AGI, EarthScope, PRI, and More
Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Much environmental, biological Earth science data for science teaching is freely available online. We will explore and share a variety of datasets and tools including visualization of 3-D data using MERGE Cubes! Some resources we will share include PRI’s Earth@Home, NOAA’s Data in the Classroom, NASA’s MyNASA Data and more.

Outcome/Goals:
● Explore data and data tools from a variety of ESIP partners
● Engage in online activities
● Consider how you might incorporate these activities into your teaching
Speakers
avatar for Don Haas

Don Haas

Director of Teacher Programming, The Center for Climate Change Education at PRI
My work in public outreach, teacher education, teacher professional development and curriculum materials development marries deep understandings of how people learn with deep understandings of the Earth system. I am a past president of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers... Read More →
Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Pecos

3:30pm CDT

Break
Thursday July 30, 2026 3:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
Break & socialize

Audience
All meeting attendees
Thursday July 30, 2026 3:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
Rowling Hall Floor 3 Foyer
  Meals & Breaks
  • format json

4:00pm CDT

ESIP Bright Spots @DataCite
Thursday July 30, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT

Many ESIP members use DataCite as a tool for providing unique and persistent identifiers for many kinds of research outputs, i.e. Digital Object Identifiers (DOI). While these identifiers are an important element of the classic citation and identification use case, the metadata associated with them can serve many other use cases. We will focus on tools for measuring metadata completeness with the goal of finding outstanding examples of complete metadata, "bright spots", in the ESIP community that others can learn from and emulate.

Background:
  1. DataCite Bright Spots – Repositories, Consortia, and Improvements
  2. FAIR Use Cases For DataCite
  3. Community Can Help Improve Metadata


Speakers
avatar for Ted Habermann

Ted Habermann

CTO, Metadata Game Changers
I am CTO of Metadata Game Changers (https://metadatagamechangers.com/) interested in metadata evaluation and improvement, repository re-curation, PIDs for everything...
Thursday July 30, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT

4:00pm CDT

From Code to Conversation: Emerging AI Interface Patterns for Spatial Data and Analysis
Thursday July 30, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
When an AI client talks to a map, a STAC catalog, or an analysis runtime, something has to define the contract between them — what state looks like, how geometry travels, how results come back interpretable. Right now every team is inventing this contract independently. This session is a working comparison across groups actively building in the space: what patterns are emerging, where they diverge, and which design choices are hardening into defaults. Through demos and short pattern talks, the session surfaces tradeoffs (reliability vs capability, declarative vs imperative, transparent vs magical) and opens the floor for community questions that don't have answers yet. Laptops welcome. Partly a public design review of the ESIP Lab MCP Mapping work and EO-GPT.

Audience
EO data stewards and tool builders thinking about how their systems will be consumed by AI clients; practitioners building LLM-driven geospatial workflows; ESIP Machine Learning Cluster, IT&I, and Semantic Harmonization Cluster members; non-developer analysts and educators
Speakers
BT

Brian Terry

Analytical Mechanics Associates

Thursday July 30, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Location TBA

4:00pm CDT

ESDIS vs NESDIS
Thursday July 30, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
This session gives attendees an opportunity to learn more about two key earth observation programs in the US Federal government: NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project and NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). Both programs operate a fleet of earth observation satellites, but there are key differences in their mission, platforms and instruments, and methods for data discovery and access. The session also covers important ways NASA and NOAA work together to achieve the larger mission of providing data and information about the global environment. Includes fun activities and agency/satellite mission swag.

Audience
ESIP members who use earth observation data from either or both agencies
Speakers
avatar for Inger Kittle

Inger Kittle

Physical Scientist, NOAA

avatar for Angela Brown

Angela Brown

Data Management Specialist, NESDIS OCS/Cloud Management Branch

Thursday July 30, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Location TBA

4:00pm CDT

Bridging the Training Divide: A Roundtable on Evolving Earth Science Capacity Building
Thursday July 30, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
As Earth science datasets scale in complexity, the methods we use to train the next generation of data users must evolve. From rapid hackathons (like the NOAA Satellites Hackathon) to structured open-source curricula (like NASA ARSET and COMET), organizations employ vastly different capacity-building philosophies that often exist in silos. This low-overhead working session maps the current landscape of satellite and remote sensing training ecosystems through community roundtable discussion, exploring how different methodologies target diverse audiences and brainstorming how ESIP can bridge the gap between training programs. Participants are invited to reflect on friction points they have encountered when teaching Earth science data to non-experts.

Audience
Earth science educators, data managers, student attendees, community engagement specialists, and representatives from federal agencies (NASA, NOAA, USGS) interested in workforce development and data democratization
Speakers
avatar for Katherine Pitts

Katherine Pitts

Product Quality Scientist, STC / GEO Program Science
Hi all! I am a product quality scientist with the NOAA/NESDIS GEO Program Science team, focusing on product quality and mission success for the GOES-R satellite series and transitioning into the next generation GeoXO satellite series. I have been excited to lead the planning of the... Read More →

Thursday July 30, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Location TBA

4:00pm CDT

ESIP's Contribution to Global Data Resilience
Thursday July 30, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Events in the US starting in January 2025 were a wake-up call: many who had their data and/or whose research depended on data in repositories started to ask:
  1. How safe are my research-dependent datasets?
  2. How secure are the repository infrastructures in which they are stored? 
Repositories in Europe, Australia, and elsewhere were inundated with requests to host threatened datasets: it was chaotic; not everything could be moved - confusion reigned - which datasets were critical? Which datasets were key components of global data supply chains? 

Many groups sprang into action - in particular, the US-based ESIP Sustainable Data Management Cluster, which, led by Joseph Gum, developed and published the Repository Crisis Scorecard within 2 months. In October 2025, as a follow-up, the Building Resilient Repositories Project, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and supported by Tessera Strategies and by the ESIP Sustainable Data Management Cluster, was announced.
Other projects followed, including the:
  1. AGU’s Impactful Datasets Project
  2. The AGU-led Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Global Data Convening project, funded by the Hewlett Foundation
  3. As a follow-up from a Town Hall at EGU on “Data in Turbulent Times - How Resilient is Your Repository?” and the recent paper by Alex de Sherbinin on ‘Things Fall Apart: Lessons from a Defunded Data Repository’, there is a proposal to develop a volume of essays on papers that record “Disasters, Near Misses and Successful Resuscitations of Repositories in Crisis”.
Members of the ESIP Sustainable Data Management Cluster are now working on 2 papers summarising the eventful activities of 2025:
  1. Can a repository survive a crisis? The Development of the Repository Crisis Scorecard; and
  2. Defining Research Data Management Resiliency
In addition, decisions need to be made regarding the Results of the Sloan-funded Building Resilient Repositories Project.
This session is designed to inform participants of all these activities and to invite participation in those that are still open.
The final part of the session will focus on the future of the Data Sustainability Cluster, which is currently seeking new chairs.  Two options have been proposed:
  1. Start new projects on Data Resilience; and
  2. Revisit previous suggestions that this Cluster continue, or start a new cluster that focuses on issues related to Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance, following on from the publication by this Cluster on “Earth Science Data Repositories: Implementing the CARE Principles.”

Audience
Anyone is welcome to participate
Speakers
avatar for Lesley Wyborn

Lesley Wyborn

Data Strategist, Australian Research Data Commons
avatar for Jens Klump

Jens Klump

Group Leader Exploration, CSIRO
“The really exciting part is not about putting labels on things, but about what you can do when you put machine learning to work on the labelled data.” (https://www.auscope.org.au/posts/2020/12/18/introducing-jens).
President of the International Geo Sample Number Implementati... Read More →

Thursday July 30, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Location TBA

4:00pm CDT

Teacher Workshop Session: Civiscape: AI Powered, Democratized Earth Data for K-12 Education
Thursday July 30, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Education is most powerful when it's personal. This 90 minute session introduces CivicScape, a digital learning platform that builds place-based, standards-aligned lessons where students investigate real data from their community—air quality, housing, health, and more—no data or GIS experience required. With CivicScape and Earth data, classroom lessons stop being abstract and students start seeing themselves as agents of change in their own communities.

Outcome/Goals:
● Navigate CivicScape to identify and analyze geospatial datasets relevant to their
local community and classroom context
● Design a place-based, geospatial learning sequence that meets NGSS science and
engineering practices, with emphasis on asking questions, analyzing data, and
constructing explanations
● Facilitate student exploration of local environmental and social data in ways that
center diverse community experiences and promote equity
Speakers
avatar for Nick Okafor

Nick Okafor

Executive Director, trubel&co
Nick Okafor (he/him) is the founder of trubel&co, a nonprofit venture studio that champions underserved youth to tackle complex societal problems using data, design, and technology. trubel&co build youth power in the digital age by integrated career technical education with experiential learning and liberatory design. A strategist... Read More →
avatar for Joan Jungbin Lee

Joan Jungbin Lee

Associate Director of Programs, trubel&co
Thursday July 30, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Pecos

5:30pm CDT

FUNding Friday Poster Making
Thursday July 30, 2026 5:30pm - 8:30pm CDT
Joy us for a fun night of engaging conversations and poster making!

Audience
All meeting attendees
Thursday July 30, 2026 5:30pm - 8:30pm CDT
Gabriel's Cafe 1900 University Ave, Austin, TX 78705, USA
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