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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.
Venue: Brazos clear filter
Tuesday, July 28
 

11:00am CDT

From Bespoke to Universal: How Standards Can Support NASA's Tool Convergence Effort
Tuesday July 28, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
This session seeks to begin an ongoing conversation between software engineers, data producers, data stewards, and data users to share pain points and exchange ideas about

1) designing and developing data tools and services that can work with most (or a lot of) disparate NASA data products;
2) designing and implementing data products that can easily interoperate with data tools and services, and with other data products;
3) preparing (e.g., creating metadata, assembling documentation, conducting testing, etc.) and publishing data products that can interoperate with data tools and services, and with other data products; and
4) using, accessing, transforming, and analyzing disparate data products.

We will bring tool developers, data users, and data stewards together to explore how we can work together to make more data more usable through improved standards compliance, more robust metadata, etc.

Metadata curation, data product design, standards development, and software engineering are typically done by completely separate teams; but software that makes Earth science data accessible requires standardized formats and data models, as well as robust, standards-compliant metadata and documentation. As ESDIS moves away from bespoke data tools toward an integrated environment of shared, enterprise-class tools and services, this session aims to bring together diverse groups to understand how to work more cooperatively to improve data FAIRness.

The session aims to be interactive and conversational. Please come prepared to share your use cases and the barriers you experience in executing them efficiently. We want to hear from you. Topics include:

  • What standards exist or are needed that could address current barriers to interoperability?
  • If standards already exist, what is keeping them from addressing current barriers to interoperability?
  • Should standards be enforced rigorously? If so, what infrastructure changes might be needed to make enforcement and compliance more feasible?
  • Are more and better tools needed? For data producers? For data stewards? For data users?

Audience

Metadata curators, software engineers, and data producers (scientists) who want to improve data FAIRness and data interoperability.
Speakers
avatar for Elisabeth Huffer

Elisabeth Huffer

Information Systems Engineer, Lingua Logica

SO

Steve Olding

ESCO Team Lead & DGB Co-chair, NASA ESDIS / SSAI
avatar for Ge Peng

Ge Peng

Chief Research Scientist, SSAI/NASA ESDIS

Tuesday July 28, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
Brazos

2:00pm CDT

To PID or Not to PID: Advanced Topics in Physical Sample Data Curation
Tuesday July 28, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
The ESIP Physical Sample Curation Cluster recently published a guide for scientific authors on 'Publishing Open Research Using Physical Samples.' This interactive session builds on that work to spur new discussion on advanced topics in open research using physical samples, with the goal of identifying places for further best practices development. Three 8-minute presentations will showcase key advanced topics, followed by ~40 minutes in breakout groups using large sticky note posters to document use cases and outline proposed guidance. The session closes with ~20 minutes of report-backs and discussion on next steps. Seeded discussion topics include CRediT taxonomy and samples, and field campaigns.

Audience
Researchers who use physical samples; curators of physical sample collections; infrastructure developers and data stewards who work on systems containing digital sample identifiers; ESIP community members with connections to scholarly journal infrastructure and DOI registries
Speakers
avatar for Natalie Raia

Natalie Raia

Earth Science Cyberinfrastructure Research Principal, University of Arizona
Natalie Raia is a Earth Science Cyberinfrastructure Research Scientist in the College of Information Science at the University of Arizona. She collaborates with library and information scientists, systems engineers, researchers, publishers, and academic societies to develop and drive... Read More →
AT

Andrea Thomer

Associate Professor, University of Arizona, College of Information Science

Tuesday July 28, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Brazos

4:00pm CDT

Bridging Divides Through Data Rescue: Best Practices for Rescuing Long-Term Datasets
Tuesday July 28, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
(Note: The presenters will be attending virtually, with conference participation in-room)

Data rescue is the ultimate bridge between the scientific past, present, and future. It connects legacy records and multiple formats with AI/ML for digitization and cloud storage to serve a broader community needing long-term baseline data. This session covers data rescue relevant to any sector, with examples from earth sciences including natural systems and applied contexts (forestry, agriculture). It covers triaging which data to focus on first, working through examples, and discussing current challenges. Participants are encouraged to bring data examples they want help troubleshooting.

Audience
Scientists learning to integrate historical datasets into modern longitudinal studies; data stewards and archivists seeking new tools; tech developers identifying pain points in the rescue pipeline; students and educators

Tuesday July 28, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Brazos
 
Wednesday, July 29
 

8:30am CDT

Bridging Human Silos: Setting Up Data-Centric Communities of Practice to Reach Across Divides
Wednesday July 29, 2026 8:30am - 10:00am CDT
The session organizers are building communities of practice around ICESat-2 datasets by convening disciplinary-related data user groups to share pain points and solutions. This session invites the ESIP community to share experiences with building or participating in similar CoPs to create guidance for replicating and sustaining these human connection spaces. Organizers will share lessons learned from ICESat-2 Inland Water and Forestry/Biomass/Canopy communities, covering how to find participants, what training attendees desire, and successes seen so far. The session then workshops best practices for a community of practice.

Audience
People who have a stake in how communities of practice are set up and conducted; those who want to build their own CoP around a specific discipline, mission, or topic
Speakers
avatar for Diane Fritz

Diane Fritz

Data Support Specialist, NSIDC
MB

Mikala Beig

Data support specialist, National Snow and Ice Data Center
avatar for Aimee Neeley

Aimee Neeley

Mission Applications Lead for ICESat-2, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Wednesday July 29, 2026 8:30am - 10:00am CDT
Brazos

11:00am CDT

Bridging the Divide Between Geospatial Data and Clinical Data with Standards
Wednesday July 29, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
use Collab26 for the zoom password

This discussion-focused session presents a first draft of a proposed metadata and provenance standard for linking geospatial and clinical data, capturing all metadata needed for clinical and public health applications. The facilitated discussion will probe the limits of the standard. The Geodata 4 Health cluster has desired outcomes designed to close gaps between those who collect data and those who use data, between scientific disciplines, to harmonize tools and resources, and to move toward true data integration. After a brief introduction, our guest speaker will define the problem space and describe the "alpha" version of a solution. Then we will divide into breakout groups for a deep dive into specific parts of the standard.
Attendees should take time to get familiar with the LinkML modeling language before attending.

Here is the session folder containing slides and breakout reports

Audience
ESIP and Geodata 4 Health cluster members; participants from NIH, NASA, NOAA, and USGS; ESIP clusters including Air Quality, Disaster Lifecycle, Data Readiness, Information Quality, and Wildfire
Speakers
avatar for Anne Thessen

Anne Thessen

Associate Professor, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
I am passionate about data integration and semantic technology!

Wednesday July 29, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm CDT
Brazos

2:00pm CDT

Community Best Practices for Modern Model Workflows
Wednesday July 29, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
This working session brings together perspectives from Earth system modeling centers approaching exascale-scale data archives to share, learn, and document best practices for rethinking and optimizing Earth science modeling architecture. NOAA GFDL presents their legacy architecture rewrite and current technical roadblocks, then facilitates breakout discussions across five topics: (1) Cloud-Native Execution and Portability; (2) Analysis-Ready Cloud-Optimized (ARCO) output and volume/transfer mitigation; (3) Unified Catalogs, Interactive Discovery, and Metadata; (4) Automated Analysis and Post-Processing Pipelines; (5) Impact and opportunities from the AI technological shift. The session concludes with synthesis and community-driven recommendations.

Audience
Research software engineers, data engineers, cloud architects, downstream application developers, data managers, metadata specialists, earth system modelers, and domain scientists
Speakers
CB

Chris Blanton

Physical Scientist, NOAA-GFDL
avatar for Aparna Radhakrishnan

Wednesday July 29, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Brazos

4:00pm CDT

The Evolution of the Community Fellows Program: Piloting a New Vision for the Future
Wednesday July 29, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
The ESIP Community Fellows Program is evolving to better support early-career researchers and prepare them to contribute meaningfully to the Earth science data community. This interactive session will share findings from recent program evaluations, highlight the experiences and successes of current and former Community Fellows, and introduce recommendations for the program’s future.

Participants will reflect on effective mentoring and professional development, then work in small groups to identify and prioritize ideas for strengthening the program. Together, we will consider what support early-career researchers need, the role the broader ESIP community can play, and the challenges that may arise when putting these ideas into practice. The session will conclude by identifying promising directions to inform the next phase of the Community Fellows Program.

Audience
Collaboration Area Chairs who have previously supported a Fellow; past Community Fellows; community members interested in mentorship opportunities
Speakers
avatar for Alycia Crall

Alycia Crall

Community Director, Earth Science Information Partners
DM

Debasish Mishra

PhD Student, Texas A&M University
JL

Joseph Lane

Graduate Student, University of Memphis

Wednesday July 29, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Brazos
 
Thursday, July 30
 

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.



Shared Session Directory
General Session Slides
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 Morgan Silverman

Morgan Silverman

Data Scientist, Analytical Mechanics Associates/ NASA Langley Research Center
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
Brazos

2:15pm CDT

Unconference: Federal Agency Cloud Migration
Thursday July 30, 2026 2:15pm - 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.

COLLABORATIVE NOTES

Audience
All meeting attendees
Thursday July 30, 2026 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Brazos

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 working session maps the current landscape of satellite and remote sensing training ecosystems through community roundtable discussion, exploring how different methodologies target college students from diverse educational backgrounds and brainstorming how the Earth science capacity building community can bridge the gap between training programs to recruit these students into the Earth observation workforce pipeline. Participants are invited to reflect on friction points they have encountered when learning to use Earth science datasets for the first time or teaching Earth science data to non-experts.

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

Katherine Pitts

Product Quality Scientist, STC for NOAA/NESDIS/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. As a fun side quest, I've organized the GOES-R Hackathon 2021, the GOES-R DataJam 2023, and the NOAA Satellites... Read More →
avatar for Sherrie Morris

Sherrie Morris

NASA ARSET Training Coordinator, Science and Technology Corporation

Thursday July 30, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Brazos
 
Friday, July 31
 

9:00am CDT

Epistemic Infrastructure for Responsible and Reliable AI in Earth and Environmental Science
Friday July 31, 2026 9:00am - 10:30am CDT
As AI and machine learning are increasingly deployed across the Earth and environmental sciences pipeline — from data ingestion through model training, evaluation, and downstream applications — the field faces a shared challenge: how do we know when AI outputs are fit for the purposes to which they are being put? This requires shared epistemic infrastructure: frameworks, vocabularies, documentation standards, readiness assessments, and governance practices that make AI systems legible, evaluable, and accountable. This session brings together researchers who are interested in learning more about epistemic infrastructure components, including data readiness frameworks, model readiness standards, AI/ML documentation protocols, and pipeline risk assessment approaches. Designed as a structured working dialogue aimed at sharing ideas and coming to an understanding of what we need and what to prioritize, not a finished-products showcase.

Audience
Researchers actively developing epistemic infrastructure components or interested in the topic and how we can collaboratively work to build these foundations for AI; data producers; model developers; end users; representatives from NSF NCAR, NOAA, NASA, DOE, and university partners.
Speakers
avatar for Monica Morrison

Monica Morrison

Scientist IV, NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research
Philosopher of science + ethicist working on reliable and responsible data and model use (with a particular focus on AI/ML in ESS), and researching the concept of "fitness-for-purpose". Currently in the Computational Information Systems Lab at NSF NCAR. Co-chair of the CMIP Responsible... Read More →
avatar for Megan Rush

Megan Rush

Landsat Data Manager, KBR (USGS Contractor)

avatar for Thomas Cram

Thomas Cram

Software Engineer, NCAR
avatar for Harsha Hampapura

Harsha Hampapura

Scientist, NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research

Friday July 31, 2026 9:00am - 10:30am CDT
Brazos
 
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