2026 July ESIP Meeting

We find ourselves in a position where the near-exponential growth of our archive is causing several problems: our archive grows faster than our community's ability to navigate it, and faster than our ability to manage it. To combat this, on the user side, researchers increasingly work through AI-assisted tools. If NASA data is not findable and usable in those environments, we cede our role as the authoritative source for Earth science data. On the curation side, NASA needs to increasingly rely on automation. We will present our AI strategies targeting four areas: Production (AI-powered pipeline segments, mission data and metadata development); Infrastructure (open machine-readable interfaces, intelligent user support triage); Access (dataset matchmaking via external AI assistants, semantic discovery as a service); Analysis (Earth science notebook extension in JupyterLab, reproducibility scaffolding).

Audience
Anyone who wants or needs to employ AI/ML processes in their work

Speakers

Doug Newman

Science Data Systems Lead, NASA/ESDIS

NASA ESDIS Systems Engineer.

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

format json

11:00am CDT

Modern Tools and Interoperable Workflows for Geospatial Discovery

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

Location TBA

Building an open and collaborative geospatial community depends on creating opportunities to share emerging technologies, interoperable tools, and practical workflows. This session brings together participants of all experience levels to explore new approaches to analysis and data access while encouraging collaboration and idea sharing. Speakers and developers will showcase community-focused tools through approachable demonstrations designed to provide attendees with resources they can immediately apply in their own work. Pre-managed environments such as Google Colab will be used to share live coding examples, web tools, and other resources.

Audience
Geospatial scientists, educators, students, and data providers interested in learning about newer geospatial tools, workflows, and data formats; open to coding and learning new software

Speakers

Chris Battisto

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

format json

11:00am CDT

Real-Time Field Science Applications

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

Location TBA

Earth Science Field Campaigns require applications and tools that assist with real-time tracking, products, and documentation. Various organizations have developed applications with similar capabilities. This session brings together managers and software engineers who manage these applications to learn from each other, enabling each entity to build better applications. Applications to be discussed include: FARM Guru (real-time mobile radar data displays), ARM Field Campaign Dashboard (real-time data plots and documentation), NASA FCX (field data product viewer), SASSI (severe weather comms and real-time data), and NSF NCAR EOL Field Catalog (real-time field campaign platform tracking, documentation, and data product viewer). Session will close with a 25-minute panel discussion.

Audience
ESIP Envirosensing Cluster members; anyone who works in earth observing science and wants to learn about real-time field science applications

Speakers

Carol Ruchti

Scientist, NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

Chris Lenhardt

EOL DMS Facility Manager, NSF NCAR

Chirag Shah

Environmental Data Science Engineer, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Jacquie Witte

Scientist/Data Manager, NSF NCAR Earth Observing Laboratory

Trevor White

Research Engineer IV, Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets

Geoffrey Stano

GHRC DAAC Scientist, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Erik Rasmussen

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

format json

11:00am CDT

Data Preservation in a Time of Uncertainty

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

Location TBA

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at UT Austin supports large-scale compute and data storage across all areas of science, with the NSF-supported Leadership Class Computing Facility (LCCF) now coming online. NCAR approached TACC to implement a more effective disaster recovery approach than storing tapes in a fireproof vault, leading to a transfer of 15 PB of data over R&E networks beginning February 2026. This session details the preliminary design work, technological tradeoffs weighed, and how transfers of this scale can be accomplished and become commonplace. It will also discuss how TACC resources are available to the broader ESIP community.

Audience
Council of Data Facilities representatives; researchers or project leads working with significant data resources; representatives from high performance networking providers, NSF-sponsored computing centers, and universities with large-scale computing centers and data repositories

Speakers

Jennifer Schopf

University of Texas at Austin / TACC

Thomas Cram

Software Engineer, NCAR

Doug Schuster

Section Manager, Information Science and Services Section, NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research

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

format json

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

Location TBA

This session will seek to bring tool developers together with metadata curators to explore how we can work together to make more data more usable through improved standards compliance and more robust metadata. 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, and robust, standards-compliant metadata. 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.

Audience
Metadata curators, software engineers, and data producers (scientists) who want to improve data FAIRness

Speakers

Elisabeth Huffer

Information Systems Engineer, Lingua Logica

Steve Olding

ESCO Team Lead, NASA ESCO

Ge Peng

Chief Research Scientist, SSAI/NASA ESDIS

Ed Armstrong

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

format json

2:00pm CDT

The National Spatial Data Infrastructure: Progress and the Path to a NextGeneration SDI Specification

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

Location TBA

Accessing spatial data shouldn’t be this hard. Scientists routinely struggle to find
current, authoritative, and validated datasets across agencies and platforms. This
session directly addresses those pain points by bringing together policy, technology,
and community voices to focus on practical solutions that make data easier to find,
access, and use.

We will connect federal SDI governance, nextgeneration OGC standards, and
AIassisted data discovery to show how the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)
is evolving to better support Earth science. The session will provide an update on
progress to date, outline the current status of the NSDI, and—most importantly—invite
direct input from the Earth science community through an open Request for
Information (RFI). Participants will see concrete examples of how modern SDI
approaches can reduce datawrangling time, improve metadata quality, and streamline
crossagency discovery workflows.

The NSDI is a foundational framework for linking Earth science data producers and
consumers across organizational and jurisdictional boundaries. Modernizing the NSDI
directly supports ESIP’s “Bridging Divides” theme by connecting data, technology, and
community in ways that reduce friction, improve interoperability, and accelerate
scientific insight.

Speakers

Frank Pichel

Rich Frazier

Senior Advisor Geospatial Technology, United States Geological Survey, Federal Geographic Data Committee

Rich serves as the Technical Advisor for the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Secretariat. The FGDC leads and supports the National Spatial Data Infrastructure Strategy and spatial data policy development in the United States. The FGDC also coordinates with international organizations... Read More →

Megan Compton

Senior NSDI Advisor, Federal Geographic Data Committee

As a leader in geospatial and tech, I’m driving the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)—basically, I’m mapping the future (literally). I manage the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC), guiding our brilliant members to tackle complex geospatial challenges, while... Read More →

Joy Pochatila

Ingo Simonis

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

Cloud-Native & Data Infrastructure

2:00pm CDT

Virtual Stores: Bridging Archival Formats with Cloud-Native Access (Part 1)

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

Location TBA

Virtual store technology enables network-optimized access to archival file formats and is gaining traction at large data providers such as NASA. This two-part session focuses on knowledge sharing and community building for anyone adopting virtual store technology. Part 1 features presentations from varied data producers within ESIP on how the technology is being adopted: pipeline systems, virtual stores in production, and complex data use cases. Part 2 (following session) is a working session with breakout groups focused on iterating on the virtual stores feasibility report, discussing standards requirements (e.g. GeoZarr), and hands-on building of virtual datasets.

Audience
Data engineers, data-related program managers, cloud data users

Speakers

Aimee Barciauskas

Software Engineer, Development Seed

Owen Littlejohns

Transformation Train System Architect, NASA EED-3 / INNOVIM

Danny Kaufman

TEMPO Lead Data Scientist, NASA ASDC / Booz Allen Hamilton

Chris Battisto

Max Jones

Cloud Engineer, Development Seed

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

format json

2:00pm CDT

Failure Isn't Failing

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

Location TBA

We hide our failures. Our resumes and CVs sing of our accomplishments, but not the twisted path we took to get there. In this session, three community leaders will proudly tell tales of their professional failures: the impact they had, what their response was, and with hindsight, what it might have been in a kinder universe. This session is offered in support of every researcher with imposter syndrome, every scientist who didn't get an experiment to work, and everyone who had a dream job turned nightmare. Significant audience participation is expected.

Audience
Early career researchers who want to learn how others have failed and pivoted; experienced professionals who want to know they aren't alone; everyone in between

Speakers

Jennifer Schopf

University of Texas at Austin / TACC

Denise Hills

Project Manager, Advanced Resources International

Long tail data, data preservation, connecting physical samples to digital information, geoscience policy, science communication.

ORCID: 0000-0001-9581-4944

... Read More →

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

format json

2:00pm CDT

Developing Community Recommendations for Enhanced Data Impact through Governance and Stewardship

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

Location TBA

This session is the third and final in a series on how connecting data governance and stewardship efforts across organizations can enhance interoperability and maximize impact of Earth science data. A report from the July 2025 ESIP session has been published to ESIP Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17990054). In this final session, organizers will share analysis and progress since then and invite participants to contribute to the development of community recommendations for the Earth science community on enhancing data impact through improved interoperability.

Audience
Data stewards, developers, architects, policy-makers, and anyone interested in improving interoperability of their research data through data governance and stewardship practices

Speakers

Ge Peng

Chief Research Scientist, SSAI/NASA ESDIS

Emanuel Söding

Data Manager, Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration @ GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre

Douglas Rao

Senior Research Scholar, CISESS-NC/NOAA NCEI

I am currently a Senior Research Scholar for AI/ML at NC Institute for Climate Studies, affiliated with NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information and NOAA Center for AI through Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies.

Jessica Burnett

Program Executive, NASA

Sara Lubkin

DAAC Engineer, NASA/ESDIS

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

format json

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

Location TBA

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

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 →

Andrea Thomer

Associate Professor, University of Arizona, College of Information Science

Joshua Birkebak

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

format json

4:00pm CDT

Trusted Data and AI as a Potential Trusted Data Stream for Disasters

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

Location TBA

This session addresses when and where data are available for disaster response and recovery efforts. It will discuss latency for data collection, formerly available services that have been discontinued and where archives exist, failures of early warning systems, and how AI can aid in response and recovery — including the pitfalls of relying on AI for analyzing disaster-related data. The session features the Trusted Data Now! interface, developed by DLC fellow Jeil Oh, which gathers trusted data resources in one centralized location. The session will conclude with a roundtable discussion with audience input.

Audience
Scientists and researchers; data community; decision-making community (e.g. agencies); students; ESIP Disaster Lifecycle and Wildfires Cluster members

Speakers

Maggi Glasscoe

Researcher, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Dave Jones

CEO, StormCenter Communications

GeoCollaborate, is an SBIR Phase III technology (Yes, its a big deal) that enables real-time data access through web services, sharing and collaboration across multiple platforms. We call GeoCollaborate a 'Collaborative Common Operating Picture' that empowers decision making, situational... Read More →

Bandana Kar

ZhiQiang Chen

Tuesday July 28, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Location TBA

format json

4:00pm CDT

Virtual Stores: Bridging Archival Formats with Cloud-Native Access (Part 2)

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

Location TBA

Part 2 of the Virtual Stores session. This working session has participants forming breakout groups, each with a lead, focused on: iterating on the virtual stores feasibility report; discussion topics such as how to integrate search with access and what standards are required (e.g. GeoZarr); and hands-on work building a virtual dataset. Virtual stores enable network-optimized access to archival file formats and are gaining traction at large data providers such as NASA. The goal is knowledge sharing and community building for anyone adopting virtual store technology.

Audience
Data engineers, data-related program managers, cloud data users

Speakers

Aimee Barciauskas

Software Engineer, Development Seed

Owen Littlejohns

Transformation Train System Architect, NASA EED-3 / INNOVIM

Danny Kaufman

TEMPO Lead Data Scientist, NASA ASDC / Booz Allen Hamilton

Chris Battisto

Max Jones

Cloud Engineer, Development Seed

Tuesday July 28, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Location TBA

format json

4:00pm CDT

Organising Hybrid Meetings: Making Them Worthwhile Rather Than Striving for Perfect

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

Location TBA

Hybrid meetings became common after COVID-19 lockdowns lifted, but many conferences have returned to fully in-person formats, which reduces inclusivity. Travel costs are particularly high for those from the Global South, and many people face restrictions such as caring responsibilities or health issues. This session works with participants to develop: (1) a toolbox of approaches and techniques that work well in hybrid meetings; and (2) a structured list of approaches to a good hybrid meeting covering technology, facilitation, and logistics. Includes a short talk from an EGU representative on how EGU makes hybrid meetings work.

Audience
Anyone looking for approaches to make conferences and events more accessible, participatory, and inclusive — both as organisers and as participants

Speakers

Lesley Wyborn

Data Strategist, Australian Research Data Commons

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 →

Stefanie Kethers

Program Manager (Data Challenges), ARDC

Tuesday July 28, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Location TBA

format json

4:00pm CDT

Bridging Divides Through Data Rescue: Best Practices for Rescuing Long-Term Datasets

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

Location TBA

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

Speakers

Laura Super

Sherry Sun

Tuesday July 28, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Location TBA

format json

4:00pm CDT

The ESDIS Metadata and Data Quality Drive

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

Location TBA

This session puts forward the case that high quality metadata leads to better tools and services, and that standardized data leads to less costly tools and services. The session tests two hypotheses: (1) improving metadata quality will improve the quality of tools and services; and (2) improving standardization of incoming data will reduce the cost of ingest, archive, and distribution. Improvements being tested include bringing UMM-C inventory in line with schema validation rules, turning on CMR schema validation, establishing CMR as single point of truth for ESDIS metadata, and iterative AI/ML-powered improvement of collection metadata. The session measures reduction of issues reported against Earthdata Search.

Audience
Data providers, data curators, research scientists

Speakers

Doug Newman

Science Data Systems Lead, NASA/ESDIS

NASA ESDIS Systems Engineer.

Tuesday July 28, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Location TBA

format json

8:30am CDT

Build an MCP Server for AWS Open Data Using Vibe Coding with Kiro (Part 1)

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

Location TBA

In this hands-on workshop, participants learn how to build a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that can access the Registry of Open Data, using Vibe Coding with Kiro — with no manual coding required. Part 1 introduces MCP servers and the Registry of Open Data, demonstrates how conversations with Kiro become working code using vibe coding, and begins building tools to search and discover imagery and data. The workshop leverages features of the Registry of Open Data including searching by mission and by tags and fetching imagery. Part 2 (following session slot) continues building and applying the MCP server.

Audience
Data scientists, developers, data analysts, technical managers

Speakers

Chris Stoner

AWS Open Environmental and Geospatial Data Lead, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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

format json

8:30am CDT

Closing the ARCO Adoption Gap: Modernizing Data Analysis Workflows

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

Location TBA

Despite the growing availability of Analysis-Ready, Cloud-Optimized (ARCO) data, most of the Earth System Science community still relies on legacy download-and-analyze workflows. This session brings together data providers, software developers, and users to compare notes on what is actually moving the needle on adoption, with focus on interoperability across ARCO datasets from different providers. It also discusses the rapidly expanding role of LLM-assisted data discovery and analysis, including emerging tooling such as MCP servers. Through lightning talks, demonstrations, and guided discussion, the session will surface pain points and collaboratively draft a lightweight ARCO Adoption Notes document.

Audience
Open data providers (NASA, NOAA, DOE, NSF NCAR, USGS, university data centers); tool and cyberinfrastructure developers; Earth science researchers and domain scientists including graduate students and early-career researchers

Speakers

Harsha Hampapura

Scientist, NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research

Thomas Cram

Software Engineer, NCAR

Matt Fisher

Community Manager & Software Engineer, Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment @ UC Berkeley

👋 I’m a Community Manager and Research Software Engineer at Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment at UC Berkeley. I’m passionate about open source software, open science, and building culture and structure to help people feel safe and comfortable contributing to scientific... Read More →

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

format json

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

Location TBA

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

Diane Fritz

Mikala Beig

Aimee Neeley

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

format json

8:30am CDT

Federal Data Strategies: Successes and Opportunities for Bridging Divides

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

Location TBA

A continuation of sessions on Federal Data Strategies that started in 2023, this session is a venue for federal agencies to share opportunities for collaborations that will maximize the impact of investments in Earth science data resources. Federal agency representatives will address: emerging joint-agency opportunities in developing open data ecosystems; improving coordination among agencies in data management resource investments; innovative approaches to leverage existing Federal data investments to move from access to integration; and coordinating Federal agencies to facilitate benefits of artificial intelligence. Followed by discussion and audience input on the ESIP meeting theme.

Audience
Federal government data practitioners; ESIP program committee; connectors; users of federal data who want to understand how agency activities will influence data coordination and integration

Speakers

Raleigh Martin

Program Director, U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)

Raleigh L. Martin is a Program Director in the Directorate for Geosciences (NSF) at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Raleigh’s portfolio includes programs related to open science, data management, and computing in the geosciences.

Leslie Hsu

physical scientist, U.S. Geological Survey

Coordinator of the USGS Community for Data Integration, Interim Director of the USGS Powell Center, and member of the USGS Science Data Management branch. https://github.com/hsu000001

Andrew Mitchell

Deputy Chief Science Data Officer, NASA

Deputy Chief Science Data Officer within NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) supporting the modernization of data and computing systems for science and engineering across NASA in support of efficiency, sustainability, security, and scientific integrity.

Charles Schmitt

Director, Office of Data Science, NIH National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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 →

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

format json

8:30am CDT

Update on WMO Information System 2.0

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

Location TBA

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Information System 2.0 (WIS2) is the new data exchange backbone for 193 WMO Members across all WMO Earth system domains: weather, climate, hydrology, ocean, atmospheric composition, cryosphere, and space weather. WIS2 is built on a modern cloud-native technology stack using standards developed within OGC and WMO, providing discovery, access, and near real-time notification of data availability. This session brings together WIS2 and OGC API experts for an update and discussion covering WIS2 architecture, FOSS reference implementations, pilots and production rollout globally, and mechanisms for trusted organisations to publish data to WIS2.

Audience
Data producers interested in making their data available to the weather forecasting community; researchers and educators interested in accessing and using WIS2 data

Speakers

Ethan Davis

Software Engineer, NSF Unidata - UCAR

Steve Olson

Physical Scientist, NWS/STI/WIAD

I work for the National Weather Service (NWS) Meteorological Development Laboratory (MDL). MDL conducts applied research and development for the improvement of diagnostic and prognostic weather information; data depiction and utilization; warning and forecast product preparation... Read More →

Jeremy Tandy

Principal Fellow - Technology, Met Office

Chris Little

IT Fellow, Met Office

Open Data, Interoperability Standards, Geo, Environmental ,Time, 4+D

Tom Kralidis

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

format json

11:00am CDT

Build an MCP Server for AWS Open Data Using Vibe Coding with Kiro (Part 2)

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

Location TBA

Continuation of the hands-on MCP server workshop. Part 2 deepens the work begun in Part 1, expanding the MCP server's capabilities to search and discover imagery and data from the Registry of Open Data. Participants continue using Vibe Coding with Kiro to build tools that allow searching and discovering data without writing any code. The session concludes with applying the finished MCP server to datasets of participants' choosing. No manual coding required. Participants are encouraged to check out the Registry of Open Data in advance: https://registry.opendata.aws/

Audience
Data scientists, developers, data analysts, technical managers

Speakers

Chris Stoner

AWS Open Environmental and Geospatial Data Lead, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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

format json

11:00am CDT

Harmonizing Innovation and Preservation: Integrating Cloud-Native Formats into Open Earth Science Ecosystems

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

Location TBA

The federal government is accelerating data preservation efforts and is beginning to receive cloud-native formats for long-term preservation. Archivists and data management practitioners now face the challenge of preserving formats that are community-managed but not yet adopted by widely recognized authoritative bodies such as LOC or NARA. This session explores the policy gap and the need for agile governance frameworks on new cloud-optimized formats. Agencies will share how they have successfully adopted and implemented new cloud formats as part of cloud migration, covering advantages and disadvantages, governance policy, data access considerations, and documentation requirements.

Audience
Data management professionals, policy makers, developers, GIS analysts

Speakers

Nazila Merati

Physical Scientist, DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI

Data whisperer, CCO and firm believer in data night.

Physical Scientist who leads and coordinates data management planning and data stewardship for long-term data preservation.

Paul Lemieux

Data Archivist, NOAA / NESDIS / National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

Paul received his B.A. in Geography and M.S. in Information Science from the University of Tennessee in 2014 and 2016 respectively. He currently works as a Data Archivist for the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi... Read More →

Sarah O'Connor

Physical Scientist, NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI

Sarah Menassian

IT Specialist - Data Scientist, DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI

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

format json

11:00am CDT

Building Technical Know-How Through Innovation Seed-Funding and Community

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

Location TBA

New projects bring new technical skill needs at every career stage. Through small projects, prototyping, and community input, programs like the ESIP Lab and the USGS Community for Data Integration (CDI) provide pathways for researchers to experiment with technology development in a low-stakes environment, gaining skills to leverage new data, tools, and AI technologies. This session brings together program managers, funded PIs, and other ESIP attendees to share lessons learned in building technical capacity. Goals include helping attendees understand how these programs differ from normal funded projects, presenting what leads to success, and gathering input on what would help attendees succeed.

Audience
USGS Community for Data Integration seed-funded project members; ESIP Lab members; anyone interested in learning more by applying for or using the products of these two programs

Speakers

Leslie Hsu

physical scientist, U.S. Geological Survey

Coordinator of the USGS Community for Data Integration, Interim Director of the USGS Powell Center, and member of the USGS Science Data Management branch. https://github.com/hsu000001

Aaron Friesz

Technical Community Manager, ESIP

Lauren Koenig

Data Scientist, U.S. Geological Survey

data pipelining, reproducible workflows, surface water quality, biogeochemistry

Coral Howe

Bojan Milinic

Chris Sherwood

Brandon Waters

Hazel Mebius

Mike O'Donnell

USGS

Sean Thiboldeaux

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

format json

11:00am CDT

Facilitating Scientists' Learning While Stress Testing Open Science Principles via Openscapes

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

Location TBA

How do we meld open science principles to meet government agency requirements? By making space for open collaboration. This session explores melding and messiness, focusing on two stories: (1) NASA Openscapes Mentors' code-based tutorials and learning resources in the Earthdata Cloud Cookbook and how they could be better integrated into the NASA Earthdata unified website; (2) NOAA Fisheries Openscapes Mentors' efforts to secure and help govern shared cloud resources for staff across the agency. Themes include trustworthiness, AI-readiness, maintenance and time allocation for review, serving the community, and philosophical and technical questions.

Audience
Cross-agency folks of all expertise — technical, policy, and beyond — who can share experiences and help develop solutions and next steps

Speakers

Julia Lowndes

Director, Openscapes

Dr. Julia Stewart Lowndes is Openscapes founding director and co-leads NASA Openscapes and NOAA Fisheries Openscapes projects. I am a marine ecologist working at the intersection of actionable science, data science, and open science. My main focus is mentoring teams to develop technical... Read More →

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

format json

11:00am CDT

Bridging the Divide Between Geospatial Data and Clinical Data with Standards

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

Location TBA

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. Organizers plan to work with session design support to maximize utility and impact.

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

Anne Thessen

Associate Professor, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

I am passionate about data integration and semantic technology!

Nico Matentzoglou

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

format json

2:00pm CDT

Bridging Discipline Divides: Applying AI to Curation (Part 1)

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

Location TBA

Metadata curation deals with many processes that can be substantially accelerated through AI, including selecting relevant terms from large controlled vocabularies, drafting descriptions, and extracting basic information from resources being described. This session brings together challenges, works in progress, and successes from several NASA sciences on incorporating AI techniques into curation workflows. Part 1 features presentations from all five NASA science areas — Heliophysics, Astrophysics, Earth Science, Planetary Science, and Biological and Physical Sciences — balanced with discussion for attendees to learn from others' work and collaboratively incorporate that progress into their own curation workflows for data, software, and other science resources.

Audience
ESIP Semantic Technologies Committee members; ESIP Data Stewardship and Machine Learning Cluster members; curators and data stewards in any science looking for new methods; repository managers seeking to streamline metadata workflows

Speakers

Rebecca Ringuette

Principal Open Science Scientist, Heliophysics Digital Resource Library at NASA Goddard

Heliophysics infrastructure (e.g. archives, data access/utilization), making resources (archives, software, notebooks, etc) more discoverable and open, more level citation (software and models in addition to data), how to make science reproducible and interactive, and current efforts... Read More →

Elisabeth Huffer

Information Systems Engineer, Lingua Logica

David Nilsen

Cogan Shimizu

Shawn Polson

Research Software Engineer, LASP

Shawn Polson is a software engineer who got his Masters in Computer Science from CU Boulder in 2020. He has worked at LASP since 2015. He is the Tech Lead of the Python in Heliophysics Community (PyHC) and works on the SUDA SDC for NASA's Europa Clipper. He also serves on LASP's AI... Read More →

Vandana Desai

Susan Mullally

Lynn Neakrase

Walter Alvarado

Kelly Lockhart

John Wu

Nick Susemiehl

Amanda Butler

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

format json

2:00pm CDT

Help Us, Help Ourselves: Sharing Infrastructure Across Repository Networks

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

Location TBA

Open data repositories share a common core set of needs for computing and networking infrastructure. As repositories grow, there is an increasing trend to move 24x7 operational services from on-prem data centers to commercial cloud providers, often at significantly higher prices (redundant multi-site storage can be 10-30x higher than on-prem). In light of recent massive funding cuts, this Council of Data Facilities cluster session explores synergies and efficiencies gained when repository networks cooperatively provide mutual access to on-prem data center facilities. Case studies will focus on shared storage infrastructure, drawing on networks like OSDF and OSN. The session will develop a roadmap for a bottom-up community effort to help repositories help themselves.

Audience
Repository managers, technology developers, and open data facility users interested in sustainable, reliable, and accessible open data; academic and federal facilities

Speakers

Matt Jones

Director of Informatics R&D, University of California Santa Barbara

DataONE | Arctic Data Center | Open Science | Provenance and Semantics | Cyberinfrastructure

Nick Jarboe

Martin Seul

Technical Director, CUAHSI

Jeanette Clark

Research Software Engineer, NCEAS

Karen Stocks

Director, Geological Data Center, University of California San Diego

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

format json

2:00pm CDT

Bridging Divides and Getting to Yes

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

Location TBA

Good ideas do not become reality on their own. Bridging divides often requires bringing together different perspectives, aligning priorities, and overcoming what can feel like intractable inertia. Through personal stories and practical lessons, speakers will reflect on the often unseen work of building support, creating momentum, and getting from "maybe" to "yes."

Audience
Participants across all career stages and areas of expertise

Speakers

Julia Lowndes

Director, Openscapes

Eli Holmes

NMFS Open Science lead, NOAA Fisheries

I have been involved in training in statistics and ocean data computing for most of my career. I am currently lead of NMFS Open Science and in this role, I facilitate and run trainings in computing, data access and statistics for NOAA Fisheries. I am co-lead of the Inter-agency... Read More →

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

format json

2:00pm CDT

Workshopping Earth Science Knowledge Rescue

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

Location TBA

Recent workforce disruptions and grant cancellations have separated hundreds of earth scientists from their research and institutions. While raw data may remain on servers, the vital undocumented context — methodological workarounds, interrupted longitudinal data, negative results — is at immediate risk of permanent loss. This interactive session workshops an Earth Science Knowledge Living Library framework operating on three levels: The Living Library (a dynamic accessible repository for sharing undocumented knowledge); The Knowledge Trust (a steward of intellectual property using Creator-Controlled Licensing); and The Seed Vault (a secure embargoed preservation space). Participants will validate licensing principles, map knowledge-at-risk scenarios, and identify pilot advisory board members.

Audience
Researchers whose work has been disrupted; anyone interested in knowledge preservation; broad relevance across the Earth science informatics community

Speakers

Steve Young

Senior business consultant, EPA (retired); Innovate Inc.

Steve is a retired 30+ year EPA employee. He specialized in information technology, management, and policy with a focus on leveraging new technologies to provide open, actionable information to the public. He also developed a sub- specialty in biodiversity informatics and played a... Read More →

Bruce Caron

Executive Director, New Media Studio

Bruce is a long-time advocate for open science. He is an active online-community architect, and is looking to help open-science organizations build community governance and achieve their promise. He recently published the Open Scientist Handbook . He is a co-founder of the EarthArXiv... Read More →

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

format json

2:00pm CDT

Community Best Practices for Modern Model Workflows

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

Location TBA

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

Chris Blanton

Aparna Radhakrishnan

OAR NOAA GFDL

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

format json

4:00pm CDT

Enhancing Earth Science Data Stewardship with AI: Real-World Examples and Experiences (Part 2)

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

Location TBA

AI capabilities are developing tremendously quickly, creating opportunities for those supporting the research data enterprise to do their work in new or more efficient ways. But the rapid pace also creates divides: some people have access to the time, expertise, and resources to learn how to apply AI tools, while others do not. This session (Part 2 of the AI curation series) shares real-world experiences and lessons learned about how people are applying specific AI tools to the work of managing and making research data useful. Lightning talks followed by a roundtable discussion covering what is working well, what has been tried but is not ready for prime time, and key considerations and cautions.

Audience
Those with a success story or cautionary tale about applying AI to research data management; those who want to understand how AI might help address their own challenges and tasks

Speakers

Karen Stocks

Director, Geological Data Center, University of California San Diego

Leslie Hsu

physical scientist, U.S. Geological Survey

Coordinator of the USGS Community for Data Integration, Interim Director of the USGS Powell Center, and member of the USGS Science Data Management branch. https://github.com/hsu000001

David Blodgett

Civil Engineer, U.S. Geological Survey

Wednesday July 29, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Location TBA

format json

4:00pm CDT

earthaccess: Five Years of Open Source Science Leadership at NASA

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

Location TBA

earthaccess is a powerful model for open-source tool sustainability and user-driven development: widely used not only because it solves real user problems, but because it has been intentionally developed openly and amplified via storytelling. This session shares several short stories and includes an open mic: what earthaccess is and its current impact; how the community works via hackdays (ESIP FUNding Friday followup!); open governance (JOSS publication, move to earthaccess-dev); current focus on virtualizing and AI-preparation; untold enabling stories; and an open mic for attendees to share their own earthaccess experiences and contributions.

Audience
Anyone who wants to become part of the earthaccess story, get involved as contributors (users are contributors!), or learn about the python library and open science infrastructure

Speakers

Julia Lowndes

Director, Openscapes

Wednesday July 29, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Location TBA

format json

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

Location TBA

Since 2011, the ESIP Community Fellows Program has served as a gateway for early career researchers to connect with the Earth data science community. This session shares 15 years of program successes, including case studies of impactful work led by Community Fellows (30 minutes), then explores new opportunities for evolving the program based on recommendations compiled from a recent survey of the 2025 cohort of Fellows (60 minutes). The session invites anyone who wants to learn about what results in a successful collaboration, who has participated in the Fellows program as a student or mentor, or who wants to be involved in discussions on how best to support early career Earth science data professionals through ESIP.

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

Speakers

Alycia Crall

Debasish Mishra

PhD Student, Texas A&M University

Joseph Lane

Graduate Student, University of Memphis

Kelsey Huelsman

Wednesday July 29, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Location TBA

format json

4:00pm CDT

Main Results from RDA Repo2Pub Working Group: Do We Need to Update the COPDESS Commitment Statement?

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

Location TBA

This session has two parts. Part 1 reports on the nearly finalized RDA Repo2Pub Working Group, which conducted interviews with 8 publishers and 8 repositories to analyze pain points in the Research Publication workflow between publishers, domain repositories, and researchers — identifying cross-stakeholder dependencies and bottlenecks. Part 2 revisits the COPDESS Statement of Commitment (publicly launched January 2014, updated in 2017 with the FAIR data initiative). Since 2017, repository-publisher interactions have become more complex, AI is now integral to research, and there are many more players. The session assesses whether the Commitment Statement needs revision.

Audience
Researchers, repositories, data providers, publishers, and editors

Speakers

Lesley Wyborn

Data Strategist, Australian Research Data Commons

Kerstin Lehnert

Doherty Senior Research Scientist, Columbia University

Kerstin Lehnert is Doherty Senior Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and Director of the Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance that operates EarthChem, the System for Earth Sample Registration, and the Astromaterials Data System. Kerstin... Read More →

Shelley Stall

Vice President, Open Science Leadership, American Geophysical Union

Shelley Stall is the Vice President of the American Geophysical Union’s Open Science Leadership Program. She works with AGU’s members, their organizations, and the broader research community to improve data and digital object practices with the ultimate goal of elevating how research... Read More →

Danie Kinkade

Information Systems Specialist / Director BCO-DMO, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Natalie Raia

Earth Science Cyberinfrastructure Research Principal, University of Arizona

Matthew Warke

Bobby Saba

Wednesday July 29, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Location TBA

format json

4:00pm CDT

Bridging Data Silos: Scaling Digital Resource Cards and Iterative Governance for Soil Data

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

Location TBA

This session reviews and solicits feedback on digital resource cards that describe data holdings/repositories, APIs, semantic resources, and related organizations — specifically cards describing agents (organizations, labs, people), semantics (vocabularies, code lists, ontologies), data holdings and APIs, and publications. These cards capture what data are described by whom, who governs data and semantic resources, and how governance is communicated. Ongoing work from the Soil Ontology and Informatics Cluster, this session gathers feedback and incorporates it into future iterations. The session closes with a brief discussion on how the resources will be governed and maintained.

Audience
ESIP clusters or members of partner organizations who maintain semantic resources or knowledge bases of data holdings and repositories; participants interested in knowledge management and community co-production

Speakers

Cory Levinson

Kathe Todd-Brown

Assistant professor, University of Florida

I'm a computational biogeochemist who uses simulations to look at how soil breaths and links up data to support those models. I'm an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida and co-chair the Soil Ontology and Informatics Cluster as well as the Operational Ethics Cluster at... Read More →

Brandon Whitehead

Graduate student, University of Florida

Wednesday July 29, 2026 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
Location TBA

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

Location TBA

https://www.ornl.gov/staff-profile/michele-m-thornton

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

Rupesh Shrestha

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Doug Newman

Science Data Systems Lead, NASA/ESDIS

NASA ESDIS Systems Engineer.

Geoffrey Stano

GHRC DAAC Scientist, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Morgan Silverman

Michele Thornton

Geospatial Professional, ORNL

Stephanie M. Wingo

ADMG Team Lead, NASA ODSI / UAH

Sara Lubkin

DAAC Engineer, NASA/ESDIS

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

format json

11:00am CDT

NOAA NESDIS Data Technology and Infrastructure

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

Location TBA

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

Jessica Morgan

NESDIS Assisstant Chief Data Officer, NOAA

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.

John Relph

Data Archaeologist, NESDIS NCEI

Data Management, Metadata, Archival, Automation, Dogs

Jay Su

IT Specialist, NOAA/NESDIS/ACIO

Working at NOAA/NESDIS/ACIO bridging science and engineering, focusing on cloud, AI, and web etc.

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 →

Brian Meyer

Associate Scientist, NESDIS/NCEI/COGSD/GSB

Courtney Bouchard

Oceanographer, NESDIS NCEI

Gian Villamil-Otero

Physical Scientist, NOAA/NESDIS/OCS/PMD

Angela Brown

Data Management Specialist, NESDIS OCS/Cloud Management Branch

Inger Kittle

Physical Scientist, NOAA

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

format json

11:00am CDT

The Human Infrastructure: Navigating Career Growth and Resilience in Earth Science

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

Location TBA

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

Aparna Radhakrishnan

OAR NOAA GFDL

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

format json

11:00am CDT

Inform NASA Earthdata Progression and Utility for Earth Science Data Users

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

Location TBA

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

Andi Thomas

Project Manager/ NASA ESDS WSCT Lead, SSAI/ NASA

Tim Frankstone

User Development Specialist, SSAI/NASA

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

format json

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

Location TBA

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

Max Jones

Cloud Engineer, Development Seed

Ethan Davis

Software Engineer, NSF Unidata - UCAR

David Blodgett

Civil Engineer, U.S. Geological Survey

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

format json

2:00pm CDT

Unconference

Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT

Location TBA

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

Aaron Friesz

Technical Community Manager, Earth Science Information Partners

Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Location TBA

General

2:00pm CDT

Unconference

Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT

Location TBA

Speakers

Aaron Friesz

Technical Community Manager, Earth Science Information Partners

Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Location TBA

General

2:00pm CDT

Unconference

Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT

Location TBA

Speakers

Aaron Friesz

Technical Community Manager, Earth Science Information Partners

Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Location TBA

General

2:00pm CDT

Unconference

Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT

Location TBA

Speakers

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

Location TBA

Speakers

Aaron Friesz

Technical Community Manager, Earth Science Information Partners

Thursday July 30, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
Location TBA

General

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

Location TBA

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

Otto Wagner

Brian Terry

Analytical Mechanics Associates

Oguz Yetkin

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

format json

4:00pm CDT

ESDIS vs NESDIS

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

Location TBA

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

Inger Kittle

Physical Scientist, NOAA

Angela Brown

Data Management Specialist, NESDIS OCS/Cloud Management Branch

Christopher Durachka

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

format json

4:00pm CDT

Bridging the Training Divide: A Roundtable on Evolving Earth Science Capacity Building

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

Location TBA

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

Sherrie Morris

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

format json

4:00pm CDT

ESIP's Contribution to Global Data Resilience

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

Location TBA

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:

How safe are my research-dependent datasets?
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:

AGU’s Impactful Datasets Project
The AGU-led Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Global Data Convening project, funded by the Hewlett Foundation
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:

Can a repository survive a crisis? The Development of the Repository Crisis Scorecard; and
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:

Start new projects on Data Resilience; and
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

Lesley Wyborn

Data Strategist, Australian Research Data Commons

Jens Klump

Group Leader Exploration, CSIRO

Alycia Crall

Talisha Sutton-Kennedy

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

format json

9:00am CDT

Epistemic Infrastructure for Responsible and Reliable AI in Earth and Environmental Science

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

Location TBA

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 developing 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, not a finished-products showcase.

Audience
Researchers actively developing epistemic infrastructure components; data producers; model developers; end users; representatives from NSF NCAR, NOAA, NASA, DOE, and university partners

Speakers

Monica Morrison

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

format json

9:00am CDT

iNaturalist and Earth Science with Open Mic!

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

Location TBA

iNaturalist (inaturalist.org) is most likely the most extensive global citizen science effort: over 4 million observers have contributed over 250 million biodiversity observations, many ingested by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (gbif.org). iNat data are cited in over 6,000 peer-reviewed publications, helps ground-truth satellite observations and validate model predictions, and has a fascinating AI/machine learning back end. This session provides a brief overview of iNaturalist and then primarily operates as an interactive open mic, encouraging participants to describe how they are using iNat, share tips, ask questions, and explore new uses. Bring something to share — the intent is to generate learning, catalyze new collaborations, and have fun.

Audience
Universal — especially of interest to educators and creative multi-disciplinary thinkers interested in citizen science, biodiversity, and Earth science data

Speakers

Steve Young

Senior business consultant, EPA (retired); Innovate Inc.

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

format json

9:00am CDT

Mapping from DataCite to Science-on-Schema.org for datasets

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

Location TBA

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

Data Stewardship, Governance, & Resilience

9:00am CDT

FAIR Sailing: Mapping Oceanographic Data from Ship to Shore

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

Location TBA