Connecting Lake Observatories to Space-Based Missions: Global Lakes
Ecological Observing Network (GLEON), NASA Surface Biology and Geology
(SBG), and the Environmental Data Initiative (EDI)
Abstract
Assessing and understanding the extent and trajectory of change in
inland waters is a great challenge, due in part to both differing
methods — and cultures — of agencies that provide synoptic
observations of Earth’s systems as well as the community of lake
scientists whose research generates heterogeneous and distributed in
situ data. Advancements require socio-technological initiatives that
harness the resources of the highly diverse and distributed community of
ecologists, as well as the products and expertise of the satellite
remote sensing community. Here we describe a prototype for linking in
situ and remotely sensed data for lakes through the collaborative
efforts of the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON), the
Environmental Data Initiative (EDI), and NASA. GLEON provides a
community of lake scientists and data from lake observatories. EDI
curates and publishes data and ensures conformity to rigorous FAIR
principles. NASA provides the expertise and workflows to deliver
remotely sensed data products on demand. The integration of the data and
the communities provides a foundation for a new generation of lake
science.