Abstract
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research to
operations (R2O) experiment called the Big Data Project (BDP) was
envisioned as a scalable approach for disseminating exponentially
increasing NOAA observation, model, and research datasets to the public
using commercial cloud services. At the start of the project, during the
concept development phase, it was unclear how the specifics might work
so a spiral development approach was adopted. It was expected that the
number of data sets would increase, and the data extent would grow to
cover complete records of some holdings, and that format experimentation
would be needed to determine optimal cloud offerings. This dissemination
model would require a new way for the BDP and NOAA to engage with
end-users, who could range from large enterprises to small businesses
and individuals. The BDP was expected to change the game-not just by
reaching a broad and diverse set of users but by encouraging new ones.
As Dr. Kathy Sullivan, former NOAA Administrator under whom the BDP
began, noted, “The agency’s aim is to ‘spur innovation’ and to explore
how to create a ’global economic return on investment” (Konkel, 2015).
This Chapter describes the journey of BDP as it developed, transitioned
and evolved from an experiment to an operational enterprise function for
NOAA, now known as NOAA Open Data Dissemination (NODD). Obstacles to the
Public’s Use of NOAA Environmental Data NOAA’s mission is to understand
and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts, to share
that knowledge and information with others, and to conserve and manage
coastal and marine ecosystems and resources. The agency takes seriously
the need for communication of NOAA’s research, data, and information for
use by the Nation’s businesses and communities to allow preparation,
response and resilience to sudden or prolonged changes in our natural
systems. This includes climate predictions and projections; weather and
water reports, forecasts and warnings; nautical charts and navigational
information; and the continuous delivery of a range of Earth
observations and scientific data sets for use by public, private, and
academic sectors (NOAA About our agency, 2021).