Data Documentation or Organizational Knowledge

Environmental observations are NOAA’s core activity. The Agency operates nearly 100 observing systems in and around the United States across the globe.  The observations made by these systems are critical to responding to current events and feed weather forecast models that are used throughout the United States for planning all kinds of future activities. These observations are the life blood of the organization. It is clearly important that they are trusted by users and sustainable over the long term. Building trust, sustaining observational and computational continuity, and preserving knowledge all depend on the existence of accessible and understandable documentation of observations as well as observing and processing systems. The National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, and many partners are in the process of adopting International documentation standards and adapting them to our data sets and user needs. I will discuss lessons learned from and future directions for this organizational process.