NASA Openscapes Champions Cohort

NASA Openscapes Champions is a mentorship and professional development opportunity for research teams using data from NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) and interested in open science and migrating their analytical workflows to the cloud.

Join us for our Spring 2024 NASA Champions Cohort, details below!

Overview

Openscapes is an approach and a movement for doing better science in less time1,2. We help research groups reimagine data analysis, develop modern skills that are of immediate value to them, and cultivate collaborative and inclusive research communities. Openscapes’ mentorship and community engagement approaches center on open data science as kinder science3, enabling increased efficiency and resilience for teams so that their work has more enduring impact.

Openscapes Champions is a remote-by-design mentorship program for environmental and Earth science research teams to explore open data science practices. For NASA Openscapes, research teams will also spend time experimenting and planning what their analytical workflows with NASA Earthdata look like in the Cloud. Participants attend as a team with their research group in a cohort with other teams, together learning how to reframe data-intensive science as a collaborative effort. By discussing open software tooling and communities enabling reproducible research (e.g. R/ Python/ MATLAB, JupyterHub, GitHub, metadata, cloud), participants develop collaborative skills, mindsets, and habits and establish shared practices for increased efficiency in their own research, while contributing to a more inclusive scientific culture.

NASA Openscapes is a project to support scientists using data from NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) as they migrate workflows to the cloud. As part of this work, we will offer the Openscapes Champions program several times from 2024-2026.

Champions Program Details

This NASA Openscapes Champions Cohort will run from April-May 2024! We will meet as a cohort five times over two months, on alternating Wednesdays, with additional optional coworking times.

  • Dates: April 3, 17, May 1, 15, 29.
  • Times: 10:00-11:30 am Pacific Time
  • Where: remotely, via Zoom
  • What we learn: details coming soon, see the 2023 cohort webpage
  • Who: Cohort of 7 research groups that work with NASA Earthdata and interested in workflows in the Cloud. Each team consists of a team lead (faculty, principal investigator, etc) and up to 4 team members of your choice (graduate students, post docs, research techs, etc). Teams can also be collaborating in other ways and do not need to be a formal research group.
  • Cost: Free; this opportunity is supported by NASA funding to Openscapes
  • Expected time commitment: 8hrs/month for 2 months is a minimum expected time commitment. This accounts for 3 hours/month of synchronous Cohort Calls, optional Coworking hours, and team Seaside Chats where you plan with your research group to strengthen shared workflows.

Nominate your team for Spring 2024

Nominate your team by completing this Google Form by March 19, 2024 - date extended. This opportunity is open only to research groups that work with data from NASA Data Centers [DAACs]. Priority will be given to researchers using data from DAACs participating in Openscapes this year: LP DAAC, NSIDC, PO.DAAC, GES DISC, ASDC, ORNL DAAC, ASDC, OBDAAC, LAADS, GHRC, SEDAC, and ASF.

Please submit one nomination per team, preferably by the team lead (faculty, principal investigator, etc). Participants from previous cohorts are welcome. We will confirm participation on a rolling basis.

Learn more

Learn more about the Openscapes Champions Program, NASA Openscapes News, stories from previous cohorts, and FAQs about forming your team. Questions? Contact Openscapes: julia at openscapes.org

2023 NASA Champions Cohort

Meet the 7 science teams who participated in the 2023 NASA Champions Cohort, and learn more about their work in this blog post: Exciting Progress for Research Teams using NASA Earthdata in the Cloud: 2023 NASA Openscapes Champions Wrap-up

2022 NASA Champions Cohort

Meet the 10 science teams who participated in the 2022 NASA Champions Cohort, and learn more about their work in this blog post: From downloading data to Cloud access: NASA Openscapes Champions Wrap-up