Improving the Availability of Space Research Spatial Data

Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems 20(2), 64-77, 2022 IMPROVING THE AVAILABILITY OF SPACE RESEARCH SPATIAL DATA* Zvonimir Nevistić** and Željko Bačić 1University of Zagreb, Faculty of Geodesy 1Zagreb, Croatia DOI: 10.7906/indecs.20.2.1 Regular article Received: 14 January 2022. Accepted: 3 March 2022. ABSTRACT The rapid development of space technology and the increased interest in space exploration have resulted in the intensive observation of celestial bodies, mostly in the solar system, over the past decade with the prospect of an upward trend in the future. Large amounts of collected data on space bodies impose the need to develop the Spatial Data Infrastructure of Celestial Bodies at the general level to enable standardized organization and storage of these data, and their efficient use and exchange. To approach the development of such an infrastructure, it is necessary to investigate what data, as well as how and to what extent, are collected through space observation. It is also necessary to investigate how this data can be obtained. This paper provides an overview of planetary spatial data archives, data storage and retrieval methods, and their shortcomings in the context of easy search, download and interpretation of data, all with the aim of establishing Spatial Data Infrastructure of Celestial Bodies that would make space data more accessible to the public and non-planetary scientists. KEY WORDS planetary data, spatial data infrastructure of celestial bodies, SDICB, space data archives CLASSIFICATION JEL: C89 *This is the extended version of the abstract published in: Vujić, M. and Šalamon, D., eds.: Book of abstracts of the National Open Data Conference. University of Zagreb, Faculty of Traffic and Transport Sciences,*Zagreb, 2021. **Corresponding author, : , + 385 1 4639 538 **University of Zagreb, Faculty of Geodesy, Kačićeva 26, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia Improving the availability of space research spatial data INTRODUCTION Today, with the advancement of technology and the widespread use of the Internet a lot of information is easily accessible to everyone with Internet access, and spatial information is one of the most important elements to support decision-making in many disciplines. Organizations around the world spend millions of dollars each year on the production and use of spatial data [1], and yet there is often a problem of lack of information within organizations to perform certain tasks. To address this issue, organizations often use data from other sources and share data with each other. The large amount of spatial data that appeared in last 15 years does not facilitate their use. On the one hand, it is challenging to find and access spatial databases that are distributed through various portals of government agencies and other web portals [2]. On the other hand, there is a great redundancy of data where money and human resources are spent to collect and maintain duplicate data [3]. This has triggered the development of the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) concept that solves the problem of finding spatial data and reducing their redundancy [4] and enables better data management which can achieve economic and environmental benefits. The SDI concept connects existing spatial data into a single network, and to be successfully implemented, it is necessary to harmonize and standardize existing data sets [5]. The application of this concept provides a basis for searching spatial data, their assessment and application at all social levels and facilitates integration with other data sets. Spatial data are increasingly being collected through space observations. Technological development has enabled numerous scientific studies of planets and other celestial bodies, and today spacecrafts visit more and more planets, satellites, comets, and asteroids. Data collected by space research are of particular interest because their interpretation provides a better understanding of the Earth and its dynamics and provides answers to important questions, such as the impact of global warming [6], provides a better understanding of the solar system and is used to mitigate hazards on Earth and contribute to the development of science in general [7]. Planetary science is one of the fastest growing-scientific disciplines [8] which integrates many other scientific disciplines to determine the origin, physical processes, and other characteristics of objects in space [9]. Today, space data increasingly converges with terrestrial geo-scientific visualizations and analyzes such as GIS and web maps. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) currently has 2 petabytes of space spatial data, and large amounts of data are archived each year by new missions. Space data stored in various archives are not suitable for immediate use, so they are accompanied by metadata to facilitate their use for the non-planetary community [10]. These archives have changed significantly over the past few years. Their primary purpose was to provide data storage for planetary scientists and their research. With the increase in the number of multidisciplinary missions, the number of other scientists and public who want to access this data has increased. The collection and distribution of space data face numerous challenges. One of the challenges is the standardization of data storage methods which is crucial for accurate and precise analysis and scientific research. Today, this problem is of great interest, given that access to data is available to everyone, but there are still no adequate ways of storing data or their distribution and search of data through archives is often limited [11, 12]. To solve these problems, it is necessary to develop standards that would allow interoperability and data exchange between different communities and to create archives that will satisfy all users’ needs and in which will be easy to find, share and interpret data. One solution is development of Spatial Data Infrastructure of Celestial Bodies (SDICB) as an extended concept of traditional (terrestrial) SDI, which should address the 65 Z. Nevistić and Ž. Bačić challenges of collecting, managing, finding, and using planetary data. Such a concept would support research missions in the space community and maximize the value of spatial data collected on planets [13] and other celestial bodies. The SDICB must serve the wider community whose members do not have to be spatial and space data experts and who do not understand all aspects of spatial data storage, retrieval, and use. Currently available solutions are often technology-focused and should instead focus on simplifying data access and improving data usability. This paper provides an overview of planetary spatial data archives, data storage and retrieval methods, and their shortcomings in the context of easy search, download and interpretation of data, all with the aim of establishing SDICB that would make space data more ac (...truncated)