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NASA’s OCSDO: Creating a Culture of Innovation and Collaboration

Supercomputing
Satellite image of Hurricane Idalia in August 2023.
With the Prithvi WxC weather-climate foundational model, researchers will be able to support many climate applications that can be used throughout the science community. These applications include detecting and improving models for severe weather patterns or natural disasters such as hurricanes. NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image of Hurricane Idalia in August 2023. NASA Earth Observatory

The Office of the Chief Science Data Officer (OCSDO) within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) plays a pivotal role in advancing transformative science. Established in 2021, the OCSDO focuses on identifying and fostering collaborations in data, computing, and analytics across NASA’s Astrophysics, Biological and Physical Sciences, Earth Science, Heliophysics, and Planetary Science Divisions.

Led by Kevin Murphy, Chief Science Data Officer, the OCSDO collaborates with the five science divisions to drive innovation in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and data science. The OCSDO is committed to fostering cutting-edge data practices, open science, and the continuous evolution of scientific data and computing systems. By ensuring NASA’s scientific data are accessible and usable by researchers worldwide, the OCSDO contributes significantly to scientific progress.

These transformative AI models are reshaping data accessibility by significantly lowering the barrier of entry to using NASA’s scientific data. Our open approach to sharing these models invites the global community to explore and harness the capabilities we’ve cultivated, ensuring that NASA’s investment enriches and benefits all.

Kevin Murphy,
NASA Headquarters

Quick Facts

  • The OCSDO oversees SMD’s scientific data and computing capabilities by enabling efficiencies and meeting strategic needs across science divisions and research communities.
  • The OCSDO enables transformative science across SMD by providing inclusive support for the adoption of open science, innovative data science, and the overall advancement of scientific data and computing systems.
  • Through a Space Act Agreement, SMD's collaborative effort led to the rapid development and release of the Geospatial Foundation Model within six months. The collaboration set a precedent for similar future activities to provide specialized AI and machine learning (ML) expertise and substantial computational resources.
  • The OCSDO is developing strategies and activities to support the use of advanced data science techniques, including AI/ML, to meet SMD's science objectives.

Researchers

  • Andrew Mitchell, NASA Headquarters
  • Kevin Murphy, NASA Headquarters

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