Ad Hoc Teams

The Engagement Task Team developed a USGEO Engagement Plan, which answered two specific National Plan actions:

• Develop an engagement plan to understand and mitigate the constraints of coordination within the Earth Observations Enterprise.
• Create opportunities for the Earth Observations Enterprise to provide feedback during the formulation of significant new observing systems.

The Framework Task Team developed a USGEO Framework for Interagency Coordination, which answered a National Plan action to “Develop a framework and guiding principles for USGEO that will improve interagency coordination on Earth observation investment decisions.”

The Innovation Task Team developed a series of recommendations to answer two specific National Plan actions:

• Perform a feasibility study to advance the Earth Observations Enterprise through activities such as accelerators, incubators, and industry clusters.
• Work together to scope an open-competition program that combines innovative Earth observation data sourcing, including identifying pathways for development and metrics to recognize and measure incubate success.

The Commercial Task Team looked at two National Plan actions:

• Work with commercial data providers and analytics companies to develop a set of best practices for commercial data buys.
• Work with commercial providers to understand issues, agency practices, and policies that foster development of small and medium businesses and start-ups.

The Commercial Task Team has developed three documents:

• an internal “Reference Guide for Environmental & Geospatial Data Acquisitions”
• an internal list of Environmental Data Purchased/Obtained from Non-Federal Sources
• a public document on “United States Government Commercial Earth Observations Data Purchases: Perspectives from the Earth Observations Enterprise”

United States Government Commercial Earth Observations Data Purchases: Perspectives from the Earth Observations Enterprise

USGEO also coordinated with the Centre for Spatial Law and Policy, and Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), to host a virtual Tabletop Exercise on Data Licensing Challenges in October 2021. Participants included legal and technical experts from the private, public, and academic sector, focusing on wildfires as a use case.

The Land Imaging Task Team conducted a Land Imagining Architecture Study which answered a National Plan action to “Identify shared agency needs related to land imaging and evaluate options for optimally addressing with current financial resources through increased agency coordination.”

The EO Risk Task Team is working to provide a prioritized list to the White House Office of Science Technology Policy (OSTP) of Earth observation systems that are likely to be at risk in the next 2- 3 years.

The GEO Value Group is working to address two National Plan actions:

• Collect current agency-commissioned economic studies and synthesize the state-of-knowledge on the economic value of Earth observations, including their return-on-investment, ability to accelerate innovation, and contributions to economic growth.
• Develop a catalog of ways to quantify the social and economic value of Earth observations. Collect, catalog, and publish qualitative narratives and quantitative examples on the benefits of Earth observations.