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Position Held

• July 1, 2003 - September 10, 2004

Position Overview

User Services Representatives act as the central interface to the scientific user community on behalf of the entire National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). This interface function includes collecting and maintaining user contact and request information, providing and/or coordinating information and data services in response to user inquiries, tracking communication and correspondence, ensuring that inquiries have been satisfied following established procedure, and representing the user perspective in development efforts. Additional responsibilities include participation in working groups and representing User Services in other Data Center tasks and meetings as appropriate.

Duties

1. Handling User Inquiries
   
   
   • Monitors incoming e-mail, telephone, fax, mail and in-person user requests.
   • Interviews requestors to determine and understand their data needs, data or software problems or support requirements.
   • Researches sources and seeks appropriate specialist(s) to obtain information, in order to respond to users.
   • Enters user, inquiry and response information in the online data request tracking system.
   • Ensures delivery of complete and accurate data or information products.
   • Monitors and updates the accuracy of NSIDC mailing lists.
     
     
2. Product Development and Discipline Awareness
   
   
   • Researches data format, content and visualization methods for NSIDC data products.
   • Searches for, evaluates and maintains referral lists of alternate sources of data and information.
   • Participates in NSIDC Product Teams to provide a user perspective and User Services operational viewpoint.
     
     
3. Outreach
   
   
   • Contributes to the development and content of outreach materials such as brochures, catalogs, newsletters, internet postings and exhibit materials.
   • Attends conferences to represent NSIDC products and services, and to interact with the user community.
   • Participates in NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) User Services Working Group.

Products Supported

• Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E)
• NASA Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX)
• Digital Elevation Models (DEMs)
• NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Core System (ECS)
• Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS)
• Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment (PARCA)

Technologies Employed

• ITTVIS Environment for Visualizing Images (ENVI)
• ITTVIS Interactive Data Language (IDL)
• NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Core System (ECS)
• Unix, SSH, Perl, Perl CGI, Fortran 90
• Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Career Milestones

• Completed 548 requests on behalf of users that required correspondence with the user, including general scientific inquiries, product support, and product orders. 240 additional requests required tracking of information but no correspondence with the user.
• Reviewed 43 draft online data set guide documents for various NSIDC product teams (see "Products Supported" above).
• Prepared for and announced the public release of several new AMSR-E, AMSR-E Validation, CLPX, and ICESat/GLAS data sets, including review of data sets, websites, documentation, software, and search-and-order interfaces.
• Attended the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in San Francisco in December 2003 as one of two NSIDC User Services Representatives. Worked full-time at the NSIDC exhibit booth to answer inquiries regarding the cryosphere and to introduce attendees to NSIDC in general. Presented a poster at this conference as first author that outlined various new AMSR-E geophysical data products available from NSIDC [click here to view (0.9 MB)]. Also attended the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in Seattle in February 2004 as one of three NASA Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) associates, working full-time at their exhibit booth to answer inquiries and introduce attendees to NASA earth science data products and services.
• Published an online NSIDC Special Report overviewing the system used to ingest, archive, and distribute NASA data products at NSIDC and to provide a brief overview of remote sensing [click here to view report].
• Wrote software in Perl, Perl CGI, and Perl GD::Graph for automatically generating daily, monthly, and annual statistics and graphical plots for NSIDC's distribution of NASA data products. The software maintains an internal website of statistics and plots and generates daily e-mail notifications.
• Overhaul of the User Services internal website, including several new documentation sites on numerous topics and activities related to User Services, including product team procedures, lists of important scientific books, journals, and articles related to the cryosphere, as well as procedures for viewing binary data with ENVI software.
• Submitted over 20 trouble tickets to NASA's ECS Help Desk in Landover, Maryland on behalf of our user community to help improve the performance and clarity of the ECS system and its public interface: the Earth Observing System (EOS) Data Gateway (EDG). Also involved testing, troubleshooting, and subsequent verification of resolutions.
• Have served on numerous NSIDC hiring committees and provided training to new hirees.

Resumé

• click here

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John Maurer ()