NSIDC Cryosphere Seminar

The Importance of Standards in Science and Society: a Short Introduction and Personal Perspective with Dr. Siri Jodha Singh Khalsa

Data is the lifeblood of the sciences. The acquisition, processing and interpretation of data all depend on established specifications describing the systems and procedures that were used in producing, documenting and distributing that data. It can be said that technical standards underpin the entire scientificendeavor. This is becoming ever truer in the era of Big Data and Open, Transdisciplinary Science. The goal of this presentation is to highlight the importance of standards and to provide some insight into how standards are developed. I'll touch on Open Science and standards, the vital role standards play in achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, and how standards help to ensure the ethical applications of Artificial Intelligence. I'll describe the standards development projects that the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society has initiated, which involve the characterization and calibration of hyperspectral imagers, data and metadata produced by synthetic aperture radars and GNSS reflectometry, the calibration of microwave radiometers, methodologies for creating soil spectral libraries, and assessment of the impacts of radio frequency interference in protected geoscience bands. I’ll conclude with a summary of potential future projects and an invitation to participate.

Bio: Siri Jodha Singh Khalsa is a Senior Scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, CIRES, U.Colorado, Boulder. He has published in the fields of boundary layer turbulence, global atmospheric teleconnections, air-sea interaction, glaciology, satellite remote sensing and Earth science informatics. Since 1993 he has supported NASA’s Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) at NSIDC where he performs science evaluation and algorithm support for data products coming from NASA’s Earth observing satellites, as well as leading informatics and cryospheric research projects. He is the chair of the Institute of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Standards Committee and its liaison to the Open Geospatial Consortium and Technical Committee 211 of the International Organization for Standardization.  

Profile: https://nsidc.org/research/bios/khalsa.html

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Meeting ID: 540 961 8610

International numbers available: https://zoom.us/u/MNl8z