New Observing Strategies Testbed (NOS-T) Development and Demonstration

The New Observing Strategies Testbed (NOS-T) provides a computational environment to prototype new Earth science space mission concepts, validate new observation technologies independently and as an integrated system, enable comparisons of competing technologies, and socialize new technologies and concepts with the Earth science community. Prior NASA Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) funded research designed and developed the NOS-T Framework and released version 1.1.5 of the NOS-T Tools library as a reference implementation including example test cases under an open-source license. The objective of this project is to implement feature additions to the NOS-T Framework and to support and maintain the platform for demonstrations led by new users in the AIST community, particularly for new NOS projects selected in the AIST-23 solicitation. New NOS-T features to be realized during this project include: 1) implementation of robust authentication and authorization mechanisms to secure client connectivity to NOS-T services including the broker and monitor, 2) definition of reliable messaging interfaces for applications with intermittent connectivity including field devices or computational facilities with non-persistent network connections, 3) definition of standard topics and payload syntax to enable common functions such as geospatial visualization of mission operations across test cases, and 4) configuration of the live NOS-T platform to comply with new Science Managed Cloud Environment (SMCE) security policies regarding static code inspection and penetration testing. Ongoing community support and maintenance of the NOS-T platform for new users includes: 1) routine host patching and updates to comply with SMCE security policies, 2) configuration of access control list rules and credentials for new users, 3) maintenance of user-facing NOS-T components including the broker and monitor, and 4) software engineering support for new users to design and develop components or demonstrations using the testbed. This project anticipates supporting six full community-led demonstrations of new Earth-observing scientific mission concepts or technologies during the period of performance. Demonstration support provides modeling and simulation guidance to users to develop the scenario and mission concept, specify component-level message structure and operational behavior for dynamic interactions between components (space-based, airborne, or terrestrial observatories, communication networks including ground stations, forecasting models, etc.), and support development of an event-driven software implementation for each component. Additionally, support provided configures NOS-T platform access, manages individual and integrated test run configuration and execution including debugging, and manages demonstration execution. Results of the NOS-T platform and lessons learned from demonstrations will be disseminated at the annual NASA Earth Science Technology Forum (ESTF) and IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) and in archival publications.

Advance Earth system science knowledge through the identification, development, and demonstration of innovative information systems technologies

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