Energy/Climate Session: Current and Projected Data Needs for the Energy Sector

The GEO mission for the Energy societal benefit area is:

“Close critical gaps in energy-related Earth observations and increase their use in all energy sectors in support of energy operations, as well as energy policy planning and implementation, to enable affordable energy with minimized environmental impact while moving towards a low-carbon footprint.”

Rationale:

The challenging component in the process of accomplishing the USGEO mission is to identify what are the societal and research data needs, in the Energy sector, which are constantly evolving.  A clear understanding of the data and information needs allows us, when overlapped with an inventory of the existing Earth observation data products, to access what are the current data and information gaps. Such study would additionally support the National Strategy for Civil Earth Observations and its forthcoming second Earth Observation Assessment by guiding the identification of potential required new products.

Proposed ESIP Energy and Climate Cluster Strategic Mission: Support the USGEO mission to help close critical gaps in energy-related earth observations by helping to identify the data needs of the energy sector.

Deliverables:

A written report identifying the current and projected data needs for the energy sector.

Process to accomplish goal:

1. Share ESIP Energy & Climate cluster vision with other agency partners and obtain their support
2. Define scope of the study:
   1. Size and space of the energy-sector community to be evaluated;
   2. Type of data and products to be considered (in-situ, satellite, model…)
3. Define the role of the different agencies/partners involved in the process
4. Identify external key-stakeholders to be included in the process.
5. Develop methodology for assessing and collecting data needs
6. Gather and analyze data
7. Write report.