Putting Principle into Practice: Implementations and Challenges of Evolving Data Stewardship Over Three Decades at the NASA NSIDC DAAC

The NASA Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) stewards hundreds of NASA data products representing 5 petabytes of data and covering a wide breadth of science variables and collection methods, from satellite to airborne and ground-based. Many aspects of data stewardship – data formats and structures; technologies and capabilities for storing, distributing, and analyzing data; user needs; and community standards – have changed significantly in the 30 years since NSIDC DAAC’s inception and its first-published data products. This contribution highlights NSIDC DAAC’s recently established data stewardship model where community-driven data principles are part of a broader, holistic approach to develop practical, sustainable, and responsible data stewardship practices. We develop detailed implementation guidelines for data producers and operational data publication teams to steward data throughout the entire life cycle of a data product, including data creation, publication, maintenance, and preservation. This poster was presented at the 2024 January Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Meeting held virtually (Jan. 23-26, 2024).