Shared Cyberinfrastructure for Environmental Observatories: Identifying Common Needs and Barriers

The purpose of this white paper is to propose a process for identifying common needs for cyberinfrastructure (CI) across the major NSF environmental observatories (NEON, OOI, WATERS Network, LTER, AON, Earth Scope) and the barriers that could prevent construction of shared infrastructure to address those needs. While there are numerous other observatory projects, most notably in the physics and astronomy disciplines, we believe there is a broad overlap in the needs of the above mentioned environmental observatory (EO) projects that offers the greatest opportunity for cooperation. Several NSF-sponsored workshops in recent years have identified significant overlapping needs among these observatory initiatives, but to date the cyberinfrastructure developments have been proceeding in a piecemeal fashion through multiple projects sponsored by various directorates, with some ad hoc coordination among the projects. Each observatory has been undertaking its own requirements and evaluation process to determine the CI appropriate for its specific needs.