Rob RaskinNASA/Jet Propulsion Labsweet.jpl.nasa.gov

Produce a set of ontologies to improve search and usage of NASA Earth system science observational data

Observation Instrument or model Parameter observed (may be multi-valued) Location Time Data parameters

Faceted (normalized) concepts Physical Property (temperature, pressure, …) Substance (air, water, CO2, …) Earth Realm (troposphere, sea surface,

tundra, …) Living Thing (leaf, human, …) Process (absorption, diffusion, …) Space (Equator, northward, …) Time

Integrative Phenomena (event with space/time extent) Human Activities (carbon emissions, …)

Units Quality Scale/offset Special values

Interpretations of ice, sea, clouds, … Range

For color bar For valid values

Ontology-aided search Enables results without exact keyword

match Any tools built upon OWL

www.PlanetOnt.org collaborative ontology development site to encourage best practices Identify dependencies across ontologies and

provide RSS feed for notification of changes Don’t reinvent the wheel: All concepts have a

characteristic level of abstraction - general concepts should be reused from general ontologies, only specialized concepts need appear in specialized ontologies.

Establish consistent usage of OWL Enable easy comparison of existing ontologies

Establish SWEET as an upper-level Earth science ontology