Using Architecture Modeling to Assess the Societal Benefits of the Global Earth Observation System-of-Systems

An enterprise architecture for the Earth science activities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was developed to assist in assessing the capacity of scientific instruments in meeting the needs of society. It can also help them develop the right investment strategies and help scientists and engineers in their planning for system development, especially for complex space-based environmental sensors. This architecture model can be easily extended to the Global Earth Observation System-of-System (GEOSS). In fact, it was constructed with GEOSS in mind to ensure that NASA's observation systems can be readily mapped into the GEOSS structure. The architecture contains about 3000 elements that are involved in Earth science research: observation sources, sensors, environmental parameters, data products, mission products, observations, science models, predictions, and decision-support tools. The science models use observations from the space-based instruments to generate predictions about various aspects of the environment. These predictions are used by decision-makers around the world to help minimize property damage and loss of human life due to adverse conditions such as severe weather storms. The architecture is developed using both traditional and nontraditional systems engineering (SE) tools and techniques. This paper describes additional methods needed for the SE toolbox.