Alvin Toffler defined “future shock” as a state induced by rapid technological change. Changes in technology play a key role in the evolution of Earth Science Data and Information Systems. Every few years, a new technology enters the so-called Gartner’s hype cycle with tremendous interest within both the science and informatics community, with promises to radically improve existing capabilities. Evaluation of these new technologies becomes a key challenge with important questions that need to be addressed objectively. What is this new technology enabling that is new and different? Can one justify the adoption costs with respect to the research returns? Some technologies may require formulating new funding models, especially if there are substantial operational costs associated with providing this new functionality.

The goal of this session is bring together researchers working on cutting edge new technology solutions related to Earth Science Data and Information Systems, share their research and initiate a discussion amongst the practitioners on how it will evolve the existing systems. We are seeking contributions from researchers working on the different elements along the entire data and information processing chain. The research topics within scope for this session include:
- Algorithms for data discovery and analytics
- Tools for analysis and visualizations
- Data systems (architectures and design)
- Storage and Compute Infrastructure