Addressing the needs of Earth system field programs with a unified service catalog

Data Terra, a French national research infrastructure for Earth system observations, brings together five disciplinary poles—FORMATER (solid earth), AERIS (atmosphere), ODATIS (ocean), THEIA (continental surfaces), and PNDB (biodiversity)—to provide access to diverse environmental data and associated services. Several of these hubs support field and observational programs, yet researchers often face uncertainty about the tools, services, and resources available to assist them before, during, and after their field program. This lack of visibility leads to fragmented practices and repetition of efforts across domains.

To address this challenge, we initiated an inter-pole collaboration to develop a catalog of services relevant to the needs of scientists for the entire life cycle of their field program. These services include software tools, applications, data management solutions, user support, technical assistance, and training resources. The goal is to provide a coherent and easily navigable overview of the resources offered by Data Terra and its collaborators, free from disciplinary boundaries.

This effort is built on a GeoNetwork-based catalog, expanding it to accommodate cross-domain field program needs. A new dedicated thesaurus has been created to classify the diverse resources, ensure consistent tagging, and allow an eased search and findability of the resources. By structuring needs and services in a shared semantic framework, we aim to enhance discoverability, foster interoperability between poles, and better support the scientific communities conducting environmental field programs.