US CLIVAR seeks comments and input from the science community on the draft white paper “Summarizing Weather, Climate, and Earth System Observational Data Sharing Needs for Research and Education.”

The document is intended to (1) raise community awareness of US federal agency decisions to restrict access and sharing of observational data sets through recently established commercial data buys and (2) articulate data needs and benefits of federal commitments to free, open, and unrestricted observational data access and exchange for scientific research and education.

Developed by a writing team charged by the US CLIVAR Scientific Steering Committee, the draft white paper incorporates inputs received through consultation with members of the US CLIVAR organization as well as feedback from members of the scientific community collected through two Town Halls. Suggestions from this open review period will be considered in preparing the final publication.

Download the draft white paper and enter your comments here (Google d oc). The document is intentionally concise, so it is a quick read at just eight pages in length. Please provide comments and suggest text changes on the current draft by Monday, March 15, 2021.