The Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is a key core capability in NASA’s Earth Science Data Systems Program. It provides end-to-end capabilities for managing NASA’s Earth science data from various sources – satellites, aircraft, field measurements, and various other programs. For the EOS satellite missions, EOSDIS provides capabilities for command and control, scheduling, data capture and initial (Level 0) processing. These capabilities, constituting the EOSDIS Mission Operations, are managed by the Earth Science Mission Operations (ESMO) Project. NASA network capabilities transport the data to the science operations facilities.

The remaining capabilities of EOSDIS constitute the EOSDIS Science Operations, which are managed by the Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project. These capabilities include: generation of higher level (Level 1-4) science data products for EOS missions; archiving and distribution of data products from EOS and other satellite missions, as well as aircraft and field measurement campaigns. The EOSDIS science operations are performed within a distributed system of many interconnected nodes (Science Investigator-led Processing Systems and distributed, discipline-specific, Earth science data centers) with specific responsibilities for production, archiving, and distribution of Earth science data products. The distributed data centers serve a large and diverse user community (as indicated by EOSDIS performance metrics) by providing capabilities to search and access science data products and specialized services.

There are several ways to search for data of interest

* Directory level information from Global Change Master Directory
* Cross-Data Center searches through Reverb, "inventory level interoperability" – uses EOS Clearing House (ECHO) metadata repository
* Tailored client software using ECHO metadata repository
* Data Center-specific search tools

Data Center Search & Order Tools

Each EOSDIS Data Center is distinguished from one another by their specific Earth system science discipline. In addition to the search-and-order capabilities provided by GCMD and ECHO/REVERB, the data centers have individual online systems that allow them to provide unique services for users of a particular type of data. The center-specific systems emphasize data products, services, and data-handling tools unique to the data center.

GCMD - Dataset Directory

The Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) is a directory to Earth science data and services. The GCMD database currently holds more than 25,000 Earth science data sets and services covering all aspects of Earth and environmental sciences. One can use the search box or select from the available keywords to search for data and services.
ECHO - Application Program Interfaces (APIs) for Search and Order

The EOS ClearingHouse (ECHO)

ECHO is a metadata catalog of NASA's EOS data and a registry for related data services (e.g. reformatting, pattern recognition). ECHO's catalog contains more than 3200 data sets held at 12 EOSDIS data centers. Users can access the data and services by using general or community-tailored clients that access ECHO using a series of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) defined using web services.
Reverb - Data and Service Access Client

Reverb

Reverb is EOSDIS's newest web-based client for discovering and ordering cross-discipline data from all of ECHO's metadata holdings. Reverb allows users, including those without specific knowledge of the data, to search science data holdings, retrieve high-level descriptions of data sets and detailed descriptions of the data inventory, view browse images, and submit orders via ECHO to the appropriate data providers.