Zhong Liu
Affiliation: NASA Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) Data and Information Services Center (DISC) and George Mason University, Greenbelt, Maryland
Project Mentee: Simon Ageet
2022 GPM Mentorship Program
Zhong Liu
Name: Zhong Liu
Affiliation: NASA Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) Data and Information Services Center (DISC) and George Mason University, Greenbelt, Maryland
Project Mentee: Simon Ageet
Why are you participating in this program as a mentor?
The GPM mentoring program provides a unique opportunity for one-to-one contact with non-professional users. Such experience can be very helpful to enhance NASA GES DISC data services. According to the ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) surveys for NASA data services, significant improvements in data services are still needed for non-professional user groups (e.g., students).
What is your area of expertise and how does GPM fit into your research?
My area of focus is satellite-based global precipitation products, interdisciplinary data services and research, and data quality. NASA GPM data and other precipitation data (e.g., GPCP) are archived and distributed at the NASA GES DISC. As a member of the GES DISC GPM data support team, I interact with GPM users on a daily basis.
Additionally, I have been involved in several applications to support decision making activities in the past, such as the UN World Food Programme operations in Africa using TRMM precipitation data. Also I have been involved in the development of data services to support the USDA Crop Explorer with precipitation data.
What is a challenge you often notice by users with using remote sensing data? Any advice to overcome this challenge?
Data discovery is one of the top challenges. New users often do not know which dataset to choose for their research or applications. Current data services do not provide sufficient information for self-guided data discovery. Often there are many similar datasets found in the search result. Data services continue to improve. If you have questions, feel free to ask supporting staff at the data repository for advice.