Stakeholders Engagement Program

One of the key goals of the OPERA project is to engage with interested satellite data users and members of the broader science and applications community, most notably our primary stakeholders in the federal agencies that require the three OPERA products. Within our primary stakeholders, two sub-groups can be distinguished:

• Managers at a federal agency whose responsibilities include ensuring that the information contained in the OPERA products meets the needs of the agency;
• Users at a federal agency who can directly use the OPERA products for applications within their agency.

Our Stakeholder Engagement Program (SEP) recognizes that different levels and types of engagement are needed for each of these two main stakeholder groups, and will be proposing engagement activities accordingly. In addition to this core group of stakeholders, a broader scope of activities will engage the more diverse community of potential OPERA product users. The federal agencies with identified needs for the three main OPERA data products - DSWx, DIST, and DISP - are within either the USDA or DOI.

For these primary stakeholders, the OPERA SEP will reach out to all the agencies through email at least once a month in advance of the first workshop to form a list of potential contacts. A group of designated users for each product will be identified at the product information workshops to facilitate the dialogue and provide feedback in the following workshops. These groups will aim to be inclusive and will be led by the stakeholders at the agencies who will be using OPERA products routinely once they are released.

OPERA will also pursue opportunities to engage other potential participants within the wider user community. We anticipate that Specific partners from the broader community will fall come from three areas of the community:

• Other Federal Agencies: Federal agency users outside the SNWG Cycle 2 federal agencies listed above. Depending on their specific needs, these agencies could be engaged via the same activities envisioned for the primary stakeholders;
• Science Users: Researchers working to improve algorithms or create derivative products from the OPERA products;
• Application Users: Researchers or practitioners making use of the OPERA products to meet a specific need.

Broader community participants will be selected focusing on diversity of represented applications and people.

• Product Quick Guides: Two-page, summary-level product quick guides created for each of the OPERA products to provide a short overview of the product, a description of how it is created, an outline of potential application areas, and discuss strengths and limitations when using the product. The product quick guides will be hosted at the bottom of this page and disseminated to the broader stakeholder community in hard-copy form as opportunities arise (e.g. at professional conferences).
• White Papers: Potential uses of OPERA data products will be demonstrated via white papers, aiming to describe examples of OPERA products' utility in a specific application. This includes white papers focusing on the monitoring and hazards applications of DSWx, DIST, and DISP products. These white papers will also be available through links at the bottom of this page.
• Workshops: Workshops covering applications and science communities will be held for OPERA stakeholders approximately every nine months, reflecting the staggered timeline for the release of the data. These workshops will provide external partners with updates on the status of the overall project and its specific products, generally covering the following topics:
  • OPERA programmatic updates (all workshops);
  • Interaction with users to identify any changes in the needs and associated applications;
  • Detailed updates on algorithm development and briefings on calibration and validation approaches;
  • Data access through the NASA Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC)—presentation facilitated by the DAAC;
  • Interactive whitepaper demonstration, explanation of metadata, strengths, and limitations, etc.;
  • Invited talks by OPERA stakeholders on their applications, cal/val findings;
  • Conference-style oral and poster science presentations.

The OPERA workshops are virtual, with a few planned to be supported through hybrid (remote and in-person) participation. For in-person workshops, travel grants will be offered to select participants within the federal statute and regulations in order to improve participation from diverse communities. The workshop activities will be recorded and made available through this page to reach a larger audience.