NASA CryoCloud American Geophysical Union Recognition Prize presentation (December 2023)

American Geophysical Union Open Science Recognition Prize presentation. Abstract: The majority of success achieved in innovation stems not from technological advancements but from the accompanying social advancements, such as those in community practices, strategies, morals, educational approaches, and inclusivity. NASA, the US federal government, and numerous US academic institutions have declared 2023 the Year of Open Science, with a mission to innovate the scientific process and expand impact through open science. Many core tools in science—such as computers, software, and data—have begun to undergo a massive evolution, with technological advances changing the realm of possible questions in science. The virtual cloud, where much of this evolution is occurring, offers an opportunity to accelerate open science through tools that can broaden access, enhance the transparency of the scientific process, facilitate reproducibility, and expand inclusivity in science. However, with these emerging technologies, scientists must innovate the social constructs surrounding how we use these tools, collaborate, and build community. To address these challenges, we have built upon state-of-the-art open cloud infrastructure, known as the NASA CryoCloud (cryointhecloud.com) JupyterHub, to create a holistic open science community ecosystem, in this case, curated for NASA Cryosphere communities. Utilizing feedback from over 240 CryoCloud users, small teams, and event organizers, we designed new cloud tools—actively tested by the community—and developed community best practices to streamline scientific workflows, and enhance community collaboration and interconnectedness. Together, these two facets of innovation have worked to make scientific computing more intuitive, cost- and time-efficient, and open for all, facilitating NASA’s open-source, interconnected, and science-accelerated vision of the future.