Case Study: UNAVCO makes geoscience data more accessible with Observable

UNAVCO measures the Earth in sub-millimeter detail

UNAVCO, a geoscience nonprofit supported by the National Science Foundation, needed a better way to make its vast and growing geospatial data easier to discover and access. With nearly a petabyte of data per year and decades of sensor records, the organization struggled with data discovery and with explaining its APIs clearly to scientists and researchers.

Using Observable notebooks, UNAVCO built live API demos, interactive data exploration tools, and shareable dashboards for analysis and storytelling. Observable helped UNAVCO rapidly prototype ideas, empower researchers to create their own visualizations, and publish notebooks that make data more accessible and discoverable; the case study notes that community feedback has been 100% positive, though it does not cite a numeric business metric.

UNAVCO

Brooks Mershon

Software Engineer