JOSS paper preparation

[danielfromearth]

Manuscript draft

This PR is intended for revisions and improvements to the manuscript draft being prepared for submission to the Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS).

Paper format: The manuscript is prepared as a Markdown (paper.md) file with references in a paper.bib file, following the JOSS formatting guidelines.

For a PDF preview: With docker installed locally, a PDF preview of the draft manuscript can be generated, by running the following from the earthaccess root directory (as described in the JOSS guidelines's docker section):

docker run --rm \
    --volume $PWD/paper:/data \
    --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
    --env JOURNAL=joss \
    openjournals/inara

---

📚 Documentation preview 📚: https://earthaccess--1249.org.readthedocs.build/en/1249/

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[jules32]

Hi! Great work on this Danny! A few commits and some suggestions to consider.

[jules32]

I know some decisions of what not to do were really important. If I remember correctly, it was features that were discussed then developed elsewhere rather than earthaccess. I'd suggest emphasizing this here, it's a big deal!

[danielfromearth]

I put in a blurb about this below ("Contribute upstream, don't accumulate") – could really use more eyes on it!

[mfisher87]

We could symlink this in to our docs!

[mfisher87]

after the v1.0.0 release

I would say let's not wait. We've demonstrated impact and I think that matters more.

Alternatively, let's just go 1.0.0 in the short term and be OK with quickly moving to a 2.0.0 release with breaking changes.

I think both are fine, but the latter sets more a precedent of maintainers taking the user impact of breaking changes too lightly.

[danielfromearth]

after the v1.0.0 release

I would say let's not wait. We've demonstrated impact and I think that matters more.

Alternatively, let's just go 1.0.0 in the short term and be OK with quickly moving to a 2.0.0 release with breaking changes.

I think both are fine, but the latter sets more a precedent of maintainers taking the user impact of breaking changes too lightly.

I'm fine with either too. I also think the decision could be on hold until one of the two things – (i) co-author reviews/revisions, (ii) development for v1.0.0 – is completely ready-to-go.

done

[itcarroll]

Thanks @danielfromearth for all the excellent work on this!

[itcarroll]

don't forget to dig up the award number

[danielfromearth]

@jules32, would you be able to include this?

[JessicaS11]

Suggested change

	title = {{VirtualiZarr}: Create virtual {Zarr} stores from archival data using {xarray} syntax},
	title = {{VirtualiZarr}: Create virtual {Zarr} stores from archival data using {Xarray} syntax},

[danielfromearth]

I think the capitalization is preferred as "xarray" (all lowercase) unless it's at the start of a sentence, based on this discussion and what I see in the xarray docs.

[JessicaS11]

Suggested change

	Earth observation data in the world, used by tens of thousands of researchers, educators,
	Earth observation data in the world, used by tens of millions of researchers, educators,

ESDS metrics, accessed 25 Mar 2026

[danielfromearth]

cool! seems to me like the reference should be added too.

[asteiker]

I was wondering about metrics as well, thanks for adding this reference @JessicaS11 . Though, is more appropriate to say "... used by over ten million researchers..." instead of tens of millions, since I only see 10 mil listed on that page?

[JessicaS11]

Suggested change

	`earthaccess` was created to address this gap: it provides uniform access to NASA
	Earthdata regardless of data storage location, enabling researchers to focus on science
	rather than data engineering.
	`earthaccess` was created to address this gap: it provides uniform access to NASA
	Earthdata regardless of data storage location and handles authentication, credentials, and tokening behind the scenes, enabling researchers to focus on science rather than data engineering.

Not sure what would be better ("data access and authentication"? "API engineering"?), but I'm wanting to change the "data engineering" at the end of the sentence. It might be pedantic, but to me data analysis doesn't necessarily exclude data engineering in the modern world (though I think that's the ideal we're working towards).

[danielfromearth]

maybe something like "...enabling researchers to focus more on scientific interpretation and discovery."?

[JessicaS11]

Suggested change

	The target audience includes Earth scientists, remote sensing researchers, climate modelers,
	hydrologists, ecologists, and any researcher, application developer, or educator who needs
	to work with NASA Earth science data. The library is designed to be approachable for those new to Python -- with a
	The target audience includes Earth scientists, remote sensing researchers, modelers, and any researcher, data user, application developer, or educator who needs
	to work with NASA Earth science data. The library is designed to be approachable for those new to Python -- with a

We could add a more specific list of Earth scientists (hydrologists, ecologists, oceanographers, cryospheric scientists, climate modelers, some other broad categories, etc.) as another sentence (not sure how close to the word limit we are).

[danielfromearth]

sure, that sounds fine to me. How about flipping the order and expanding it to something like...

Suggested change

	The target audience includes Earth scientists, remote sensing researchers, climate modelers,
	hydrologists, ecologists, and any researcher, application developer, or educator who needs
	to work with NASA Earth science data. The library is designed to be approachable for those new to Python -- with a
	The target audience spans the breadth of Earth system science, including atmospheric scientists, oceanographers, cryospheric researchers, hydrologists, ecologists, biogeochemists, land surface modelers, air quality researchers, natural hazards researchers, and agricultural scientists. It also serves remote sensing researchers, application developers, natural resource and environmental decision makers, and educators who work with NASA Earth science data. The library is designed to be approachable for those new to Python -- with a

[asteiker]

I know the list can go on and on but I think another important audience to emphasize is in regards to operational weather and natural disaster monitoring.

[JessicaS11]

Do the tokens still expire after an hour? And if so, I think earthaccess will renew them? If that's the case, I'd suggest adding this to the last sentence ("retrieves and renews temporary AWS...").

[danielfromearth]

That sounds good to me!

[JessicaS11]

Suggested change

	file-like objects for streaming into libraries such as xarray [@xarray], or
	file-like objects for streaming into libraries such as Xarray [@xarray], or

[danielfromearth]

See above comment about "xarray" capitalization.

[JessicaS11]

Suggested change

	University of New Hampshire), private industry (Coiled, Development Seed),
	Goddard, University of New Hampshire, University of Maryland), private industry (Coiled, Development Seed),

[danielfromearth]

@JessicaS11 Perhaps we need to be more specific than "Goddard" here? GES DISC is included in the DAAC listing, so is it the Ocean Ecology Lab that's not yet represented?

[JessicaS11]

@danielfromearth Love this - thank you so much for putting it together!

Sorry it looks like a lot of edits - most of them are pretty minor (grammatical or editorial), with a few suggestions for the text. All that said, none of them are non-starters for me.

[asteiker]

Such great work @danielfromearth - Thank you for spearheading this!

[asteiker]

Suggested change

	(EOSDIS) distributes over 100 petabytes of data across 12 Distributed Active Archive Centers
	(EOSDIS) distributes over 100 petabytes of data across 11 Distributed Active Archive Centers

[asteiker]

Noting for now, but this may be described below: A key feature worth emphasizing is the fact that the code does not need to be modified depending on compute location, which was a notable Earthdata Cloud pain point based on direct user engagement.

[asteiker]

Suggested change

	`us-west-2` region -- where NASA's cloud-hosted data resides. `earthaccess` also supports
	`us-west-2` region -- where data within NASA's Earthdata Cloud reside. `earthaccess` also supports

[asteiker]

Suggested change

	DMR++ metadata [@dmrpp], powered by VirtualiZarr [@virtualizarr] and kerchunk [@kerchunk].
	DMR++ metadata [@dmrpp], powered by VirtualiZarr [@virtualizarr] and kerchunk [@kerchunk], enabling drastic improvements in access performance.

[asteiker]

I was wondering about metrics as well, thanks for adding this reference @JessicaS11 . Though, is more appropriate to say "... used by over ten million researchers..." instead of tens of millions, since I only see 10 mil listed on that page?

[asteiker]

How did you perform this search, @danielfromearth ? I'm interested in a better way to surface research outcomes utilizing earthaccess (see #1216) so maybe your process could be applied somehow here.

[asteiker]

Suggested change

	hand-written NSIDC data-fetching routines with `earthaccess` calls, eliminating
	hand-written NSIDC DAAC data-fetching routines with `earthaccess` calls, eliminating

[asteiker]

Suggested change

	**Multi-institutional development.** Contributors span NASA's Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) — including ASDC, ASF, GES DISC, LP DAAC, NSIDC, OB.DAAC, ORNL DAAC, and PO.DAAC — as well as other federal and academic institutions (USGS,
	**Multi-institutional development.** Contributors span NASA's Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) — including ASDC, ASF, GES DISC, LP DAAC, NSIDC DAAC, OB.DAAC, ORNL DAAC, and PO.DAAC — as well as other federal and academic institutions (USGS,

[asteiker]

Suggested change

	**Integration with the NASA ecosystem.** `earthaccess` is featured in official NASA
	**Integration with the NASA ecosystem.** `earthaccess` is featured in the official NASA

[asteiker]

Suggested change

	Earthdata tutorials, including <https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/data/tools/earthaccess>, has been presented at multiple large professional meetings (including several American Geophysical Union Annual and Earth System Information Partnership (ESIP) meetings), and was the subject of
	Earthdata tools catalog, including <https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/data/tools/earthaccess>, and other NASA Earthdata tutorials, and has been presented at multiple large professional meetings (including several American Geophysical Union Annual and Earth System Information Partnership (ESIP) meetings), and was the subject of