Towards earth science data at our fingertips: Data management lessons from AmeriFlux and NGEE Tropics

From smartphones to Tony Stark (a.k.a., Ironman), synthesized, searchable data permeate today's culture. In earth system science, however, data synthesis remains challenging. How do we bring diverse earth science data from field notebooks and haphazardly organized spreadsheets to the data management future? I share strategies from an integrated computer and earth science team’s experiences on two projects: (1) AmeriFlux, a network of over 400 independent carbon flux sites with centralized data synthesis, and (2) NGEE Tropics, a multidisciplinary team of empiricists and modelers synthesizing field observations to project carbon dynamics.