The Field Catalog (FC) Application, developed by the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), exemplifies the multifaceted role of information technology in science teams. NSF NCAR has worked with the scientific community to identify and gather relevant atmospheric observations for the past sixty years through field deployments, gathering measurements of fundamental parameters related to various atmospheric phenomena (e.g. hurricanes, severe storms, hail, fog). Within NSF NCAR, the Data Management and Services Facility (DMS) based in the Earth Observation Laboratory (EOL) maintains the FC a web-based application, to facilitate planning, decision-making, field operations, platform tracking, and post-campaign science including data generation. This tool integrates various data products, such as weather forecast models, near real-time remote sensing data, flight planning, and related situational awareness information into one interface. The interface enables all members of the team to access and contribute relevant information for the field campaign improving team coordination, enhancing operational readiness, and improving scientific outcomes.

The earliest field campaign that employed the FC was ACE-1 in 1995 and since then the FC has assisted over 100 science teams on 165 campaigns deployed around the globe, visualizing data from many different instruments and facilitating the creation of almost 12,000 scientific datasets publicly available through EOL’s Field Data Archive (FDA). The FDA is the archive and dissemination platform for the observational data gathered during FC-facilitated field deployments. These high-level metrics help illustrate the FC’s critical role in enabling successful team science.

This paper leverages two concepts found in the team science literature, ‘technology as teammate’ and the role of knowledge sharing in science teams; e.g. Fiore and Wiltshire, 2016 highlight the role technology plays in facilitating team cognition, and Hall, et al 2018 highlight the role knowledge sharing plays in facilitating team collaboration and success. The paper explores how the FC Application illustrates these dynamics of science teams. The paper will present a brief overview of the development of the tool, and how it is used by science teams conducting intensive observation periods in the field. Additionally, we will illustrate the ways that the FC functions as a technology teammate and the ways in which the FC facilitates knowledge sharing for the team. Finally, we will also explore how the FC influences the science that takes place and how the science users influence the evolution of the FC.