By Kate Rich

In 2018, NASA launched the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) into space for scientific research. The satellite enables scientists to measure the elevation of tree canopies, oceans, sea ice, and ice sheets across the globe with its photon-counting laser altimeter. With these data, researchers can further explore how the Earth is changing as the climate shifts. Shortly after the satellite launch in 2019, the first ICESat-2 Hackweek commenced at the eScience Institute with an equally crucial mission: creating systems to access, process, and share ICESat-2 data across academic disciplines. Now entering its sixth year, the ICESat-2 Hackweek had another successful week of exploring software development and scientific datasets in August of 2025. This time around, with the help of SSEC Research Software Engineers and the eScience team, the participants engaged in tutorials, peer-to-peer learning, and project based teamwork focused on software supporting the ICESat-2 mission. Through a series of sessions aimed at fostering collaborative development and streamlining data access patterns within the NASA earthaccess library, attendees were designing resources to help data users understand the appropriate software solutions for their research projects.

When asked about the impact of the hackweek model for researchers, Lead Hackweek Organizer and University of New Hampshire Research Assistant Professor Jessica Scheick shared that she really appreciates it “for the chance it gives us to all come together and learn from each other.” She further explains the value of having the opportunity to crowdsource potential approaches to managing and sharing large datasets among fellow researchers and developers. Ultimately, scientists save time when they can get a sense of what works best for others and explore new tools in a collaborative space.

Among the novel tools and concepts introduced at the hackweek were emergent software packages like Pixi and a participatory design workshop on AI for scientific researchers led by UW’s Scientific Software Engineering Center (SSEC). Here, researchers brainstormed how they might use artificial intelligence in their work and what some of their concerns might be. Luis Lopez, a Research Software Engineer at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) who attended the hackweek, said of the workshop “it’s a good opportunity to get up to speed on what could work for the community” and potentially be valuable for scientific discovery in the future. 

SSEC’s team of software engineers also offered multiple office hours for participants to ask questions and investigate best practices for their research projects. Other sessions involved summaries of the latest advancements in ICESat-2 higher-order products and algorithms. With these resources in hand, participants broke out into project teams to focus primarily on the areas of streamlining data access, speed testing different tools for reading data, and curating existing mission tutorials. Lopez offers that products of the initial 2019 hackweek continue to impact the use of ICESat-2 datasets for the greater scientific community. The 2025 hackweek is a continuation of efforts from previous years and ensures the open-source tools previously developed are updated to include emergent technologies and remain relevant to ongoing ICESat-2 research and its mission goals.  

Six years of hackweeks with the support of the ICESat-2 mission proved successful for scientists seeking more accessible and streamlined datasets to advance their research. However, the work is far from over for the many scientific communities who rely on these datasets to inform our understanding of the world. Scheick summarizes participants’ sentiments from a workshop during the week, articulating that “hackweeks provide a critical technological testbed and opportunity to build community across all aspects of a mission, from bits returned by the satellite to data creators and curators to end users tackling pressing science questions.”