Future NASA Earth observing satellites will carry high-precision instruments capable of producing large amounts of scientific data. The anticipated networking of these instrument-laden satellites into a web-like array of sensors creates significant challenges in the processing, transmission, storage and distribution of data and data products - the essential elements of what ire refer to as "Information Technology": Future systems will require the fastest processors, the highest communication channel transfer rates, and the largest data storage capacity to insure that data flows smoothly from the satellite-based instrument to the ground-based archive. In this paper, we discuss those critical information technologies for Earth observing satellites that mill support the next generation of space-based scientific measurements of planet Earth, and insure that data and information products provided by these systems will be accessible to scientists and the user community in general.
