HR: 0800h
AN: IN31B-1156    [Abstracts]
TI: Distributed Data Management for the Long Term
AU: * Duerr, R
EM: rduerr@nsidc.colorado.edu
AF: National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado - Boulder 449 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0449 United States
AU: Parsons, M A
EM: parsonsm@kryos.colorado.edu
AF: National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado - Boulder 449 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0449 United States
AU: Beitler, J
EM: jbeitler@kryos.colorado.edu
AF: National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado - Boulder 449 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0449 United States
AB: Distributed data systems have become the norm in many areas of science. In the Earth sciences, distributed data systems hark back to the early days of the Earth Observing System program of the late 1980's. Even the more recent virtual observatory concept has existed for more than five years. In most cases, these distributed data systems focus on data access. This makes sense because a primary goal of scientific data management is to improve a users ability to do science by making the rapidly growing array of data more accessible and usable. Unfortunately, this focus on data access often means that there is less attention given to data preservation. Yet data access is impossible over the long term without adequate data preservation--data will be lost or no longer readable. Without greater attention to data preservation, we will not realize the promise of current and future distributed data systems. The concept will fail. Preserving data in a distributed environment raises special challenges. We review these challenges and some of the lessons learned during NSIDC's greater than 25-year history as a data center for many international and national programs and projects.
DE: 6620 Science policy (0485)
SC: Earth and Space Science Informatics [IN]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005