HR: 1350h
AN: U23C-1454    [Abstracts]
TI: The ICSU World Data Center System: Meeting the Long-Term Data Management Requirements of the Global Earth Observation Programs.
AU: * Clark, D M
EM: David.M.Clark@noaa.gov
AF: ICSU Panel on World Data Centers, NOAA/NGDC Code EGC 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305, United States
AU: Minster, J
EM: jbminster@ucsd.edu
AF: ICSU Panel on World Data Centers, Scripps Institution of Oceanography University of California IGPP (0225), La Jolla, CA 92093, United States
AB: The International Council for Science (ICSU) World Data Center (WDC) system, established 50 years ago in the United States, Europe, Russia, and Japan with 27 original centers, has since expanded to other countries and to new scientific disciplines and now encompasses 51 Centers in 12 countries. Its holdings include a wide range of solar, geophysical, environmental, and human dimensions data. These data cover timescales ranging from seconds to millennia, and spatial scales ranging from atomic to galactic dimensions. The WDCs have been very successful over the last five decades in meeting the needs of ICSU programs. They provide baseline information for research in many ICSU disciplines. However, in the next half-century, the WDC system will need to evolve in order to accommodate the changing needs of managing data from the many Earth observation programs of the global scientific community. Advances in information technology, the implementation of new global scientific programs and the rapid increase in global, high-speed network connectivity will require the WDC system to adapt their current infrastructure, reorient their activities and implement new modes of operation. New requirements of existing ICSU programs like the IGBP, the Global Observing Systems (G*OS), the activities of the new international science years (International Polar Year (IPY), IHY, eGY, IYPE) and the implementation of the far reaching, long-term, Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), will make new demands on the WDCs. The near-term response to this challenge will be that the WDCs specifically begin to address the data management needs of the International Polar Year, which is a major international research program that has recognized the need for long-term data stewardship. The other near-term priority for the WDC system is to begin working with GEOSS, which is looking to the WDCs for data management expertise in developing the next generation of international, interoperable Earth observing systems aimed at both scientific and practical applications. The WDCs individually and as a system need to demonstrate their willingness to work with the international scientific community and the Earth Observations community to make the IPY and GEOSS successful not only in terms of current needs, but long-term data accessibility and usability. Generally, under ICSU guidance, the WDC system will respond by modernizing its capabilities; introducing WDCs into new disciplines and/or merging with other relevant ICSU data activities; broadening the System geographically, especially into developing countries; and being more proactive in addressing new requirements from ICSU and the global scientific community.
UR: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/wdc/wdcmain.html
DE: 0525 Data management
DE: 0530 Data presentation and visualization
DE: 9820 Techniques applicable in three or more fields
SC: Union [U]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting