Data management and archive activities at NCAR's Earth Observing Laboratory

The National Center for Atmospheric Science (NCAR) Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) provides multi-disciplinary international data management support to the scientific community. These activities range from providing comprehensive multi-agency field project data archive support (including EOL facility observations such as aircraft, atmospheric surface and sounding systems) to the planning, logistics, data access/management aspects of a project. Data Management activities include web services and the collection, processing, quality assurance, integration, archival, long-term data access, and stewardship of project metadata and data (both research and operational). EOL generates interoperable metadata to assist users in the discovery and use of these data through various portals such as the NCAR Community Data Portal (CDP) and the Global Change Master Directory (GCMD).

EOL also provides customized project data visualization tools such as the Geographic Information System (GIS) Mapserver and the Field Catalog to assist post-field project analysis. The MapServer is an Open Source development environment for building spatially-enabled internet applications and can display and overlay all types of GIS data such as maps, images and vector data interactively on the web. The EOL Field Catalog is a web-based application that allows the project participants to post (and access) operations and mission/scientific reports, operational and preliminary research imagery/products (e.g. satellite, surface, upper air, radar, oceanographic observations), model output fields, and project documentation. The Field Catalog was initially designed to support real-time data ingest and operational decision making in the field, but it also provides an excellent “browse” tool and project summary for the analysis phase of a project.

EOL continues to provide data archive and access support for over 200 projects over the past 30 years. The EOL Metadata Database and Cyberinfrastructure (EMDAC) system was developed to organize EOL's data management activities and provide interactive data access to the geosciences community. EOL's data holdings now include multi-disciplinary atmospheric, oceanographic, hydrologic, terrestrial, and biological datasets. EOL works with the scientific community with the development and design of new capabilities and requirements in EOL data management support.

There have been a number of data management lessons learned over the years about developing, implementing, and providing data support and stewardship to handle a remarkably diverse collection of data. An overview of EOL's archive and data management services will be presented.