This data is needed for scientists to better understand longer-term environmental variations in the Arctic and is vital to our efforts to model and predict future change and its human impact.
A huge amount of new-to-science data is contained in ship logbooks and other original documents that have been preserved by the U.S. National Archives (and other repositories) for generations. This project provides access to this data through collaboration between NOAA, the U.S. National Archive and Records Administration (NARA), and thousands of citizen volunteers participating in the Old Weather project.
The weather and climate data extracted from manuscript logbooks will be incorporated into existing or new climate datasets such as the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS), for example, and will provide the observations needed to produce globally comprehensive long-period reanalysis datasets like the Twentieth Century Reanalysis (http://go.usa.gov/XTd).
In addition to environmental data a vast quantity of historical information will also be made accessible to researchers and the general public. Original documents will be viewable here and on the National Archives website. After Old Weather transcription new search and visualization techniques can be applied to this resource that will draw out the stories that connect people of today to the places and people important to their own communities and families in the past.
Acknowledgments: Support for the Arctic Rediscovery Project is provided by North Pacific Research Board (NPRB). Many partners and collaborators have made indispensible contributions to the project.
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