Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue (GODAR)

The Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue (GODAR) Project is sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission?s (IOC) International Oceanographic Data Exchange (IODE) Program in cooperation with the U.S. National Oceanographic Data Center and the collocated World Data Center for Oceanography. GODAR seeks to increase the volume of historical oceanographic data available to climate change and other researchers by locating data sets not yet in digital form and ensuring their submission to one of the national data centers. Recognizing that oceanography is an observational science and that the world ocean is a major component of the earth's climate system it is suggested that the IOC sponsor activities that will result in more complete global oceanographic databases. These activities should be viewed as an enhancement of existing IODE activities. The new and enhanced oceanographic databases will be available without restriction to the international science community. We call this effort the Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue Project (GODAR). To do the most thorough job possible this project must have a lifetime of 5 to 10 years. Funds to support the activities of this project will be obtained through as many sources independent of IOC as possible, including foundations. Data Archaeology is the term used to describe the process of seeking out, restoring, evaluating, correcting and interpreting historical datasets. Rescue refers to the effort to save data at risk from being lost to the science community. Physical, chemical, and biological oceanographic data as well as surface marine meteorological observations are the specific types of data this project will focus on. These are the data types of greatest concern to IODE and climate research activities. Advances in computer technology both hardware and software (e.g., Relational Database technology) now allow for the construction of integrated global oceanographic databases that include widely disparate types of oceanographic data from different oceanographic disciplines.

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Keywords: DATA ARCHAEOLOGY, DATABASES

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Related Topics: International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE)

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