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February 28, 2007

GCRIO Program Overview

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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 9, NUMBER 4, APRIL 1996

REPORTS...
CLIMATE CHANGE DATA

Item #d96apr44

Finding the Forest in the Trees: The Challenge of Combining Diverse Environmental Data, Natl. Res. Council, Committee for a Pilot Study on Database Interfaces (G.B. Wiersma, Chair), 129 pp., 1995, $25 (Natl. Acad. Press).

Uses six case studies to identify the most important data management problems and issues associated with collecting, integrating and analyzing environmental data over various spatial and temporal scales. Also addresses barriers that arise in interfacing data of disparate sources and types; these derive from the data itself, from user needs, from organizational interactions and from system considerations. Emphasizes long-term global change studies.

Item #d96apr45

The U.S. Global Change Data and Information System Implementation Plan [GCDIS], U.S. Office of Sci. & Technol. Policy, Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Research, 159 pp., 1994 (printed May, 1995) (GCRIO).

The GCDIS is the set of individual agency data and information systems supplemented by a minimal amount of new infrastructure. Users include global change researchers, policy makers, educators, industry and citizens. Funding proceeds through respective agency budgets, and coordination will be done through the Interagency Working Group on Data Management for Global Change. Essential to the success of the plan are adoption and implementation of data and information management standards, and adherence to common data and information policies regarding user access.

Item #d96apr46

Earth Science Information Network: Relationship of Consortium to Federal Agencies (GAO/NSIAD-96-13), 27 pp., Oct. 1995. Single copies at no charge from U.S. General Accounting Office, POB 6015, Gaithersburg MD 20884 (tel: 202 512 6000; fax: 301 258 4066; e-mail: info@www. gao.gov).

Prepared at the request of the Committee on Science of the U.S. House of Representatives (Robert S. Walker, Chair). Reviewed the activities of the Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESEN), which was established in 1989 as a private, nonprofit organization chartered by the State of Michigan. As a consortium of university and nongovernmental research organizations, CIESEN has received over $82 million in Federal funds through June 1995 from NASA, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency. Budgetary constraints will cause funding from all but NASA to end. NASA has awarded some of its funds to CIESEN on a noncompetitive basis; this report recommends that the agency should determine whether there is justification for this.

Item #d96apr47

Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center and World Data Center—A for Atmospheric Trace Gases. Annual Progress Report—Fiscal Year 1994, M.D. Burtis, Compiler, 58 pp., 1995 (CDIAC).

Summarizes CDIAC's activities, with descriptions of current activities and accomplishments in each of the center's major organizational units. Among these are collaborating with the People's Republic of China on historical climate data; enhancements to the computing system; archiving data sets; publishing newsletters, reports, catalogs and fact sheets.

Item #d96apr48

. . .Catalog of Data Bases and Reports, M.D. Burtis, Compiler, 194 pp., 1995 (CDIAC).

These are among the areas included: U.S. Department of Energy Global Change Research Program (program reports; research plans and summaries, and technical reports); CDIAC reports; CDIAC numeric data and computer model distribution; USDA reports on the response of vegetation to CO₂.

Item #d96apr49

Preserving Scientific Data on Our Physical Universe: A New Strategy for Archiving the Nation's Scientific—Information Resources, National Research Council, Steering Committee. . .on Long-Term Retention of. . .Records. . .(J. Dozier, Chair), 67 pp., 1995, $25 (Natl. Acad. Press).

Most attention was devoted to data stored on electronic media, and the long-term retention of data in the physical sciences. However, the distinctions made between observational and experimental data and the data management principals developed are broadly applicable to most data in the natural sciences. Recommendations include adoption of the National Scientific Information Resource (NSIR) Federation concept as an integral part of the National Information Infrastructure (NII).

Item #d96apr50

Stratospheric Ozone, CD-ROM, 1994, $49.95 (Lenticular Press).

Contains information from the NASA data base of Nimbus-7 TOMS stratospheric ozone measurements, including daily and monthly maps for the entire globe in the form of "QuikTime" movies, actual ozone measurements, definition of terms, and ozone maps and charts in the form of Encapsulated PostScript files. Suitable as a reference source for students and other appplications.

Item #d96apr51

An Introduction to Atmospheric and Oceanographic Data (NCAR-TN404), D.J. Shea, S.J. Worley et al., 132 pp. Available from Natl. Ctr. for Atmos. Res., POB 3000, Boulder CO 80307 (303 494 1000).

Designed to be a data primer for students as well as those in other fields of research who are interested in analyzing data in the atmospheric and oceanographic sciences. Focuses on broad characteristics of the data sources and data sets most commonly used and the formats used for their archiving. Also includes addresses (conventional and electronic) of several major data centers, and gives acronyms, abbreviations and jargon.

Item #d96apr52

Global Change Master Directory, compiled by NASA. For information on worldwide electronic access, or to list data sets in the GCMD, contact J.N. Scialdone, Hughes-STX Corp., 7701 Greenbelt Rd., S. 400, Greenbelt MD 20770 (tel: 301 441 4214; fax: 301 441 9486; e-mail: scialdon@gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov).

Contains over 3000 descriptions of available data sets and gives a point of contact for each. Describes data held by NASA and other federal agencies, as well as universities and research centers and other countries.