Last Updated:
February 28, 2007

GCRIO Program Overview

Library 
Our extensive collection of documents.

Privacy Policy

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

FROM VOLUME 11, NUMBER 1-2, JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1998

GCC ONLINE...
Data Resources: Part 3 of 3
World Data Centers C1, C2, and D

As described in the last GCC Online Column, the World data Centers (WDCs) operate under the auspices of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) for the benefit of the international scientific community, and provide a mechanism for international exchange of data in all disciplines related to the Earth, its environment, and the Sun. Much of the data relate both broadly and specifically to the topics of global climate change. A complete descriptive inventory of all of the WDCs can be found at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/wdc/.

The World Data Centers do not maintain duplicate collections, but data held in any center is in principle available to any other center. In some cases there may be a charge to cover duplication. For more details see http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/wdca/wdcinfo.html#data.

World Data Center C1 (Europe)
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/wdc/wdcc1/wdcc1.html

Consists of nine independent centers for various disciplines. If no corresponding C2 center exists for a discipline (in Japan or India), the European center is described simply as WDC-C.

• WDC-C Earth Tides (Brussels, Belgium)
• WDC-C1 Geomagnetism (Copenhagen, Denmark)
• WDC-C1 Geomagnetism (Edinburgh, Scotland)
• WDC-C Glaciology (Cambridge, England)
• WDC-C Recent Crustal Movements (Prague, Czech Rep.)
• WDC-C Soils (Wageningen, Netherlands)
• WDC-C Solar Activity (Meudon, France)
• WDC-C1 Solar-Terrestrial Physics (Chilton, England)
• WDC-C Sunspot Index (Brussels, Belgium)

World Data Center C2 (Japan and India)
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/wdc/wdcc2/wdcc2.html

• WDC-C2 Airglow (Tokyo)
• WDC-C2 Aurora (Tokyo)
• WDC-C2 Cosmic Rays (Toyokawa)
• WDC-C2 Geomagnetism (Bombay, India)
• WDC-C2 Geomagnetism (Kyoto)
• WDC-C2 Ionosphere (Tokyo)
• WDC-C2 Nuclear Radiation (Tokyo)
• WDC-C2 Solar Radio Emissions (Nobeyama)
• WDC-C2 Solar-Terrestrial Activity (Sagamihara)

World Data Center D (China)
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/wdc/wdcd/wdcd.html

WDC-D was established in 1988 following discussions between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the ICSU Panel on World Data Centers.

• WDC-D Astronomy (Beijing)
• WDC-D Geology (Beijing)
• WDC-D Geophysics (Beijing)
• WDC-D Glaciology and Geocryology (Lanzhou)
• WDC-D Meteorology (Beijing)
• WDC-D Oceanography (Tianjin)
• WDC-D Renewable Resources and Environment (Beijing)
• WDC-D Seismology (Beijing)
• WDC-D Space Sciences (Beijing)

Correction

One of the hazards of life on the Internet is change—sometimes rapid change. The last GCC Online column (November 1997) contained URLs for the individual data centers in the WDC-A and WDC-B complexes. Within a week of when that issue went to press, ALL of the individual URLs had been changed and no forwarding URLs had been provided. To locate the individual centers of WDC-A and WDC-B the following URLs were valid at press time:

• World Data Center A: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/wdc/wdca/wdca.html
• World Data Center B http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/wdc/wdcb/wdcb.html