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Long
Version of the Data Submission Guidelines
1. Introduction
2. Physical, Chemical and Biological Data
3. Data Submission Policies and Guidelines
4. Data Documentation
5. Media Information
6. Data Submission Format
7. Unusual Data Submissions
8. How to Submit Data to NODC
1. Introduction
The National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) is the United
States facility established to acquire, process, store, and disseminate
oceanographic data from the United States and other countries. The NODC
operates as a component of the National
Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) of
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The NODC's U.S. data holdings include unclassified data collected by Federal
agencies including the Department of Defense (primarily the U.S. Navy);
State and local government agencies; universities and research institutions;
and private industry. The NODC does not conduct any data collection programs
of its own; it serves solely as a repository, dissemination, and analysis
facility for data collected by others. A very large portion of the data held by NODC is of foreign
origin. We acquire foreign data through direct bilateral exchanges with
other countries and organizations, and through the facilities of
World Data Center for Oceanography, Silver Spring. WDC (Oceanography)
is operated by the NODC under the auspices of the U.S. National Academy
of Sciences. It is one of the discipline subcenters within the World Data
Center System that fosters international exchange of scientific data under
guidelines issued by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU).
Each Year NODC responds to thousands of requests from users
in the United States and around the world. NODC data support research
and development in ocean resource development, marine environmental assessment,
national defense, theoretical oceanography, ocean engineering, etc. As
a service organization, the NODC welcomes inquiries from all potential
users of marine data and data products.
The NODC provides data management services (acquisition,
processing, quality control, archival, distribution) for physical, chemical
and biological data from the world ocean and adjacent waters. Certain
types of digital data products, such as oceanographic atlases, are archived
and distributed by NODC also. The NODC accepts such data extending landward
to the coastal limits of tidal influence in estuaries and rivers. NODC's
primary interest is data from the sea surface to the sea floor. Air-sea
and bottom interface data are accepted when directly related to water
column or biological measurements. Other such data related to marine meteorology
or to marine geology and geophysics are archived respectively by NODC's
sister centers, the National Climatic
Data Center (NCDC), Asheville, N.C., and the National
Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), Boulder, Colo. Sea ice data are archived
by the National Snow and Ice Data Center
(NSIDC), which is operated for the NGDC by the University of Colorado,
Boulder, Colo. When received, NODC routinely forwards meteorological,
geological, geophysical and ice data to the appropriate data center.
2. Physical, Chemical and Biological Data
Physical Oceanographic Data
The NODC concentrates on acquiring physical data of value
to a broad spectrum of secondary users. These include measured values
of temperature, salinity, ocean currents, winds and wave spectra, pressure,
light transmission, fluorescence, sea level, etc. These measurements are
taken from a variety of samplers, sensors, and platforms, e.g. XBT, AXBT,
CTD, thermistor, moored current meters, drifting buoys, subsurface floats,
acoustic doppler current profiler (ADCP), other current profilers, inverted
echo sounder, tide stations, transmissometer, remote sensors on earth
orbiting satellites.
Chemical Oceanographic Data
The NODC acquires data on naturally-occurring and anthropogenic
chemical substances. These data include observations from the water column,
biota and interstitial waters of marine sediments.
Principal data of interest include: dissolved gases, pH,
alkalinity, nutrients, dissolved organic and inorganic matter, particulate
organic and inorganic matter, trace metals, and marine pollutants.
Biological Oceanographic Data
The NODC is especially interested in data on the geographic
and temporal distribution of all groups of marine biota, their standing
crop measurements, and other fields contained in NODC's standard biological
data formats.
The NODC receives and holds data on: primary organic production;
plant pigment concentrations and distributions; metabolic products in
sea water, e.g. ATP, urea; geographic, temporal, and vertical distribution,
abundance; biomass, etc. of marine organisms (all taxonomic groups from
virus particles to marine mammals); population, community and ecosystem
surveys and monitoring programs.
Except when required by special NOAA program interest,
NODC does not acquire biological data that are not directly related to
ecosystem dynamics, e.g. cell and molecular biology, physiology, fisheries
statistics, embryology and development, morphometry, etc. Data on substratum
characteristics are acquired and archived by NODC only when they are included
as habitat descriptors of benthic communities or as part of water column
related studies.
3. Data Submission Policies and Guidelines
The Federal Ocean Data Policy requires that appropriate
ocean data and related information collected under federal sponsorship
be submitted to and archived by designated national data centers. Funding
agencies, with assistance from the centers, identify the data and require
their principal investigators to submit these data within specified time
periods.
National centers receiving these data will assure that:
inventories of data received are available to funding agencies; archived
data and related information are available to secondary users in a timely
and efficient manner; and these data are preserved and properly managed
to assure their quality.
The NODC Data
Acquisition Specialist will be very happy to assist investigators
with submitting their data. The NODC will work with them to assure that
the data and related information will be submitted in a mutually agreed
upon format, medium, and computer representation of characters.
It is the ultimate responsibility of the investigator to
submit high quality data. Problems usually arise, not with the quality
of the scientific measurements or observations, but with the organization
of the data. Examples include: omitted critical information (location,
depth, date/time, etc.); inconsistencies within formats; untranslated
codes; or "hidden" characters; incompatible record lengths; etc. Resource
constraints may result in data sets being returned to the investigator
for correction and resubmission if problems cannot be solved within a
reasonable time.
4. Data Documentation - Metadata
In order for secondary users of marine data to interpret,
assess and evaluate them, the NODC collects and provides access to information
(documentation) pertinent to the digital data in the archives. Data documentation
includes: complete descriptions of what parameters/observations were measured;
how they were measured/collected; where and when they were collected (latitude,
longitude, GMT, depth(s), altitude(s)), and other geographic descriptions;
the data collector or principal investigator; collecting institution/agency
and platform; collecting/measuring instrumentation; data processing and
analyses methodologies; description of units, precisions and accuracies
of measured parameters; descriptions of the data format and the computer
compatible media submitted. The NODC also solicits references to literature
which have pertinence to the data (both published and grey literature).
NODC solicits the cooperation of data submitters to provide
descriptive materials, preferably in digitized form, as an electronic
appendage of the data. Most data submitters use word processing systems
to prepare data reports, methods manuals, cruise narratives, data processing
procedures, data evaluations, etc. It is easy and inexpensive to send
NODC this documentation in "electronic" form (in ASCII) via the Internet.
In summary, the minimum documentation
requirements sought by the NODC are:
- Name, address, telephone and fax numbers of responsible data submitter
organizations
- Name of principal investigator(s) with telephone, e-mail addresses,
and fax numbers
- Program, project, expedition name
- Funding agency, grant/contract numbers., date
- Data collectors' identifying numbers, e.g., cruise and leg numbers,
cast numbers
- Ship or other platform type, name/call sign
- Dates (GMT) of data collection (begin-end)
- Geographic location-latitude(s)/longitude(s)
- Objectives of data collection effort
- Data parameter(s)
- type
- units
- precision
- observation methodology
- instrument/gear identification or description
- analysis methodology
- data processing/reduction methodology
- explanations of data quality flags
- citations of relevant publications and grey literature
Methods descriptions may be in the form of a bibliographic citation for
published literature.
5. Specifications for Submitting Data on Magnetic and Optical Media
The NODC accepts data in fully processed form on magnetic
or optical media whose physical characteristics are compatible with the
NODC computer systems (WIN, NT, UNIX, LINUX). The NODC strongly prefers
to receive data in ASCII character representation by FTP.
If you mail in your data, CD-R (recordable compact disc) is an acceptable
media. Magnetic media information is listed below. If you have other media
not listed here, please contact the Data
Officer for helpful information.
- Diskette or ZipDisks™:
-
-
Type of operating system used to create the files
-
Types of files (e.g. ASCII, WordPerfect, MS Excel);
ASCII preferred
-
Directory/subdirectory structure
-
Number of files and record lengths
-
Packed files should be self-extracting or diskette
should contain
the unpacking software.
-
DOS ASCII files should have carriage control/line-feed
after each record.
-
-
Density (specify)
-
Brand and series number of computer on which the tape
was written
(including operating system)
-
Number of files and record size/blocksize
-
Directory/subdirectory structure and type of files.
File type should be ASCII unless prior arrangements have been made.
-
-
Brand and series number of computer on which the tape
was written (including operating system)
-
Number of files and record size/blocksize
-
Directory/subdirectory structure and type of files.
Should be ASCII unless prior arrangement have been made.
-
-
Field name (use and meaning)
-
Beginning position from 1, measured in bytes
-
Length in bytes
-
Units
-
Precision (implied or included decimals)
6. Data Submission Format
Well documented data are acceptable in non-NODC format,
if in ASCII form. Prior discussions with an NODC data specialist are essential
to ensure an acceptable format. NODC standard
formats (written in ASCII) are available on the NODC Web site if you
choose to put the data in one of those formats.
NODC also provides an anonymous public area reserved for
electronic transmission of data over Internet via FTP.
See the FTP Guidelines
At the present time, the NODC accepts expendable bathythermograph
(XBT) strip charts. These temperature/depth couplets are digitized by
commercial contractors. However, submission of strip charts and other
analog records is not encouraged if digital data are available.
7. Unusual Data Submissions
If an investigator wishes to submit data of a type or
medium not normally acquired by the NODC, please make arrangements with
the NODC prior to submission. Within the limits imposed by available resources
and the NODC mission, NODC will accommodate data of special interest.
If the data warrant such action, capabilities to handle them will be developed.
8. How to Submit Data to NODC
The investigator should contact the
NODC Data Officer or the appropriate NODC
Liaison Office in his/her region in order to initiate and facilitate
the data submission process. (This can be done after following the online
data submission instructions). If needed, the
NODC maintains a network of field liaison officers who will provide guidance
and assistance to investigators with submitting data to the NODC. The
first contact, however, may be initiated by the NODC, acting upon information
provided by a scientific program management office, funding agency, or
other sources of data collection activities.
The NODC Liaison Officer may work with the investigator
on data submission formats and associated information, documentational
requirements, agency data management requirements, transmission media,
etc. Investigators will be given assistance also on their data needs from
NODC's data holdings and specialized products and services.
Upon receipt and acceptance by NODC, each data set is copied
and preserved in original format. An investigator may request a copy of
the data as it appears in the NODC archive. Your data can also be obtained
through an online system known as the Ocean Archive System once it has been offically archived at NODC.
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