World Data Centers
The World Data Center for Meteorology, the World Data Service for Paleoclimatology, the World Data Service for Geophysics, and the World Data Center for Oceanography are all full members of the ICSU World Data System. Originally established in the United States, Europe, Russia, and Japan, the WDC system has since expanded to other countries and to new scientific disciplines. Its holdings include a wide variety of environmental data that cover timescales ranging from seconds to millennia. These data provide baseline information for research in many disciplines, especially for monitoring changes in the geosphere and biosphere.
At the end of 2008, following the International Council for Science (ICSU) General Assembly in Maputo, Mozambique, the WDCs were reformed. A new ICSU World Data System, established in 2009, built on the 50-year legacy of the WDCs and the ICSU Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Data Analysis Services. The ICSU World Data System concept aims at a transition from existing stand-alone services to a common globally interoperable distributed data system that incorporates emerging technologies and new scientific data activities.
The World Data Center for Meteorology
The World Data Center (WDC) for Meteorology, Asheville is hosted by and operated in conjunction with NCEI, in accordance with the principles set forth by the ICSU World Data System (WDS). The WDC for Meteorology, Asheville acquires, catalogs, and archives data and makes them available to users in the international scientific community as well as to the general public. Data are exchanged with counterparts, including the WDC for Meteorology, Obninsk and WDC for Meteorology, Beijing as necessary to improve access to climate and weather data. The WDC for Meteorology, Asheville, was a founding member of the WDS in 2011 and was a member of the predecessor to the WDS dating back to the 1960s.
- More information on the World Data Center for Meteorology
The World Data Service for Paleoclimatology
The World Data Service for Paleoclimatology (formerly the WDC for Paleoclimatology) archives a broad variety of paleoclimatic proxy data and climate reconstructions, including data for thousands of locations worldwide. These data enable understanding of climate change over decades, centuries, and millennia, and they are freely available without restriction, strengthening international science for the benefit of society. The World Data Service for Paleoclimatology is collocated with NCEI’s paleoclimatology group in Boulder, Colorado.
- More information on the World Data Service for Paleoclimatology
The World Data Service for Oceanography
The World Data Service for Oceanography (formerly the WDC for Oceanography, Silver Spring) is one component of a global network of centers that help facilitate international exchange of scientific data. NCEI hosts the WDS for Oceanography in Silver Spring, Maryland. In accordance with principles set forth by ICSU, the WDS for Oceanography acquires, catalogues, and archives data, publications, and data inventory forms and makes them available to requesters in the international scientific community. Oceanographic data contributed to the WDS for Oceanography become automatically available to scientific investigators in any country. Thus, there can be no restrictions or limitations placed on data exchanged through the ICSU World Data System.
- More information on the World Data Service for Oceanography
The World Data Service for Geophysics
The NOAA/National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), formerly National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), operates the World Data Service for Geophysics (WDS) under the International Council for Science (ICSU). The WDS for Geophysics, located in Boulder, Colorado, manages global geophysical, sea floor, geomagnetics, solar-terrestrial physics, and natural hazards, including tsunami, data. The WDS for Geophysics was a founding member of the WDS in 2011 and was a member of the predecessor to the WDS dating back to the 1950s.
- More Information on the World Data Service for Geophysics.
- More Information on the WDS Geophysics: Our Mission, Programs and Products.
Core Trustworthy Data Repositories Requirements (CTDRR) Compliance Documents
NOAA Administrative Order 212-15
This NOAA Administrative Order (NAO) establishes the Department of Commerce (DOC) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Environmental Data Management Policy. This policy provides high-level direction that guides procedures, decisions, and actions regarding environmental data and information management throughout NOAA.
NOAA Environmental Data Management Committee (EDMC) Data Management Planning Procedural Directive
The EDMC coordinates the development of NOAA's environmental data management strategy, and policy, and provides guidance to promote consistent implementation across NOAA, on behalf of the NOAA Observing Systems Committee and NOAA Chief Information Officer Council. The EDMC Data Management Planning Procedural Directive supports NAO 212-15 by providing detailed guidance on what agencies in NOAA are required to write Data Management Plans for data production and collection programs and systems.
NESDIS is NCEI’s parent organization. The purpose of NPD 6010.01A is to define requirements for the management of data and information generated by NESDIS Observing Systems and associated Data Management Systems, and thereby ensure that NESDIS Environmental Data are properly planned and supported throughout their life-cycle. This document also designates NCEI as the official archive of NOAA.
The NESDIS_2016 5-Year Strategic Plan
This plan documents the NESDIS long-term commitment to provide secure and timely access to global environmental data.
This document specifies the retention schedules for the various types of environmental data:
NCEI Archive Collecting Policy
General policy and guidance for collecting and archiving data at NCEI.
2013_US Open_Data_Policy_-_Managing_Information_as_an_Asset
Memorandum (M-13-13) from the Office of Management and Budget directs US federal agencies to “manage information as an asset throughout its life-cycle to promote openness and interoperability, and properly safeguard systems and information” and to make “information resources accessible, discoverable, and usable by the public.”
NOAA Procedure for Scientific Records Appraisal and Archive Approval
This document defines the procedure that NOAA will use to identify, appraise, and decide what scientific records are preserved in a NOAA archive. The procedure applies to accepting or rejecting newly acquired scientific records for a NOAA archive and also to retaining or disposing of existing records already held in a NOAA archive.
