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NSF 05-39, Arctic Research in the United States, Volume 19, Spring

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NSF 05-39, Arctic Research in the United States, Volume 19, Spring This document has been archived. On the Creation of Environmental Data Sets for the Arctic Region When Karl Weyprecht proposed better coordi- ronmental data sets can be found in almost every nation of research in 1874, leading to a series of NOAA line office, but it is the NOAA National coordinated synoptic observations in the Arctic, Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information little did he think that his ideas would produce Service Data Centers that share a mission of data scientific data that remains of intense interest to management. The NOAA National Data Centers’ This article was prepared researchers 130 years later. And still less would he commitment to long-term data management pro- by Florence Fetterer, NOAA Liaison, National have imagined that his proposals, and the result- vides institutional support for producing exemplary Snow and Ice Data ing International Polar Year of 1882–1883, would environmental data sets. Each center has a partic- Center/World Data Center inform goals for creating and managing scientific ular research focus and expertise that adds value for Glaciology, Boulder, data in the 21st century. Because of advances in to its data management results. After a brief profile Colorado, and Igor observation and data technologies, the questions of these centers, we will discuss what general Smolyar, of NOAA’s that Weyprecht addressed have only increased in characteristics make certain data sets especially Ocean Climate significance. What constitutes useful environmen- valuable and what elements come into play during Laboratory, National Oceanographic Data tal data? How are data both a product of research the production of these data sets, highlighting Center, Silver Spring, and a catalyst for new research? How should data enough of them here to provide a sense of the Maryland. be managed to ensure continued accessibility and breadth of NOAA’s Arctic data production activi- usefulness? The NOAA Arctic research activities ties. An atlas, the Climatic Atlas of the Arctic described elsewhere in this edition of Arctic Seas 2004, serves as a case study. We also cite a Research of the United States both use and pro- number of NOAA operational, research, and mod- duce data. This article examines the process of eling products as examples of particular aspects of data product creation. National Data Centers National Oceanographic Data Center Located in Maryland, the National Oceano- graphic Data Center (NODC) is a repository and IPY meteorological dissemination facility for global ocean data. station, 1882. Researchers from NODC’s Ocean Climate Labora- creating environmental Arctic data sets and the tory (OCL) announced in 2000 that the world symbiosis of research, data, and data management. ocean has warmed significantly over the past 40 These data sets may have value beyond that of years. Just as the atmosphere has a climate, with advancing Arctic research objectives: they may variability on different time scales, the ocean’s be, for example, monitoring tools for change detec- temperature, salinity, and other characteristics tion, or they may underlie decision support appli- change over time. OCL researchers based their cations. conclusions on data laboriously collected, quality This focus on data and data management has controlled, and assembled into a special form of become a proper discipline at NOAA in the 130 environmental atlas called a climatology. To facili- years since Weyprecht’s call for better coordina- tate comparisons of the past with the present, tion of research and data resources. Arctic envi- and to investigate interannual-to-decadal ocean 77 (NCDC) in Asheville, North Carolina, are Arctic station data from the Global Historical Climate Network, the most comprehensive homogeneous collection of station temperature data available. “Homogeneous” means consistent over the years and from place to place, through changes in instrumentation, acquisition method, and site characteristics, so that scientists may look for trends in the data. Homogeneous data sets require Arctic temperature climate variability, many thousands of raw obser- careful quality control. Historical data are made anomalies vations acquired from ships were interpolated to homogeneous with present-day observations by a regular spatial grid and combined over annual, adjusting for non-climatic discontinuities, such as seasonal, and monthly compositing periods. A a jump in precipitation that might be caused by a definitive statement about oceanic warming would change in instrumentation. An important part of the not be possible without these climatologies. quality control process is compiling station inven- In addition to supporting scientific studies, tories that detail the history of each station, includ- OCL’s International Ocean Atlas and Information ing changes in instrumentation, changes in loca- Series (currently nine in number) exemplify inter- tion, and changes in surroundings. If a town grows national cooperation. Much of it is taking place up around a formerly rural station, for example, a through the OCL’s World Data Center (WDC) for heat island effect may be present in the data record. Oceanography, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Inter- NCDC also operates the World Data Center for national collaboration is an absolute necessity for Paleoclimatology (WDC Paleo), located in Boulder, acquiring a sufficient number of observations for Colorado. Paleoclimatology puts the relatively climatologies. The Global Oceanographic Data recent changes in Arctic climate, apparent in the Archaeology and Rescue (GODAR) Project, for instrumented record, in long-term context. Proxy example, has added over six million historical data from tree rings, ice cores, and lake and marine ocean temperature profiles to the archives, as well sediments available from the WDC Paleo were as a large amount of other data. Initiated by the used by an international team of scientists for a NODC and WDC, this OCL-directed project was circum-Arctic view of surface air temperature subsequently endorsed by the UNESCO Inter- changes over the last 400 years. governmental Oceanographic Commission. The WDC Paleo web site provides interpreta- Ice core samples. Ice cores are taken from tions of the record: A steep increase in warming ice sheets or ice caps National Climatic Data Center between 1850 and 1920 was most likely due to and are used by natural processes. Warming since 1920 is more paleoclimatologists as a Among the hundreds of climate data compila- difficult to ascribe to natural forcing alone. For an record of past climate. tions housed at the National Climatic Data Center even longer view, ice core data are valuable. WDC Paleo and the National Snow and Ice Data Center jointly maintain the Ice Core Gateway. Proxy climate indicators from ice cores such as oxygen isotopes, methane concentrations, dust content, and other parameters stretch the record back more than 1000 years. National Geophysical Data Center The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), Boulder, Colorado, contributes significantly to Arctic science through participation in the devel- opment of the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO). IBCAO bathymetry provides a detailed and accurate representation of the depth and morphology of the Arctic Ocean seabed. This dynamic database contains all available bathymetric data north of 64°N. It is 78 maintained as a gridded database, and a version NSIDC has 522 data products in its on-line has been published in map form. The IABCO team archive. Excluding satellite data sets, 104 of these remapped the Lomonosov Ridge, showing it to be are Arctic data sets, and of these about 20% are more segmented in structure, wider, and shallower the more evolved compilations termed Arctic envi- than had previously been mapped. The Lomon- ronmental data products. osov Ridge is an important topographic barrier that influences deep water exchange between the What Makes a Good eastern and western basins of the Arctic Ocean. An accurate seafloor is important for applications Environmental Data including ocean modeling, mapmaking, and other Product? research endeavors. The IABCO effort involves investigators from eleven institutions in eight To make a good environmental data product, countries. It has been endorsed and supported by one starts with raw data and then processes or the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, presents them in such a way that they become the International Arctic Science Committee, the information. Data are transformed into a product International Hydrographic Organization, and the that can advance a user up a hierarchy from data U.S. Office of Naval Research. to information, to knowledge, to wisdom, shorten- ing the user’s path from data to knowledge or to National Snow and Ice the why and how of environmental interactions Data Center and change. Following is a summary of some of the data management practices that effect this Operational products, such as sea ice charts for transformation. shipping interests from the NOAA/Navy/Coast Guard National Ice Center, are often laboriously Context produced by manually interpreting and synthesiz- ing data from many sources, both satellite and in Simply presenting data systematically is some- situ. They are generally more accurate than similar times enough to transmit any underlying meaning. products from single sources. The National Snow That is, even a well-organized collection of raw and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) works with opera- data can be an environmental data product. Usually,
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