JCADM, new directions in Antarctic data management  

 

Taco de Bruin

 

NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, The Netherlands, bruin@nioz.nl

 

 

The Joint Committee on Antarctic Data Management (JCADM) was established by the Scientific

Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP), to assist in the fulfilment of the data management obligations imposed by the Antarctic Treaty (section III.1.c): 

"Scientific observations and results from Antarctica shall be exchanged and made freely available."

JCADM comprises representatives of the National Antarctic Data Centres or national points of contact. Currently 31 nations around the world are represented in JCADM.

 

So far, JCADM has been focussing on the coordination of the Antarctic Master Directory (AMD), the internationally accessible, web-based, searchable record of Antarctic and Southern Ocean data set descriptions. The AMD is directly integrated into the international Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) to help further merge Antarctic science into global science. The AMD is a resource for scientists to advertise the data they have collected and to search for data they may need.

 

Currently, JCADM is in a transition phase, moving forward to provide data access.

Existing systems and web services technology will be used as much as possible, to increase efficiency and prevent ‘re-inventing the wheel’

 

This poster will give an overview of this process, the current status and the expected results.