International Council for Science : Committee on Data for Science and Technology

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C O D A T A

International Polar Year Data Policy and Management Subcommittee

Approved by the CODATA 25th General Assembly, Beijing 2006
Renewal approved by the CODATA 26th General Assembly, Kyiv 2008
Renewal approved by the CODATA 27th General Assembly, Cape Town 2010

The overall objective of the group is to define and guide the data policy, strategy, and overall management approach for the the ICSU/WMO sponsored International Polar Year (IPY), facilitating international cooperation among the IPY scientific projects.

More specifically:

1. Outline a strategy for IPY data management with specific goals based on the scientific questions formulated in the IPY 2007-2008 Science Plan and which meet the special needs of the social sciences, the Education, Outreach and Communications Plan, and the general public.
2. Determine the organizational data flow structure (including consideration of procedures, (near) real-time requirements, transmission and archival of data) required to support the IPY 2007-2008 science objectives.
3. Assess the extent to which existing and proposed data management systems can be used by the IPY science projects:
      . for the responsive delivery of data and data products;
      . for the secure but accessible archival of IPY data;
      . for the delivery of information on the location and availability of IPY data.
4. Provide expert advice to the IPY Joint Committee and to endorsed IPY projects on all IPY metadata and data management issues, including proposed data management programmes that may be independent of specific IPY 2007-2008 science projects (such as legacy data collections).
5. To establish and provide ongoing guidance to the IPY Data Information Service, and regular review of its effectiveness.

Co-Chairs:

Taco. de Bruin (co-chair)
 +31-222-369 479
bruin@nioz.nl

Scott Tomlinson
+1 819 934 6084
Scott.Tomlinson@inac.gc.ca

Members:

Nathan Bindoff
Joan Eamer
Hannes Grobe
Ray Harris
Ellsworth LeDrew
Xin Li
Håkan Olsson
Mark Parsons
Birger Poppel
Alexander Sterin
Steve Rossouw
Zhu Jiangang

Recent Activities

Coordination:
Two formal meetings of the task group were convened. One at the IPY opening in Paris, March 2007 and another in conjunction with the ICSU/WMO Joint Committee meeting in Quebec, Oct. 2007. Routine communication was through e-mail, a discussion forum and telephone conferences.

The results of the Task Group meeting and workshop in Quebec can be found at: http://ipydis.org/documents/jc6_and_data_report.pdf

Outreach:
Task Group members represented and advised on IPY data issues at various national and international IPY and related planning and implementation meetings including:
. the ICSU/WMO Joint Committee for IPY
. the Sustained Arctic Observing Network
. National efforts in Canada, China, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, the USA, and elsewhere
. The GEO Ministerial Summit and meetings of the Data and Architecture Working Group
. WDC Panel and Directors meetings

A connection has been established to the scientific library community. Mark Parsons, co-chair,  has been invited to the Global ResearchLibraries 2020 conference (http://www.grl2020.net), for which he prepared a position paper related to IPY: http://www.grl2020.net/uploads/position_papers/Mark_A._Parsons.pdf.

Members hosted sessions and presented on IPY data issues at many conferences and workshops including JCADM, IUGG, ICES, AGU, EGU, GeoNorth. Some of these presentations are available at ipydis.org.

Townhall-style meetings on IPY data issues were hosted at the IPY GeoNorth Conference, the American Geophysical Union fall meetings in 2006 and 2007, and international IPY meetings in Canada. Reports are available at ipydis.org.

Accomplishments:
In response to Task Group efforts:

• IPY data coordination offices were established at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute
• Several nations have or are establishing IPY data coordinators including Canada, China, the Netherlands, Norway, and the UK.
• An IPY Metadata Registry was established at the Global Change Master Directory (gcmd.nasa.gov/portals/ipy)
• The World Data Center Panel and Directors have identified specific WDCs willing to archive and distribute IPY data
• ECMWF made their data available to IPY investigators without charge

The Task Group plans sessions at the SCAR/IASC/IPY Open Science Conference, St. Petersburg, Russia, July 2008 and CODATA 21 Conference, Kiev, Ukraine, Oct. 2008. We also plan to staff an on-site investigator help-desk in St. Petersburg.

An assessment was made of the current status of IPY project data management plans .This and the ongoing engagement with WDCs are described inthe Task Group report to the IPY Joint Committee: http://ipydis.org/documents/jc6report_oct07.pdf.

The data session at the SCAR/IASC/IPY Open Science Conference has got great response, with 37 abstracts submitted.

The WDC Panel and Directors, the eGY, the GEO Architecture and Data Committee, the OGC Interoperability Institute, the IPY Programme Office, and specific IPY coordinators have all participated and contributed to Task Group activities.

The Task Group is laying the foundation for a sustained polar data system, notably through contributions to SAON and joint IASC/SCAR data management efforts.

Improved understanding and implementation of data systems tailored to meeting interdisciplinary users.

IPY helps drive a reinvigoration of the WDC system through focused interoperable activity.

The IPY Data Subcommittee continues to collaborate closely with the other International Geoscience Years: the UN-endorsed International Year of Planet Earth, the International Heliophysical Year, and the Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY).