science activities

rationale

Future progress in understanding climate linkages and their impact on environment is dependent on the provision of well-documented data. The paleoscience community has developed an impressive mix of databases of various sizes and concepts. This mix includes the large data centers, mostly organized in the World Data Center (WDC) network, which provide nearly inexhaustible storage capacities and long-term constancy (e.g., WDC for Paleoclimatology at NOAA/National Climate Data Center in Boulder, USA and PANGAEA/WDC for Marine Environmental Sciences in Bremen, Germany). It also includes the smaller national and regional proxy- or archive-specific databases, which offer close contact with the specialist communities and the scientific expertise to service data exchange, guarantee data quality standards and encourage scientific projects.

Despite the widespread acknowledgement of the importance of data availability, many scientists place a low priority on contributing data to data centers and are often reluctant to share data. Thus data acquisition is a continuous struggle for database curators and the amount of relevant, high-quality paleo data that is not internet-accessible is unacceptably high and impedes progress in paleoscience. Another challenge is to ensure that the flow of data, information and technology in data repositories is not just a curation exercise but also a usable tool for a diverse scientific community.

Goals

The goals for CCT 4 in the coming years are three-fold:

1. Support scientific data collection and synthesis activities, in particular, encouraging data collection on PAGES relevant themes.

2. Ensure the availability of and access to (paleo)science data by:
- Providing a Paleodata Portal for coordinated data searches.
- Optimizing the flow of data, information and technology between the mix of larger and smaller databases.
- Supporting the archiving of and access to standard datasets
- Including model run outputs.
- Serving the observing community
- Facilitating paleoscientists’ access to modern data.

3. Encourage data submission and expansion of the archive of internet-accessible paleodata by:
- Increasing the merit of data contribution and recognition of datasets as a form of official publication

Fostering data submission practices in coordination with funding organizations and publishers.