Research Data Archive
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Service and growth metrics for
the Research Data Archive (RDA) during FY 2006. 1a) The number of unique
users separated by access pathway: the NCAR MSS, publicly available web
servers, and one-time special requests prepared for individual users.
1b) The amount of data provided separated by access pathway. 1c) The
amount of data in the archive on the MSS showing the annual growth.
1d) The amount of data on the public servers (a high-demand subset of
the RDA archive) showing the annual growth.
Figures 1a-b indicate the RDA's great significance to the community,
and Figures 1c-d show the annual progress toward building more valued
content into the RDA. |
The Research Data Archive (RDA) is a key part of the NCAR strategic
priority to create an Earth System Knowledge Environment because it
provides an information resource through a large collection of data sets
that supports scientific studies in climate, weather, Earth Systems
modeling, and increasingly other related geosciences. The RDA activities
can be viewed from two different perspectives, user data services and
archive content development. Over 5,000 unique users were provided 95 TB
of data through three primary access pathways: the NCAR MSS, public
servers on the web, and one-time special requests prepared for individuals
(Figures 1a-b). The largest user group is associated with the web access
pathway, and the largest amount of data is transferred via the MSS access
pathway. A simple measure of content development is archive growth. The
RDA is 74 TB with 6.0 TB (9%) added during FY 2006 (Figure 1c). Global and
regional atmospheric reanalyses and operational analyses are the largest
contributors to this growth. The most demanded datasets from the RDA are
provided to users through publicly available web servers. In FY 2006, the
data available from the web servers has grown 60% and is now 12.1 TB
(Figure 1d).
As a whole, the RDA is constantly changing. Curation extends and
adds to existing datasets, while stewardship improves the documentation,
creates systematic organization, applies data quality assurance and
verification, and develops access for users. Many routine tasks and
background infrastructure developments are necessary to maintain the
RDA. The major new activities for FY 2007 include:
Initiate operational data collection, archiving, and user
access through the
Community Data Portal for TIGGE
(THORPEX [The Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment]
Interactive Grand Global Ensemble). To continue supporting user access to atmospheric reanalysis
datasets, add the Japanese 25-Year Reanalysis (JRA-25) to the RDA.
Action is pending approval from the Japanese Meteorological
Agency. Add a global ocean reanalysis and continuing operational
analysis. Continue to aggressively expand the amount of data available
through the web servers (both the advanced
Community Data Portal and the
traditional server). This includes
longer time series of routine collected operational models and observed
data, and new datasets relevant to large user groups.
The RDA maintenance and development within CISL is supported entirely
by NSF Core funding.
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