OOI Data to be Archived by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) established a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to share high-quality oceanic data collected from the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative’s instrument arrays. The goal of the partnership is to archive and deliver the initiative’s data for continued research on ocean processes.

“WHOI is pleased to be working with NCEI for the long-term preservation of data produced by the Ocean Observatories Initiative” said Jeffrey Glatstein, Senior Manager of Cyberinfrastructure at WHOI. “The initiative is a science-driven ocean observing network that delivers real-time data from more than 900 instruments to address critical science questions regarding the world’s oceans. Given the long-term timeframe of the program and the impact of having a continual record of measurements, the archiving of this data is a significant step in making these data available for researchers in the future.”

“Under this partnership agreement, NOAA expects to be provided at least 30 years of high-quality oceanographic data produced by the Ocean Observatories Initiative, commissioned in 2017, for preservation and stewardship” said Jason Cooper, NCEI’s Archivist.

NCEI will be responsible for acquiring and managing the required IT storage for the data that WHOI will provide, which is expected to amount to roughly seven terabytes. NCEI will ensure that the metadata associated with the data are up to federal and international standards such as those regarding storage, preservation, and accessibility. In addition to providing the data that have been collected to date, the agreement also calls for WHOI to transfer an additional 710 gigabytes of data annually for the next ten years.

WHOI is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to ocean research, exploration, and education. WHOI and their Oregon State University (OSU) and University of Washington (UW) partners designed and now manage the instrument arrays involved in this CRADA partnership that collect chemical, biological, geophysical, and physical measurements in the global ocean from below the seafloor to the surface.

The CRADA allows NCEI and WHOI to achieve their common goal of supporting research related to ocean and atmospheric processes by sharing their findings with the scientific community, policymakers, and the general public.