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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE PUBLICATION

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ODC

The National Oceanographic Data Center

U.S.

DEPARTMENT

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National | Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Environmental Data Service

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The environment is described a second, a minute, a day, a year, an epoch at a time, point by point; the portrait is al- ways a composite one of individual ob- servations— data.

NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and its En- vironmental Data Service have the task of moving the Nation's mountain of de- scriptive information, analyzing it, stor- ing it, and distilling from it the important historical lessons taught by the physical world.

The National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) is one of the Environmental Data Service's five major facilities;* it contains

* Others are the National Climatic Center, Asheville, N.C.; the National Geophysical and Solar-Terrestrial Data Center, Boulder, Colo.; the Environmental Science Information Cen- ter, Washington, D.C.; and the Center for Experiment Design and Data Analysis, Washington, D.C.

the world's largest usable collection of oceanographic data. Established in 1960 to acquire and disseminate oceanogra- phic data, the Center was administered by the Navy until its transfer to NOAA in October 1970. It is a national service facility for the United States; it also ad- ministers World Data Center A, Ocean- ography.

NODC serves the oceanographic data needs of researchers in government, private institutions, and industry, of ma- rine scientists and engineers, and of all who take their talents to the sea.

The National Oceanographic Data Center receives information for all oceans, seas, and estuaries from hun- dreds of sources, domestic and foreign, including the national data centers of other countries. Under the World Data Center system, World Data Center A re-

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ceives material from international coop- erative expeditions (for example, the Co- operative Investigations of the Caribbean & Adjacent Regions), Declared National Programs of nations represented in UNESCO'S Intergovernmental Oceanog- raphic Commission, and other programs.

Data and publications are also ob- tained by exchange between the Center and individuals and organizations in 45 countries and such groups as the ICES, the International Council for the Explora- tion of the Sea, as gifts from scientists and organizations wishing to share their data, and through the purchase of val- uable marine data collections.

Incoming data are handled by the Operations Division, which accessions, processes, and performs quality control. A records control center provides inven- tories of all data entering the Center and

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notes their processing status and loca- tion. Data leave the Center through the Services Division, which provides copies, summaries, and analysis and information services on request. Archives include au- tomated, miniaturized, and hard-copy forms. The Development Division carries forward the Center's work on innovative data processing, archiving, and retrieval ,«i systems. An IBM 360 series computer iP provides high-speed processing, direct-

{ access retrieval, and cathode-ray tube displays of the holdings. The Center collects the National Ma- rine Data Inventory (NAMDI), which con- « tains information on quantities and types of data, area of operations, and respon- sible personnel. Input is received from major United States activities contribut- ing to the national effort in the marine sciences. The inventory, initiated in 1967, is queried through a computer system.

Oceanographic Data Available From NODC

• Mechanical and expendable bathy- thermograph data in analog and digital form.

• Oceanographic station data for sur- face and serial depths, giving values of temperature, salinity, oxygen, in- organic phosphate, total phos- phorus, nitrite-nitrogen, nitrate-nit- rogen, silicate-silicon, and pH.

• Continuously recorded salinity-tem- perature-depth data in digital form.

• Surface current information ob- tained by using drift bottles or cal- culated from ship set and drift.

• Biological data, giving values of plankton standing crop, chlorophyll concentrations, and rates of primary productivity; also bibliographic ref- erences to papers on marine biol- ogy-

• Geological sampling inventory, pri- marily for the New England Conti- nental Shelf.

• Bottom sample information.

NODC Services

• Data processing.

• Data reproduction, including com- puter printouts, punched cards, magnetic tapes, and other forms.

• Analysis and preparations of statis- tical summaries based on archive holdings.

• Evaluation of various data records for specific requirements.

• Referral to organizations holding re- quested information.

• Provision of general marine sciences information.

• Supply of publications, including data processing manuals, catalogs of holdings, data reports, and atlases.

Requests for Services

Requests should define data required, geographic limits involved, and such other pertinent information as a descrip- tion of the problem for which the data are required. They should also specify format — magnetic tape, punched cards, microfilm, or hard copy (computer print- outs, publications, analog charts).

Cost varies with amount of ma- terial, special analysis, computer time, and other factors. Requests for small amounts of information are completed free of charge; otherwise, a cos,t estimate is presented to the requester before work begins, and the request is handled upon receipt of funds.

The User's Guide for NODC's Data Processing Systems, available from NODC on request, provides detailed in- formation concerning data holdings.

Visitors are welcome at the National Oceanographic Data Center; how- ever, it is desirable to have advance notice if visitors wish to interview staff members. Special working space and technical assistance are provided on request. Call (202) 426- 9052, or write:

The National Oceanographic Data

Center National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration Rockville, Maryland 20852

PENN STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

NOAA/PA 71052 (Rev. 1973)

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