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An Introduction to the Biological and Chemical Oceanography

Data Management Office (BCO-DMO)

Cyndy ChandlerBCO-DMO

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

8 September 2007GEOTRACES Data-Model Synergy Workshop

Delmenhorst, Germany

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GEOTRACES has been identified as a project that will generate data and results of interest to the

scientific community served by the Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry Office

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The Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO)

The Office is located at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The Web-site is: http://www.bco-dmo.org

The Office is managed by:Robert Groman (rgroman@whoi.edu)Cyndy Chandler (cchandler@whoi.edu)David Glover (dglover@whoi.edu)Peter Wiebe (pwiebe@whoi.edu)

The BCO-DMO was initially created in late 2006 to serve PIs funded by the US NSF Biological and Chemical Oceanography Sections. It has since been expanded to serve the data management needs of the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry group of researchers in the US. It is a location from which marine biogeochemical and ecological data and information developed in the course of scientific research can easily be disseminated, protected, and stored on short and intermediate time-frames.

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the BCO-DMO is a combination of the formerly independent data management offices for US GLOBEC and US JGOFS

BCO-DMO will continue to manage the US JGOFS and US GLOBEC data collections as well as data from new programs, including programs associated with the OCB DMO (CARIACO, EDDIES, MedFlux, SOFeX, VERTIGO)

The Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO)

U.S. JGOFS

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The BCO-DMO data system will be designed to be interoperable with other data systems to facilitate discovery of and access to ocean science data and supporting documentation.

U.S. GEOTRACESU.S. SOLAS

The relationship of BCO-DMO to existing and proposed entities.

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Guiding Principles of Data Management“a stewardship philosophy”

quality assurance of data

treat all information as data

data that lacks sufficient metadata has limited value beyond the research program for which it was collected

metadata should include sufficient information to support discovery, value assessment and accurate secondary use (re-use of data)

The data collection generated by a research project is a valuable component of its legacy.

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Important Concepts

it’s all data !

decide what metadata is important to support GEOTRACES science

store metadata in a database that will enable custom generated lists of selected information, in a variety of formats, and be compatible with various standards …The metadata database will also support data discovery through a robust search interface.

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Challenges

heterogeneity of results . . .both data type and content type

model results . . .what to preserve ? description input code results

management of full set of results and design of single interface that provides access to all result types

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a list of all expected results from a sampling program (cruise) that includes PI/co-PI names and brief description of expected measurements

for example:

PIname: Robert Anderson

co-PI: none

Measurement: Radionuclide data from bottle samples including:temperature, salinity, thorium-232, thorium-230, protactinium-231 and beryllium-10

Data Inventory

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Metadata

project, people and dataset profiles

for example a dataset profile contributed with each data set includes:

PI name(s) Affiliation when data collected (e.g. Institution)dataset description: Particulate Organic Matter (POC and PON)

project: GEOTRACESplatform type (e.g. ship, mooring, satellite)deployment (e.g. cruise ID)

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Sampling Event Log

one event log for each cruise a comprehensive list of uniquely numbered sampling events, including:

event number, start and end date and time (in GMT/UTC), time zone, latitude and longitude [decimal degrees], sampling device name or code, person’s name responsible for sampling, station/cast number, comments

and optionally including: local date/time, project-specific information

GEOTRACES DMC has suggested tagging each sample with a unique sample ID that is a combination of cruise, station, cast and bottle number

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GEOTRACES Data Managementas proposed in the GEOTRACES DMC report (Dec. 2005)

oversight of DM is responsibility of DMC and a Data Liaison Officer (located in IPO) reporting to SSC

the DLO would be responsible for maintaining lists of GEOTRACES cruises (and contributing projects) and data sets from participating national programs

details of BCO-DMO support for US GEOTRACES data management should be worked out in the near future

Intercalibration Cruises: present an opportunity to establish best practices for sampling and analytical protocols and also metadata essential to support GEOTRACES science themes

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Web Resources

BCO-DMO http://www.bco-dmo.org

US GLOBEC http://globec.whoi.edu

US JGOFS http://usjgofs.whoi.edu http://ijgofs.whoi.edu

OCB DMO http://ocb.whoi.edu

US OCB http://us-ocb.org

Thank you !

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Questions ?

Anyone from GEOTRACES attending?17-21 September 2007: Shanghai, ChinaIMBER / LOICZ Continental Margins Open Science ConferenceAbstract submission is closed but registration is still open. https://www.confmanager.com/main.cfm?cid=792Session 1 Ocean-Shelf Biogeochemical Exchanges Session 2 Continental Shelf Biogeochemistry and Couplings with Benthic Systems Session 3 Continental Shelf Carbon in a High CO2 World Session 4 Continental Shelf Ecosystems from High to Low LatitudesSession 5 Integrated Observations and Modeling: Visions and Reality Session 6 Eutrophication and Oligotrophication in Coastal Systems Session 7 Low Oxygen on Continental ShelvesSession 8 Sustainable Use of Continental Shelf Resources

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IMBER / LOICZ Session 5

Session 5) Integrated Observations and Modeling: Visions and RealityFocus: Long time series, remote sensing, and observation systems.  New approaches for on-line and synoptic monitoring.  Assimilation of these data in multi-dimensional, coupled physical-biological models that address continental shelf processes, cross-shelf exchanges, and shelf break dynamics. Ecosystem models in pursuit of better understanding of human-induced stresses, which compromise biodiversity, ecosystem stability and biogeochemical processes, are sought.

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Questions ??

What are the key components of data systems that support the modeling effort ? robust metadata – e.g. sufficient for integration

including precision, accuracy, limits of detection data set sub-setting download capability user-selectable formats

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Technical Details of BCO-DMO Data Management SystemGoals

Generate readily accessible data resource of high quality data (including robust metadata)

Maximize data system interoperability

BCO-DMO is based at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Web access: http://www.bco-dmo.org

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Technical Details of BCO-DMO Data Management System Metadata profiles and lists

research projects identified as being GEOTRACES core projects and related

sampling programs (cruises, moorings/sediment traps, lab experiments, remote sensing, observatories?)

people profiles (PIs, cruise participants responsible for sampling, data analysts, lab technicians)

data set profiles

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Technical Details of BCO-DMO Data Management SystemCruise-specific example

O1: report, data set inventory, sampling logs, shipboard dataO2: basic hydrography (CTD/Niskin)O3: data sets within 2 yearsO4: data sets excluded from 2 year contribution target date

QC review done on contributed data according to GEOTRACES standards in collaboration with originating PI and staff

Data and metadata contributed and ingested into BCO-DMO r-DBMS

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Technical Details of BCO-DMO Data Management SystemAccess to data and results

Data access provided in several ways:

via any standard Web browser client user interface

through a GIS application (Open Source, OGC-compliant MapServer)

a directory listing from the data holdings catalog

custom search engine that facilitates data discovery query against variety of fields: PI name, project name,

geographic area, temporal range, parameter name

Web Services (SOA)

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Technical Details of BCO-DMO Data Management SystemCapabilities

sample distribution maps (lat/lon station location maps)simple X/Y plots property/propertydata sub-setting capability (joining, selection and projection)download in variety of user-selectable formatsadditional functionality to support community/contributing projects

generate Summary reports: data set descriptions generated to comply with a variety of metadata content

standards (ISO 19115, DIF (GCMD), EML, FGDC) data reports on digital media (CD or DVD) data catalog status reports (inventory) for Special Issue publications

(if desired)final data collection contributed to Data Archive Center (*WDC, or *ODC or Data Library)