ABSTRACT 9629768 Scharfen Recognizing the scientific and economic value of the data obtained from research activities in Antarctica and the need to make this information available to the greater scientific community, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) instituted an ad hoc Planning Group on Antarctic Data Management to provide recommendations on the preservation and management of research and related data from Antarctic programs. The ad hoc planning group recommended that an Antarctic Master Data Directory be established for handling meta data and that each national program designate their own National Antarctic Data Center (NADC) for management of data from individual national programs. These recommendations were endorsed by the Antarctic Treaty Parties and by SCAR. The World Data Center-A for Glaciology/National Snow and Ice Data Center (WDC-A/NSIDC) will serve as the U.S. NADC for an initial period of three years. This effort will consist of identifying and describing existing data in all disciplines, using an approach similar to that already underway for cryospheric data, and submitting these descriptions ("DIFs", the Directory Interchange Format used for the International Directory Network) to the Antarctic Master Directory being developed by the International Centre for Antarctic Information and Research (ICAIR). The WDC-A/NSIDC will take advantage of its on-going relationship with the Global Change Mater Directory (GCMD) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, sharing information regarding data sources and minimizing or eliminating duplication of effort. The WDC-A/NSIDC will write or assist data holders in writing DIFs for Antarctic data collected by U.S. investigators. Before submitting DIFs to the AMD, the WDC-A/NSIDC will review and edit them, if necessary, to ensure they are compliant with format and content standards.
