Monday, January 28, 2013

More on efforts at data rescue and digitization - reposted press release

Note: This is a copy of a press release by two sister organizations, ACRE and IEDRO that I am reposting for them upon request. Please send further requests to the named contacts. Peter


Contact: Malia Murray
Cell: 301.938.9894

ACRE AND IEDRO SIGN MoU TO WORK TOWARDS DIGITIZATION AND ARCHIVING OF THE WORLD’S AT-RISK WEATHER AND CLIMATE DATA
The two independent organizations agree to work together for the digital preservation of and access to global historical weather and climate data through international data rescue, and digitization efforts as well as undertake and facilitate the recovery of historical, instrumental, surface terrestrial, and marine global weather observations.

   November 26, 2012 – Toulouse, France- Over fifty international climate, social and humanities scientists and representatives from the archival and library communities with common interests in climate services, gathered at Météo-France for the 5th Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) Workshop from the 28th-30th November 2012.  There they witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will join efforts within the global climate services industry. The 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 8th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol were meeting simultaneously at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha, Qatar.

   This agreement forms the foundation of the User Interface Platform (UIP), the pillar of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS). The partnership unites the highest caliber of international experience and resources to ensure the finest of climate services. The partnership specifically enhances the areas of data rescue (DARE), the establishment of an International Data Rescue (I-DARE) Inventory, and identification of high priority weather and climate datasets. This arrangement also opens opportunities for collaborative funding of vital historical and contemporary weather and climate data. This is essential to the provision of, and access to, climate services.

    Together the ACRE and IEDRO communities, and their various partners, will develop the largest single source of primary weather and climate services. This will create opportunities to access long records of weather data that will be available for the full range of analyses. Dr. Rob Allan, International ACRE Project Manager, “The merger of ACRE and IEDRO under a new MoU is a major step towards building the infrastructure and funding support needed to reinvigorate and sustain international data rescue activities.  It will create a platform for wider partnerships with the global community and encourage funders to see the potential value in long, historical databases of global weather for use by the climate science and applications community, policy and decision makers, educators, students and the wider public.

  The resulting climate services data will contribute high quality, high resolution, weather and climate data available through free and open exchange via the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS), the International Surface Pressure Data bank (ISPD), and the International Surface Temperature Initiative (ISTI) databases.

  The delegates also expressed the need for the establishment of an additional database where all hydrometric DR&D efforts would be listed and updated by their sponsors or program managers. IEDRO will begin building this new database once funding is secured.

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For more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Dr. Richard Crouthamel, please contact him directly at 410.867.1124 or e-mail him at r.crouthamel@iedro.org

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