News Archive
September 1999

Conference Announcement/Call for Papers
Data for Science and Society
In conjunction with several federal science agencies, the U.S. National Committee for CODATA is organizing the second national data conference (March 13-14, 2000) to address important multidisciplinary issues in managing and using scientific and technical (S&T) data, and to improve the visibility of those issues nationally. The main focus will be to promote the availability and usefulness of S&T data to all users, both in research and in the broader society, using examples of ground-breaking and innovative applications and highly creative partnerships.

The Vostok Ice Core
CDIAC updates Trends Online
The Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center has updated its Trends Online records of carbon dioxide measurements from the Vostok (East Antarctica) ice core to include data extending back to 414,085 years before present. The extension of the Vostok CO₂ record shows the present-day levels of CO₂ are unprecedented during the past 420,000 years.

The National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Reynolds Optimally Interpolated (OI) weekly, monthly, and Historical Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data sets are now available from NASA's Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC).

CO₂ Data from Pacific Ocean
CDIAC releases data from WOCE cruise
A new Numeric Data Package (NDP), "Carbon Dioxide, Hydrographic, and Chemical Data Obtained During the R/V Thomas G. Thompson Cruise in the Pacific Ocean (WOCE Section P10, October 5 - November 10, 1993)" (ORNL/CDIAC-122, NDP-071) has been released by the Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center. Conducted as part of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), the cruise began in Suva, Fiji, and ended in Yokohama, Japan. Data from this cruise are important for understanding the dynamics of the far western equatorial Pacific; and the underway surface measurements show a small outgassing of CO₂ at the equator.

Data from NASA's Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) are now available from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC). The objectives of the BOREAS Project were (1) to improve process models that describe the generation and exchanges of energy, water, heat, CO₂, and trace gases between the boreal forest and the lower atmosphere in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada, and (2) to develop methods for applying the process models over large spatial scales using remote sensing and other integrative modeling techniques. This collection of data currently includes 180 data sets of surface, airborne, and satellite-based observations. Additional data from this study will be provided as they become available.

This continuously-updated catalog provides a comprehensive list of global change-related data sets made available during 1999 from federal agencies. The third in a series of yearly publications, this catalog represents an important step in the interagency process of making data and information from the U.S. Global Change Research Program available to researchers, the commercial world, policy makers, and the public.