News Archive
December 1999

The first Digital Earth Community Meeting was held recently at the U.S. Geological Survey office in Reston, Virginia. A multiagency initiative involving government agencies, organizations, and corporations, Digital Earth will be a virtual representation of our planet that enables a person to explore and interact with the vast amounts of natural and cultural information gathered about the Earth.

U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan now available
The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has established the Carbon Cycle Science Program (CCSP) to better coordinate and integrate carbon cycle research in the U.S. Science planning was initiated in the spring of 1998 with the establishment of a multidisciplinary science planning working group, chaired by Jorge Sarmiento and Steven Wofsy. The Carbon and Climate Working Group held planning meetings in March and May 1998. A workshop was held in August 1998, in Westminster, Colorado, to solicit input from the scientific community, and from interested Federal agencies. The Carbon and Climate Working Group's report, an integrated carbon cycle research plan addressing oceanic, atmospheric and terrestrial components titled A U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan, is now available.

global change data
New Global Digital Tectonic Activity Map of the Earth Produced
NASA scientists have developed a new digital tectonic activity map of the Earth that pinpoints the geologically and volcanically active features of the entire planet over the last one million years. The map (actually a series of six color maps with the same scale and projection) combines ground- and space-based information to show the Earth's currently active large-scale features, including major faults, earthquakes and volcanoes.

global change data
CDIAC Releases New Database
The U.S. Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), in collaboration with The Ohio State University, has published the numeric data package A Database of Herbaceous Vegetation Responses to Elevated Atmospheric CO₂ (ORNL/CDIAC-120, NDP-073). The multiparameter database of responses by herbaceous vegetation to increased atmospheric CO₂ levels was compiled to support a statistically rigorous meta-analysis of research results across many studies. Data were retrieved from the published literature for 121 independent CO₂-enrichment studies, covering 61 species and 26 response parameters.

From 1994-1996, and up to the present, the BOREAS (Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study) project integrated ground, tower, airborne, and satellite measurements of the interactions between the forest ecosystem and the lowere atmosphere. This is a brief introduction to the Earth Observatory's popular series on this project.

USDA Launches New Biotechnology Web Site
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a new Internet web page that provides easy public access to the Department's vast amount of material on agricultural biotechnology issues. The new site offers answers to some of the most frequently asked biotechnological questions along with recent speeches by Secretary Glickman on agricultural biotechnology. The site also includes pages on biotechnology and trade, regulations, and research.

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.

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