The National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) is one of the national environmental data centers operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...

 (NOAA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce

United States Department of Commerce

The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...

. The main NODC facility is located in Silver Spring, Maryland

Silver Spring, Maryland

Silver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...

 and is made up of five divisions (see the NODC organizational chart). The NODC also has field offices collocated with major government or academic oceanographic laboratories in Stennis Space Center

John C. Stennis Space Center

The John C. Stennis Space Center , located in Hancock County, Mississippi, at the Mississippi-Louisiana border, is NASA's largest rocket engine test facility.- History :...

, MS; Miami, FL; La Jolla, CA

La Jolla, San Diego, California

La Jolla is an affluent, hilly seaside resort community, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean in Southern California within the northern city limits of San Diego. La Jolla had the highest home prices in the nation in 2008 and 2009; the average price of a standardized...

; Seattle, WA; Austin, TX

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

; Charleston, SC

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

; Norfolk, VA

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

; and Honolulu, HI

Honolulu, Hawaii

Honolulu is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. Honolulu is the southernmost major U.S. city. Although the name "Honolulu" refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and county government are consolidated as the City and...

.

NOAA also operates two other data centers: National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), Asheville, North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

 and National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), Boulder, Colorado. Also, the National Snow and Ice Data Center* (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado

Boulder, Colorado

Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...

 is operated for NGDC by the University of Colorado through the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES*).

These discipline-oriented centers serve as national repositories and dissemination facilities for global environmental data. The data archives amassed by the NODC and the other centers provide a record of Earth's changing environment, and support numerous research and operational applications. Working cooperatively, the centers provide data products and services to scientists, engineers, resource managers, policy makers, and other users in the United States and around the world.

History

Established in 1961, the NODC was originally an interagency facility administered by the U.S. Naval

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 Hydrographic (later Oceanographic) Office. The NODC was transferred to NOAA in 1970 when NOAA was created by Executive Order. In the words of its charter, the NODC serves to "acquire, process, preserve, and disseminate oceanographic data." Its primary mission is to ensure that global oceanographic data sets collected at great cost are maintained in a permanent archive that is easily accessible to the world science community and to other users. Dedication document Monday, 16 January 1961 . (.pdf - 4.3 mb) Photo of the dedication (.pdf - .19 mb)

Mission

Mission: To provide scientific stewardship of national and international marine environmental and ecosystem data and information.

Core Description

The National Oceanographic Data Center, National Coastal Data Development Center(NCDDC) and NOAA Central Library, with its regional branch assets, are integrated to provide access to the world's most comprehensive sources of marine environmental data and information. NODC maintains and updates a national ocean archive with environmental data acquired from domestic and foreign activities and produces products and research from these data which help monitor global environmental changes. These data include physical, biological and chemical measurements derived from in situ

In situ

In situ is a Latin phrase which translated literally as 'In position'. It is used in many different contexts.-Aerospace:In the aerospace industry, equipment on board aircraft must be tested in situ, or in place, to confirm everything functions properly as a system. Individually, each piece may...

 oceanographic observations, satellite remote sensing

Remote sensing

Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon, without making physical contact with the object. In modern usage, the term generally refers to the use of aerial sensor technologies to detect and classify objects on Earth by means of propagated signals Remote sensing...

 of the oceans, and ocean model simulations. NODC personnel directly interact with Federal, state, academic, and industrial oceanographic activities, represent NESDIS on various interagency domestic panels, committees and councils, and represent the United States in various international organization

International organization

An intergovernmental organization, sometimes rendered as an international governmental organization and both abbreviated as IGO, is an organization composed primarily of sovereign states , or of other intergovernmental organizations...

s, such as the International Oceanographic Data Exchange. The Data Center

Data center

A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems...

 represents NESDIS and NOAA to the general public, government agencies, private institutions, foreign governments, and the private sector on matters involving oceanographic data.

NODC Data Holdings

The NODC manages the world's largest collection of publicly available oceanographic data. NODC holdings include in situ and remotely sensed physical, chemical, and biological oceanographic data from coastal and deep ocean areas. These were originally collected for a variety of operational and research missions by U.S. Federal agencies, including the Department of Defense

United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

 (primarily the U.S. Navy); by State and local government

Local government

Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...

 agencies; by universities and research institutions; and private industry

Private sector

In economics, the private sector is that part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the state...

. NODC data holdings extend back over one hundred years, and the volume is expected to grow exponentially

Exponential growth

Exponential growth occurs when the growth rate of a mathematical function is proportional to the function's current value...

 as new ocean observing systems are deployed.

Through NODC archive and access services these ocean data are being reused to answer questions about climate change, ocean phenomena, and management of coastal and marine resources, marine transportation, recreation, national security, and natural disasters. Another significant user community is Education, where these data and information products help teach each new generation of students about the oceans. Requests for oceanographic data and information have increased each year since the Center was established in 1961.

International Cooperation and Data Exchange

A significant percentage of the oceanographic data held by NODC is foreign. NODC acquires foreign data through direct bilateral exchanges with other countries, and through the facilities of the World Data Center for Oceanography, Silver Spring, which is collocated with and operated by NODC.

There are three World Data Center

World Data Center

The World Data Center system was created to archive and distribute data collected from the observational programs of the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year. Originally established in the United States, Europe, Soviet Union, and Japan, the WDC system has since expanded to other countries and...

s for Oceanography:
World Data Center, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States,
World Data Center, Moscow, Russia

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, and
World Data Center, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.
They are part of the World Data Center System initiated in 1957 to provide a mechanism for data exchange, and they operate under guidelines issued by the International Council of Scientific Unions

International Council for Science

The International Council for Science , formerly the International Council of Scientific Unions, was founded in 1931 as an international non-governmental organization devoted to international co-operation in the advancement of science...

 (ICSU).

Under NODC leadership, the Global Data Archeology and Rescue (GODAR) project has grown into a major international program sponsored by the Inter-governmental

Intergovernmentalism

-A theory of regional integration:The theory is not applied on European integration which rejects the idea of neofunctionalism. The theory, initially proposed by Stanley Hoffmann suggests that national governments control the level and speed of European integration. Any increase in power at...

 Oceanographic Commission. GODAR is a comprehensive effort to locate, rescue, quality control

Quality control

Quality control, or QC for short, is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. This approach places an emphasis on three aspects:...

, and disseminate historical global ocean profile data for use by the climate and global change

Global change

Global change refers to planetary-scale changes in the Earth system. The system consists of the land, oceans, atmosphere, poles, life, the planet’s natural cycles and deep Earth processes. These constituent parts influence one another...

 research community

Scientific community

The scientific community consists of the total body of scientists, its relationships and interactions. It is normally divided into "sub-communities" each working on a particular field within science. Objectivity is expected to be achieved by the scientific method...

. For more information, check out NODC's International Activities page.

Data Management for Global Change Studies

The NODC provides data management

Data management

Data management comprises all the disciplines related to managing data as a valuable resource.- Overview :The official definition provided by DAMA International, the professional organization for those in the data management profession, is: "Data Resource Management is the development and execution...

 support for major ocean science projects and promotes improved working relations with the academic ocean research community.

NOAA Library and Information Network

The NODC also manages the NOAA Library and Information Network, which includes the NOAA Central Library in Silver Spring, MD; regional libraries in Miami, FL and Seattle, WA; and field libraries or information centers at about 30 NOAA sites throughout the United States. The combined libraries contain millions of volumes including books, journals, CD-ROM

CD-ROM

A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....

s, DVDs, audio, and video tapes

Videocassette recorder

The videocassette recorder , is a type of electro-mechanical device that uses removable videocassettes that contain magnetic tape for recording analog audio and analog video from broadcast television so that the images and sound can be played back at a more convenient time...

.

User Services

Each year the NODC responds to thousands of requests for oceanographic data and information. Copies of specified data sets or data selected from the NODC's archive databases can be provided to users on various media types, or online. NODC data products are provided at prices that cover the cost of data selection and retrieval. However, data provided on the NODC public website is free of charge.

Requests for further information about the NODC and its data holdings, products and services should be directed to:

National Oceanographic Data Center

User Services

NOAA/NESDIS E/OC

SSMC3, 4th Floor

1315 East-West Highway

Maryland Route 410

Maryland Route 410 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as East–West Highway, the highway runs from MD 355 in Bethesda east to Pennsy Drive in Landover Hills...

Silver Spring, Maryland 20910-3282

Telephone: 301-713-3277

Fax: 301-713-3302

E-mail: NODC.Services@noaa.gov