The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) Joseph Proudman Building 6 Brownlow Street Liverpool, L3 5DA, UK

History – British Oceanographic Data Service (BODS) created:  To act as the UK’s National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC)  To participate in the international exchange of data as part of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission's (IOC's) network of national data centres 1975 BODS transferred to Bidston Observatory as part of the newly formed Institute of Oceanographic Sciences 1976 Became the data banking section of the Marine Information and Advisory Service (MIAS)  Funded for 4 years by the Department of Energy and Industry  To manage the data collected from the UK Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA) network of weather ships, oil rigs and large-scale data buoys  Continued this role and assembly of archives of wave, moored current meter, offshore tide gauge and CTD data until late 1980s 1989Restructured to form BODC with a mission to 'operate as a world-class data centre in support of UK marine science‘. Hosted by Proudman Oceanographic Lab.

History – 2 In the late 1980s BODC pioneered a start to finish approach to marine data management. This includes: Assisting in the collection of data at sea Work up and quality control of data Assembling the data for use by the principal investigators The publication of the data sets on CDROM Became the international centre (on behalf of IOC and the IHO) for creating, maintaining and publishing the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) Digital Atlas In 2004 relocated to the University of Liverpool campus Funded primarily by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

What is BODC’s role? Cover core functions of NERC’s Designated Data Centre for marine science and act as the UK’s National Marine Data Centre A National Facility for storing and distributing data concerning the marine environment Host for the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) Sole responsibility is data management Starting premise - data must be secure and readily usable in the long term without reference to the originator

BODC deal with biological, chemical, physical and geophysical data and its databases contain measurements of approx. 10,000 different variables Its ~40 staff includes a wide range of research scientists who have direct experience of marine data collection and analysis They work alongside information technology specialists to ensure that data are documented and stored for current and future use BODC wish to thank Paul Hampton who kindly supplied the Zooplankton photographs

BODC Project Portfolio Core activities Laboratory liaison (NERC Marine Laboratories) National Oceanographic Data Bank Enquiry service and on-line delivery of data International (IODE, GEBCO, CLIVAR, GLOSS, Argo) IT development and support Projects NERC funded: RAPID Climate Change; AMT, Marine Productivity, Autosub under Ice, SOLAS, etc. NERC DataGrid National Tide Gauge Network EU projects: SeaDataNet, Humboldt, SIMORC, TRANSFER GEOTRACES International Data Assembly Centre

Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory Plymouth Marine Laboratory Scottish Association for Marine Science Laboratory Liaison Responsibilities Provide a dedicated and skilled independent resource and associated infrastructure to enable NERC marine centres to secure and access their data long-term Meet NERC’s and the centres’ legal obligations under the Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) National Oceanography Centre, Southampton British Antarctic Survey Sea Mammal Research Unit

Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory To understand a coastal sea's response both to natural forcing and to the consequences of human activity Integrate (near) real-time measurements with coupled models into a pre-operational coastal prediction system

GTS Global Telecommunication System SMRU – Freely available real-time data users British Oceanographic Data Centre ARGOSARGOS

Management approach Liaison with project PIs/Steering Group before project is approved and throughout life-time of project. Costing of data management including work-up of data if required Work package management plans NERC Directed Mode and Consortia BODC provide full data management for project lifetime Data Distribution Project data hub – short term Final product e.g. CD/DVD of data, on-line

Data Quality Control and Archiving Data Tracking Let Oracle know about the data, e.g. Time Series Inventory Archiving Original Data Data arriving at BODC are securely archived Compiling Metadata Metadata describing the data are inserted into various Oracle tables Data Restrictions Appropriate data access restrictions are set up and documented Documentation Comprehensive documentation are produced to describe the data Checking Files and metadata are checked to ensure they conform to strict standards Reformatting Data are converted into a common standard format (NetCDF subset) Archiving Final Data Final versions of the files are archived in the database by the DBA Screening Data are viewed and quality controlled through flagging. Data values are NOT altered Data Distribution Data are made available by the appropriate method, such as web delivery services Flow Chart summarising BODC’s data processing & quality control

Screening of profile and time series data Visual screening on high speed graphics workstation using BODC’s graphics editor EdSerplo EdSerplo enables the display of multiple parameters and rapid zooming Suspect & null values are flagged using a one-byte character. Other flags may be used to indicate an interpolated value or instrument saturation

Providing access to data Little point in data management unless the data are used Direct contact requests Telephone: BODC’s CD-ROMs - successful delivery mechanism for project data Online data inventories and catalogues Online data delivery systems BODC Web Services Download interface software Near-real time data via sub-webs

Online data delivery Users expect to search for, view and receive data via the internet User friendly systems with GIS interfaces Data automatically updated every evening Rapidly moving to deliver all data this way Over 55,000 “series” Still support the “personal” request service

Example: searching the database noc_nodb_series.kml

Example: searching the database

National: MERMAN and Tide Gauge Network Marine Environment Monitoring and Assessment (MERMAN) UK’s mandatory monitoring requirements under OSPAR Convention EC directives and national assessments Contaminants measured in water, sediment and biota; biological effects BODC acts as the Data Manager Annual transfer of data to ICES National Tide Gauge Network Set up as a result of severe flooding along the east coast of England in 1953 Owned and funded by the EA Remote monitoring, data retrieval, processing and quality control Archive to provide long time series of reliable and accurate sea levels Data dissemination for scientific use

Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) Making it easier to source and access marine data Single point of access to all relevant marine data/information Robust network of definitive integrated Data Archiving Centres Providing secure, long term curation for valuable UK marine assets Working with UK government to implement the UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy Supporting implementation of the Marine Bill Helping partners to deal with international data requirements, e.g. INSPIRE Improving mechanisms to facilitate international data exchange (including contributing to global data bases) Saving partners time and money

International: GEBCO, GLOSS and Argo General Bathymetric Chart of the Ocean (GEBCO) Host Digital Atlas Manager Distribution of GEBCO Digital Atlas and gridded bathymetry Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) Delayed-mode data centre Station Information Handbook Member of expert group Argo profiling floats Near-real-time processing Delayed mode quality control Southern Ocean Regional Centre

International: POGO Research Cruise Database Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) Length > 60 metres, certified for open ocean research research vessels, operated by 50 institutes For information received for over 450 cruises from: Australia (28), Belgium (38), China (3), France (34), Germany (68), Japan (44), Netherlands (17), Norway (38), Sweden (18), UK (21), USA (153) New EU EUROFLEETS project

International responsibilities: IOC & ICES … facilitate and promote the exchange of all marine data and information… BODC is one of over 60 National Oceanographic Data Centres Member/chair of expert teams or steering groups Part of data and information management working group Cooperation and provision of advice Provision of data