Inventory of EU Marine Climate Change Research

Seadatanet - A Pan-European Infrastructure for Ocean and Marine Data Management

Project website:
http://www.seadatanet.org

Summary information
Funding:	FP6 - Integrated Infrastructure Initiative
Total cost:	10510000
Ec contribution:	8750000
Start date:	2006-04-01
End date:	2011-03-31
Duration:	60 months
Coordinator:	Gilbert Maudire (Gilbert.Maudire@ifremer.fr)
Organisation:	French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea – France
Keywords:	Data management, access and data sharing, information, products and knowledge originating from oceanographic fleets, new automatic observation systems and space sensors
Project name:	Seadatanet - A Pan-European Infrastructure for Ocean and Marine Data Management
Project summary:	Abstract Data availability is of vital importance for marine research but most of the European data are fragmented, not always validated and not easily accessible. In the 40 countries bordering the European seas, more than 600 scientific laboratories from governmental organizations and private industry collect data by using various sensors on board of research vessels, submarines, fixed and drifting platforms, airplanes and satellites to measure physical, geophysical, geological, biological and chemical parameters, species etc. SEADATANET aims to develop an efficient distributed Pan-European Marine Data Management Infrastructure for managing these large and diverse data sets. The objective is to network the existing professional data centres of 35 countries, active in data collection, and provide integrated databases of standardized quality on-line. The on-line access to in situ and remote sensing data, meta-data and products will be provided through a unique portal interconnecting, in the first phase, 11 interoperable node platforms. The development and adoption of common communication standards and adapted technology will ensure the platforms interoperability. This activity will be developed to gradually connect all the other data centres to the interoperable system. The quality, compatibility and coherence of the data issuing from so many sources, will be ensured by adopting standardized methodologies for data checking, by dedicating part of the activities to training and preparation of synthesised regional and global statistical gridded products from the most comprehensive in situ and remote sensing data sets made available by the participants. These products will be easier to interpret by non-specialist users, and will be used first to check the data and the system operability, and further to market SEADATANET and to serve a wider range of uses than raw data: e.g. model initialisation, industrial projects and teaching.
Project outputs:	SEADATANET has developed an efficient distributed Marine Data Management Infrastructure for the management of large and diverse sets of data deriving from in situ and remote observation of the seas and oceans. Professional data centres, active in data collection are constituting a pan-European network providing on-line integrated databases of standardized quality. The on-line access to in situ and remote sensing data, meta-data and products is provided through a unique portal interconnecting the interoperable node platforms constituted by the SeaDataNet data centres. The development and adoption of common communication standards and adapted technology ensure the platforms interoperability. The quality, compatibility and coherence of the data issuing from so many sources, is assured by the adoption of standardized methodologies for data checking, by dedicating part of the activities to training and preparation of synthesised regional and global statistical products from the most comprehensive in situ and remote sensing data sets made available by the SeaDataNet partners. Data, value added products and dictionaries serve wide uses: e.g. research, model initialisation, industrial projects, teaching, marine environmental assessment.