Review of NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center (2003) / Chapter Skim
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2. Overview of NGDC
2. Overview of NGDC
Pages 13-28
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From page 13... ...
Data centers can strive to understand the data needs of their users; prepare guide information to assist users in evaluating the relevance of the data to their purposes; develop datahandling tools and services to help users find and work with the data; contact experts on behalf of users with complex scientific queries; and reprocess data in response to scientific demands.
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From page 14... ...
datasets are online.3 In general, analog datasets are more difficult for staff to manage than digital datasets because the relevant metadata often do not reside with the analog records, which makes it harder to assemble useful datasets. Similarly, small, unique 2 Presentation to the committee by Michael Loughridge, director, National Geophysical Data Center, August 13, 2002.
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From page 15... ...
SOURCE: National Geophysical Data Center.
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From page 16... ...
, and industry.5 Potential future sources of data include the Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) on GOES-12, a network of continuously operating Global Positioning System reference stations, high-resolution sidescan sonar imagery, and shallow-water multibeam bathymetry.6 In addition, NOAA in coordination with the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is preparing the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS)
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From page 17... ...
Most of the transferred data were managed by the Solid Earth Geophysics Division, which now includes ecological datasets and has a considerably more environmental focus than it has had historically. DATA USERS NGDC users include scientific, technical, and lay users in government agencies, universities, and private companies in the United States and abroad.8 Users are categorized by Web visitors and customers who purchase data.
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From page 18... ...
NOAA has no formal priorities for responding to requests from different user groups, although internal users are apparently given the highest priority. Staff in the National Weather Service and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, for example, are considered the most important users of satellite data.9 Similarly, NGDC reports that it does not give priority to any user group,l° but NGDC staff told the committee that the center tries to meet the needs of its sophisticated users (i.e., scientists, 9 Presentation to the committee by Charles Wooldridge, chief of staff, NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, November 13, 2002.
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From page 19... ...
Several servers can be directed to fill user requests, a lesson NGDC learned when a National Public Radio interview led users to overwhelm the center's Web server in 1995.13 11 Presentation to the committee by Mary Glackin satellite and information services, August 13, 2002. ,, deputy assistant administrator for 12 Federal data policy is set forth in the Paperwork Reduction Act (as amended in 1995)
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From page 20... ...
The figures for FY 1999 through FY 2002 are for data requests only. SOURCE: National Geophysical Data Center.
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From page 21... ...
Some services are provided by NGDC staff in partnership with private vendors. Examples include interactive map and other geospatial services, which are being developed in partnership with ESRI, and a Web interface to the Blue Angel commercial metadata software package, which facilitates metadata updates.
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From page 22... ...
Finally, NGDC staff members provide services to other organizations, mostly other divisions of NOAA or other government agencies. Such services range from distributing gravity data on behalf of the National Geodetic Survey to providing the archive for nonnavigational charts for the Office of Coast Surveyl7 to digitizing and distributing geomagnetic data for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.l8 Some of these activities are carried out on a reimbursable basis.
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From page 23... ...
Corrected for inflation, NGDC's base funding has remained relatively flat for the last 10 years, and the total NGDC budget, which has risen and fallen, is now about at the same level that it was in 1992 (Figure 2.5~. Some NGDC staff members believe budgets are flat because NOAA does not consider the center to address "mainstream" NOAA issues.20 The budget picture by division is more variable (Figure 2.6~.
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From page 24... ...
From bottom to top, base funding is shown in violet, funding from non-NESDIS parts of NOAA is shown in maroon, funding from reimbursable work and data sales is shown in yellow, and direct cite funding (one-time, nonrecurring expenses, such as hardware and software) is shown in aqua.
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From page 25... ...
The visiting scientists most of whom have retired from NGDC or from federal agencies in the Boulder area NOAA Corps officers and the NOS detailee are not on the payroll. The average age of the federal employees is in the 50s and the average age of the total workforce is mid-40s.23 More than half the federal employees are eligible for some sort of retirement, including 16 percent eligible now and 48 percent eligible under discontinued service provisions.
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From page 26... ...
, corrected for inflation, for the four NGDC divisions: Marine Geology and Geophysics (MGG) , Solid Earth Geophysics (SEG)
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From page 27... ...
o ~ 1500 on ISD o 27 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Fiscal Year shown in maroon; and funding from reimbursable work and data sales is shown in yellow. SOURCE: Calculated from data provided by the National Geophysical Data Center.
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From page 28... ...
28 RE VIE ~ OF NOAA'S NATIONAL GE OPHYSICAL DATA CENTER · The division heads are able to act autonomously without considering the consequences of their actions on the budget. As a result the budget is not necessarily aligned with the core activities of the center.
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