IPYDIS News

The State of Polar Data now available

2010-06-12T11:20:07+00:00

The State of Polar Data was presented by Mark Parsons at the IPY Oslo Science Conference on Friday. See the web cast at http://ipy-osc.no/live. The report will be part of a book on IPY outcomes, but a pre-print version is available at http://ipydis.org/documents/State_of_Polar_Data20100514_distribute.pdf.

Launch of the Polar Information Commons

2010-06-03T13:05:16+00:00

16.15h, Tuesday, 8 June

Polar Information Commons (PIC)

Booth C04-07

IPY Oslo Science Conference 2010

http://www.polarcommons.org

Launch Program

Chair of the launch: Robert Chen, Secretary General, CODATA

Welcome to the launch: Deliang Chen, Executive Director, ICSU; Olav Orheim, Chair, IPY OSC Steering Committee

Brief overview of the PIC: Mark Parsons, NSIDC; Taco de Bruin, NIOZ; Kim Finney, SCAR

Official launch of the PIC: Steven Chown, University of Stellenbosch, Recipient of the Martha T. Muse Prize

Followed by cutting of birthday cake and tea/coffee

CODATA, an Interdisciplinary body of ICSU, working with its partners, the International Arctic Science Council (IASC); the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR); the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG); the World Meteorological Organization (WMO); the IPY International Program Office (IPY IPO); the ICSU World Data System Scientific Committee (WDS-SC), Science Commons, Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences are delighted to announce the Official launch of the Polar Information Commons.

Visit the
Polar Information Commons Booth C04-07
Tuesday, 8 June at the IPY Oslo Science Conference at 16.15

Background:

The International Polar Year 2007-2008 (IPY) has been a major scientific success, providing new insights into polar processes and change and their implications for the global environment. It is now critical to ensure that the data generated by the IPY and follow-on activities are accessible and preserved for future generations.

Please visit the booth to learn how to contribute data to the PIC, access and use PIC resources, and help ensure the long-term viability of the PIC.

For more information about the launch event, contact the CODATA Secretariat,

Status of Swedish IPY Data Repository

2010-03-18T11:46:59+00:00

The number of datasets in the Swedish IPY Data Repository (http://ipy.smhi.se) has increased slowly. Theres is now metadata for 58 datasets in our repository. Most of those datasetsonly only include metadata but no data are available. But many of the publishers have marked the data as “Data Set Progress = Complete” and give a link to their web-site (or to our OpenDAP-service). Then a user might think that on this web-site there is data available. But for most of the datasets this is not true. This might be frustrating for the user, who search for data. The definitiion of “Data Set Progress = Complete” is “Complete refers to data sets in which no updates or further data collection will be made”. This definition does not says that data shall be made availble for external usage. Maybe a better definition would be “Completed refers to data sets in which no updates or further data collection will be made and the data are made available for external usage”???

Of course one possibility is not insert the link (Related URL) until data are available. But reserachers often have interesting web-sites and it might be of general interest to present the link to this web-site even before data is available.

Any comments or ideas?

Data Sharing Grand Prize Winner

2010-03-05T16:55:59+00:00

Congratulations to Claude De Broyer of Belgium.

Dr. De Broyer’s data set Checklist of Antarctic and Subantarctic Hyperiidea was selected as the grand prize winner in our IPY data sharing contest! The data are available through the nice SCARMarBIN Web Map Server.

He won a free trip to the IPY Open Science Conference in June in Oslo (http://www.ipy-osc.no/). This includes full travel, lodging, and registration costs for the conference that includes free city transportation and free lunches, admittance to festival and conference picnic.

Congratulations to Claude, and thanks to all the winners over the last seven months!

Invitation to participate and demo at the Polar Information Commons in Oslo

2010-03-05T16:19:52+00:00

The Polar Information Commons (PIC) has made remarkable progress in the months since receiving a small initiation grant from ICSU. We have stimulated interest and initial participation from several polar data centers and seek to expand that partnership.

With support from NASA and conference organizers the PIC will host a prominent informations commons area at the IPY Science Conference in Oslo, consisting of:
1. A central workstation cluster to demonstrate, in a hands-on fashion, the PIC tools, processes, and systems, and to allow interested users to badge and submit their data within the PIC system.
2. Surrounding displays from cooperating polar data centres, to emphasize the variety and capabilities of the various portals for IPY data and their collective involvement with PIC.
3. The International Programme Office display, with our rich array of polar information consisting of books and maps for distribution and flyers, charts, maps, resources, stamps and coins and links for perusal and download.
4. A 3-dimensional data sculpture developed by art students from the Netherlands.
5. Selected images from the “Polar Heritage” display produced by Christian Morel (tentative).
6. A friendly and comfortable location for people to explore and learn about PIC formally and about IPY polar information generally.

We envision full-time staffing of the PIC and the IPO nodes. We plan informal and scheduled demonstrations of PIC itself.

We offer the opportunity for polar data centers to demonstrate their data systems and engage with their user communities. If you are interested in exhibiting, please contact , David Carlson, or Kathleen Cass. Some limited travel support will be available to assist data centers who might not otherwise attend.

This is a great opportunity to carry the data legacy of IPY forward. Please let us know of your interest as soon as possible.

Sixth Data Sharing Award Winner

2010-02-16T19:02:39+00:00

Congratulations to Larry Hamilton of the USA who wwon our sixth award.

His data set, “Graph of New Stuyahok population 1990-2006”
was selected as the monthly winner in our IPY data sharing contest.

Larry won free registration to the IPY Open Science Conference in June in Oslo (http://www.ipy-osc.no/). The €490 registration includes midday meals and free city transportation, as well as admittance to the festival and conference picnic.

Congratulations!

IPY Portal Live Again.

2010-02-13T20:09:20+00:00

http://gcmd.nasa.gov/portals/ipy/

-m.

IPY Portal at GCMD down.

2010-02-10T15:55:46+00:00

The GCMD has experienced network problems and they have been unable to repair it because the center is closed due to the heavy snows in the Washington DC area. I note the irony of a snowstorm closing down a polar data portal .

I’ll let you know when they are back in business.

-m.

Fifth Data Sharing Contest Winner

2010-01-26T16:12:58+00:00

Dear Dr. Fernandes,

I write to you on behalf of IPY and the IPY Data Committee.

I am pleased to announce that Richard Fernades won our fifth IPY data sharing award!

His data set in the Polar Data Catalogue: #1614 “Continuous daily snow cover estimates over Northern Hemisphere land surfaces dur...” was selected as the fifth monthly winner in our IPY data sharing contest!

By submitting his data, shee won free registration to the IPY Open Science Conference in June in Oslo (http://www.ipy-osc.no/). The €490 registration includes midday meals and free city transportation, as well as admittance to the festival and conference picnic.

Congratulations to all!

-m.

Fourth Data Sharing Contest Winner

2009-12-14T17:30:41+00:00

Dorothy Cooley from Canada won our fourth IPY data sharing award!

Her data set, the “IPY - YNNK Moose Movement and Habitat Use in Old Crow Flats” was selected as the November monthly winner in our IPY data sharing contest!

By submitting her data, she won an “Oslo Stipend” for the IPY Open Science Conference in June in Oslo. This includes a housing allowance and a 50% off the registration, which includes free city transportation and free lunches, as well as admittance to the festival and conference picnic.

Dorothy was supported by the fine folks at the Canadian Polar Data Catalogue

Congratulations to all!

-m.