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The GOSIC
The Global Observing Systems Information Center (GOSIC) is hosted at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), located in Asheville, NC, and provides an information center that facilitates the search of and access to data, data products, metadata and information for the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) and their partner programs such as the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) and the regional observing systems such as the GOOS Regional Alliances (GRA).
The distributed nature of this vast system of global and regional data and information systems is best served by such a single entry point for users: the GOSIC Portal (http://gosic.org). The goal of the GOSIC Portal is to provide easy access to the data and information without users having to find it for themselves by navigating the several hundred complex and vastly different web sites of the myriad of organizations in the Global Observing Systems. Also the GOSIC Portal explains the data systems and provides integrating overviews of the programs and on-line access to their data, information and services. The GOSIC Portal does not hold data. It maintains information about the datasets and products and points to the centers holding them. The GOSIC does not create or modify the presentations. If the centers identify the source of the data and information, the acknowledgement will appear in the GOSIC Portal.
The GOSIC in the news:
In general the GOSIC Portal:
- Provides for searches for data and information across all participating data centers
- Returns results regardless of the data format, or where the data are located
- Provides results back in a standard easy-to-read, easy-to-understand format
- Allows users to determine the type and quality of the data through documentation provided by the participating data centers
- Allows users to obtain datasets
Some of the features of the GOSIC Portal are:
 Cooperation between the GOSIC and NASA's Global Change Master Directory (GCMD):
 The Global Observing Systems Information Center (GOSIC) and the NASA Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) cooperate to provide users with Global Observing Systems metadata. More at: http://gosic.org/search_GCMD.asp
The Global Observing Systems Information Center (GOSIC), the NASA Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) and TEMS have developed a matrix to access selected datasets registered in the GCMD according to the TEMS topics and its associated variables. The objective was to bridge the gap between the monitoring sites which measure the variables and the datasets produced which are not always recorded in a metadata directory like GCMD.
More on the GTOS observing system and the GTOS Matrix.
The GOSIC and The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS):
 In 2008, the GOSIC became a registered component of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) and functions as a community portal for the global observing systems community. GEOSS is dedicated to building an integrated, comprehensive and sustained "system of systems" from themany thousands of individual Earth observation technologies around the globe. The U.S. is a founding member of the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO), which is developing GEOSS. The U.S. Group on Earth Observations (USGEO), a subcommittee of the President's National Science and Technology Council, coordinates U.S. government participation. USGEO is supported by 15 Federal agencies and three White House offices. More
 The GOSIC Data Registry is a data service on the GEO Portal
The GOSIC Support of other Programs
Support provided to the Pacific Islands GCOS, GOOS and HYCOS by the GOSIC:
The GOSIC supports the regional observing system and developed prototypes for the PI-GCOS.org, PI-GOOS.org and the Pacific-HYCOS.org web sites in 2008. The GOSIC staff trained the web masters of the sites. The PI-GCOS web site was turned over to Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and PI-GOOS and Pacific-HYCOS web sites to SOPAC the same year.
Support of the Pacific Islands Meteorological Services by the GOSIC:
The GOSIC support some of the Pacific Islands Meteorological Services with hosting of their web pages on the PI-GCOS web site. The GOSIC developed prototype web pages for some of the Meteorological Web Services and trained web masters in 2008. For more information:
Support of the GOOS Regional Alliances (GRA) by the GOSIC:
The GOSIC also support the regional alliances and provides a web page for the GOOS Regional Alliances (GRA) with data access and program overview and GRA data can be searched in GOSIC Data Registry. (GRA web page) (GRA data in the GOSIC Data Registry).
Support of the World Data Center for Meteorology at Asheville (WDCA) by the GOSIC:
The GOSIC staff manages the World Data Center for Meteorology in Asheville, NC web site.
Support of the US GCOS web site by the GOSIC:
The GOSIC staff manages USGCOS web sites.
Oversight of the GOSIC
Guidance and evaluation of the GOSIC are provided by the Science Steering Committees of the three observing systems. The GOSIC reports at Science Steering Committee meetings and receives directions for further development.
Hosting of the GOSIC
The GOSIC is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), and the U.S. GCOS Program on behalf of the global observing community.
Update December 30, 2009 |
