Virtual geophysical data

In a modern-day twist on the International Geophysical Year of 1957 that united scientists from 67 countries in coordinated observations of the Earth, geophysicists from around the globe are declaring 2007–08 the Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY). Their goal is to make the massive amounts of data from Earth and spacscodee science research accessible to scientists, teachers, and others, primarily through virtual observatories.

“The cross-disciplinary aspects of data have not even been considered [by many researchers], and the cross-disciplinary part is where the cutting edge of science always has been,” said W. K. Peterson, eGY’s secretary and a plasma physicist at the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Spacscodee Physics. “What we have now are a lot of FTP sites where scientists who are really in the know, who are in the club, can get at their data and share it internationally. We can do better than that.”

The eGY goals include encouraging international standards for data handling throughout the geosciences, determining who holds what data where, encouraging open access to data, and preserving older data and making it available electronically. The data will be linked through virtual observatories that are set up not just for narrow scientific disciplines, but for use by researchers from other disciplines and by nontraditional data users, such as policymakers and teachers.

The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics initiated eGY, and the programs will be led by the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy. Details of events and demonstrations of virtual observatories can be found at http://www.egy.org .