The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) is a national facility for looking after and distributing data about the marine environment. BODC is the designated marine science data centre for the UK and part of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The centre provides a resource for science, education and industry, as well as the general public. BODC is hosted by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) -- primarily at its facility in Liverpool, with small number of its staff in Southampton.
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History
The origins of BODC go back to 1969 when NERC created the British Oceanographic Data Service (BODS). Located at the National Institute of Oceanography, Wormley in Surrey, its purpose was to:
- Act as the UK's National Oceanographic Data Centre
- Participate in the international exchange of data as part of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) network of national data centres
In 1975 BODS was transferred to Bidston Observatory on the Wirral, near Liverpool, as part of the newly formed Institute of Oceanographic Sciences. The following year BODS became the Marine Information and Advisory Service (MIAS)[1]. Its primary activity was to manage the data collected from weather ships, oil rigs and data buoys. The data banking component of MIAS was restructured to form BODC in April 1989. Its mission was to 'operate as a world-class data centre in support of UK marine science'. BODC pioneered a start to finish approach to marine data management. This involved:
- Assisting in the collection of data at sea
- Quality control of data
- Assembling the data for use by the scientists
- The publication of data sets on CD-ROM
In December 2004, BODC moved to the purpose-built Joseph Proudman Building on the campus of the University of Liverpool. A small number of its staff are based in the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), Southampton.
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Aims
- Work alongside scientists during marine research projects
- Provide quality control and archiving of oceanographic data
- Maintain an online source of information and improve public access to marine data
- Provide innovative marine data products
National role
BODC is one of six designated data centres that manage NERC's environmental data and has a number of national roles and responsibilities:
- Performing data management for NERC-funded marine projects
- Maintaining and developing its archive of marine data, the National Oceanographic Database (NODB)
- Managing, checking and archiving data from tide gauges around the UK coast for the National Tide Gauge Network, which aims to obtain high quality tidal information and to provide warning of possible flooding of coastal areas around the British Isles. This is part of the National Tidal & Sea Level Facility (NTSLF)
- Hosting the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN)
- Working in partnership with other NERC marine research centres:
- British Antarctic Survey (BAS)
- National Oceanography Centre (NOC), Liverpool, formerly Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL)
- National Oceanography Centre (NOC), Southampton
- Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML)
- Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS)
- Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU)
International role
BODC's international roles and responsibilities include:
- Contributing to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Marine Data Management
- Creating, maintaining and publishing the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) Digital Atlas
- BODC is one of over 60 national oceanographic data centres that form part of the IOC International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE)
Projects and initiatives
The following are a selection of the projects that BODC is or has been involved with:
- Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT)
- Autosub Under Ice (AUI)
- Marine Productivity (MarProd)
- Rapid Climate Change (RAPID)
- Ocean Margin Exchange (OMEX)
- SeaDataNet
- System of Industry Metocean data for the Offshore and Research Communities (SIMORC)
- Vocabulary Server
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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