Managing Geophysics datasets: Challenges and perspectives from the UK Polar Data Centre

Today, open data policies are better understood by scientists and writing a data management plan is part of every Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) project submission. But that means that scientists are expecting more and more from their data publication or data requests: they want interactive maps, they want more complex data systems, they want to query data and publish them rapidly.

At the UK Polar Data Centre (PDC, https://www.bas.ac.uk/data/uk-pdc/), the datasets are very diverse, reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of polar science. Geophysics datasets include bathymetry, aerogravity, aeromagnetics and airborne radar depth soundings. Encouraging reuse and increasing the value of data is at the core of PDC’s mission. Data published by the PDC are used in a large variety of scientific research projects internationally. For instance, the significant datasets from seabed multibeam coverage of the Southern Ocean enables the British Antarctic Survey to be a major contributor to multiple projects such as International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO) and Seabed 2030. The wide coverage of airborne radar echo sounding over Antarctica is crucial for the SCAR BEDMAP3 project which aims to produce new map of Antarctic ice thickness and bed topography for the international glaciology and geophysical community.

Over the last year, procedures to preserve, archive and distribute these data have been revised and updated to comply with the requirements of CoreTrustSeal. But we are still looking for new technologies, tools, open-source software that will help us bring interactivity to our datasets and reach the expectations of scientists.