The modernized Climate and Atmosphere Data Store infrastructure – a practical implementation of FAIR and Open Data

The modernized Copernicus Climate and Atmosphere Data Store infrastructure – released in 2024 – uses state-of-the-art technology to provide a more scalable and open access to data and services with the adoption of the FAIR principles and Open Data at its core. The infrastructure, named the Common Data Stores – Engine (CDS-E), exposes to the public two different frontends, the Climate Data Store (CDS) in support of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the Atmosphere Data Store (ADS) for the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) whilst sharing all the backend components. Combined, the CDS and ADS provide service to more than 300k registered users, delivering over 180 TBs of data on daily basis in the form of more than 700k processed requests. It also seeks to strengthen interdependencies with other European platforms such as the WEKEO Data and Information Access Platform (DIAS), Climate-Adapt, ClimSA, and facilitates interactions with different platforms in the future E.U. Green Deal Data Space, thereby fostering a broader engagement with the user community.

The CDS and ADS allow free and open access to the wide range of climate and atmospheric monitoring datasets through both a web-based and programmatic interface. The modernized infrastructure makes use of modern cloud technology and an open framework that bring new components to the CDS and ADS. These include a variety of adaptors, modern standards and protocols, such as OGC compliant APIs, STAC metadata standards for programmatic interrogation of geospatial information, Serverless Analysis-Ready Cloud Optimized (ARCO) Services and Standard WMS/WMTS for improved integration, access, and visualisation. This allows the CDS and ADSs to support a seamless experience on the user's journey to explore, discover, retrieve and use the available resources whilst remaining scalable and versatile.

At the core of its versatility is the implementation of FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). The adoption to the FAIR principles has in fact followed a gradual and systematic approach that has kept the platform and its content under continuous evolution and improvement. Here we describe how the adoption of the FAIR principles and an Open Data philosophy was implemented and outline the practical benefits of this approach to the user community.