Seeing Earth for the First Time and Other Archive Adventures

Abstract:

Deep in the hidden recesses of the basement, there lies some of the first images taken from a NOAA satellite--full plate images of the earth. Until recently, it would have been nearly impossible to find it, except on accident. In recent months, a major effort has been underway to improve how physical data is stored in the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). Between consolidating the physical space available to almost half of its original square footage, reduced resources, and reducing storage costs, it's more important than ever to make sure potential users of the data can find what they are looking for and have access to it from anywhere in the world. The NCDC has been working on several projects to meet these needs, including: catalog improvement to cater to vast collection of users, increased access to information about our datasets, centralized access when possible, and implementing a policy to make physical datasets searchable and discoverable.