Additions to Magnetic Trackline Archive For Improvements to Earth Magnetic Anomaly Grid (EMAG2) and Improvements to Data Dissemination at NGDC

Abstract:

The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) is the primary archive of marine geophysical data worldwide. However, it has been challenging for scientist to discover and access data due to variable data formats, non-digital data holdings, and transitioning data discovery portals. In 2014, NGDC made a concerted effort to identify, ingest, and archive all publicly available magnetic trackline data for access via a new Trackline Geophysical Data web-based interface. Non-digital data were digitized and added to the Global Geophysical Database and are now available for download in a common MGD77 format. All ancillary and analog data are accessible via the same interface, without having to navigate through multiple directories or prompts. The result is over 16.5 million miles of magnetic trackline data are now available, both through NGDC’s improved user interface and as a web service for incorporation into other portals. This allows the geoscience community unprecedented access to global geophysical magnetic trackline data from a secure long-term archive.

The addition of 6.5 million miles of magnetic trackline data to the database, since the previous release of the Earth Magnetic Anomaly Grid (EMAG2), will give NGDC the ability to improve the model coverage, especially in areas of low coverage, such as around the Eltanin Fracture Zone in the South Pacific. This poster will focus on some key data additions and how they will help us validate the accuracy of the ocean age model/directional gridding algorithm and improve the Earth Magnetic Anomaly Grid going forward.