International Collaborations Fostering Data Discovery and Access of Geodetic Data for the Geosciences

Abstract:

UNAVCO community investigators are actively engaged in using space and terrestrial geodetic techniques to study earthquake processes, mantle properties, active magmatic systems, plate tectonics, plate boundary zone deformation, intraplate deformation, glacial isostatic adjustment, and hydrologic and atmospheric processes. Since the first GPS field projects were conducted over thirty years ago, these science investigations and the UNAVCO constituency as a whole have been international and collaborative in scope and participation. Collaborations were driven by the nature of the scientific problems being addressed, the capability of the technology to make precise measurements over global scales, and inherent technical necessity for sharing of GPS tracking data across national boundaries. The International GNSS Service (IGS) was formed twenty years ago as a voluntary federation to share GPS data from now hundreds of locations around the globe to facilitate realization of global reference frames, ties to regional surveys, precise orbits, and to establish and improve best practices in analysis and infrastructure. Recently, however, numbers of regional stations have grown to the tens of thousands, typically with data that are difficult to access. UNAVCO has been working to help remove technical barriers by providing open source tools such as the Geodetic Seamless Archive Centers software to facilitate data sharing and discovery and by developing DataWorks software to manage network data. Data web services also provide the framework for UNAVCO contributions to multi-technique, inter-disciplinary, and integrative activities such as CooPEUS, GEO Supersites, EarthScope, and EarthCube. We will discuss some of UNAVCO’s experiences with building and maintaining international collaborations, processes for defining and evolving best practices, technological approaches for sharing and attribution of geodetic data, and challenges to open data access.