Clearing accumulated snow on custom radar monitoring equipment in order to service the gear.
Case study: Enhanced data sharing capability for Antarctica and the Southern Ocean
Aotearoa New Zealand has been undertaking Antarctic science for over 65 years. Climate and geomagnetic measurements have been made since 1957, when Scott Base was first established. Some observations go back even earlier—such as the geomagnetic measurements made at Cape Evans by Robert Falcon Scott’s 1911 exhibition. Yet, until now, there was no centralised tool that could be used to determine how many and what New Zealand Antarctic and Southern Ocean research datasets exist, or how to access them.
The need to update data management is becoming more compelling, with increases in the cost (both dollars and carbon), value (in terms of data demand to constantly improve skill and complexity of models projecting Antarctica’s changing role in the Earth System), and volume of data and sample collections (as new technologies enable ever greater rates of data acquisition). These advances require better systems for processing, storage and searchability of different types and formats of data, including structured and unstructured data arrays.
The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Metadata Catalogue
To address this need, the Antarctic Science Platform partnered with Antarctica New Zealand to design, build and launch New Zealand’s first Antarctic and Southern Ocean Metadata Catalogue.
Metadata is information that describes and explains data. It acts as a structured reference to help sort and search datasets, to provide contextual information, and to identify attributes of the information it describes. The research metadata, for example, includes title and abstract of the dataset, geospatial and temporal ranges, measured parameters, copyright licence, where and how the data is stored and can be accessed, and who to contact to discuss all of these.
The Catalogue does not host data; it hosts the URL link to the data file(s) at the third-party repository and the data remains under the direct management of the data owner or provider. A significant feature of the Catalogue’s platform is that in future, data could also be included.
The Catalogue currently contains over 150 published metadata records, with over 50 in development. Of this total, over one-third are from Platform research and the remainder are from New Zealand’s non-Platform funded Antarctic research community.
Improved data discovery and access
This virtual data centre provides Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) Antarctic and Southern Ocean data. It enables users to discover, access and reuse data from across New Zealand’s Antarctic and Southern Ocean research programmes, and disseminates these data across the international Antarctic and Southern Ocean data ecosystem.
The metadata catalogue supports researchers to comply with the Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment’s open access to research data policy, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) data policy, and the principles outlined in the Antarctic Treaty – in particular Article III, section 1(c), which stipulates that “scientific observations and results from Antarctica shall be exchanged and made freely available”.
This critical capability supports researchers to search existing data to enhance the value of work products in sometimes unexpected ways. As research questions evolve in complex, multidisciplinary directions, more parameters are needed to add to models, and new technologies advance capabilities for field data collection, the ability to search existing data may prevent unnecessary delay, repetition and expense.
Enhancing collaboration and policy
Improved metadata management is a strategic approach to data governance and handling, and a critical foundation for strong collaboration. The catalogue is building a data community of researchers and policy-makers.
Design of the catalogue’s functionality was led by the Platform’s Data Curator in consultation with the Platform’s Data Group, as well as the Australian Antarctic Data Centre, the World Data System, and SCAR’s Standing Committee on Antarctic Data Management. Metadata ingested by the catalogue is standardised for interoperability, allowing collaboration across domestic and international Antarctic research programmes.
The Catalogue is integrated with the Oceanum Datamesh, an initiative funded by the Department of Internal Affairs that seeks to support effective access to scientific data from across New Zealand’s government agencies.
Work is currently underway to build tools and Jupyter Notebooks for researchers and policy-makers to query and analyse/evaluate Antarctic and Southern Ocean data.
By supporting this project, the Strategic Science Investment Fund’s support for the Antarctic Science Platform safeguards the strategic benefits of New Zealand’s scientific activity in Antarctica, ensuring the important legacy of collected data is preserved and available to researchers and policymakers in New Zealand and overseas, optimising the value and impact of Antarctic science.
This case study was prepared as part of the Platform’s annual reporting to the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE) for 2023/24.