Repositories for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Data
Digital Repositories
Climate observations
CLIVAR Data Assembly Centres (DACs). Archives of various climate observation datasets.
Cryospheric data
National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Cryospheric databases and other information gathered from such sources as remote sensing instruments, ground measurements, and models.
Geochemical data
EarthChem. An online database of chemical analyses of rocks from around the globe.
Geodetic data
University NAVSTAR Consortium (UNAVCO). An online archive of GPS data and data products.
Maps, aerial photographs, and related information
U.S. Antarctic Resource Center (USARC) at the U.S. Geological Survey. Comprehensive collection of antarctic maps, charts, satellite images and photographs. The USARC is the United States' contribution to the SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) Library system.
Marine geophysical and oceanographic data and cruise information
Antarctic Multibeam Bathymetry and Geophysical Data Synthesis (AMBS). An online database of Antarctic marine bathymetry data, maps, trackline geophysical data and other oceanographic information.
Paleobotany
Antarctic Paleobotany Collection. An online database and collection of Antarctic fossil plants.
Paleomagnetic data
Magnetics Information Consortium (MagIC). Data range from individual measurements to specimen, sample or site level results, and include a wide variety of derived parameters or associated rock magnetic measurements.
Seismic data
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). An online archive of seismic data.
Sample registration
System for Earth Sample Registration (SESAR). A system for sample registry that generates unique sample identifiers.
Sample Repositories
Ice cores
U.S. National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) supported by NSF-OPP and the USGS-Geological Division, houses approximately 12,000 meters of ice cores recovered from Greenland and Antarctica that are available for study.
Sedimentary cores and grab samples; ocean bottom and continental cores
Antarctic Research Facility (ARF), Florida State University. Shipboard coring supported by the U.S. Antarctic Program over four decades has produced the world's largest collection of antarctic piston cores, housed at the Antarctic Research Facility.
Rock samples
U.S.Polar Rock Repository (USPRR). Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University. The repository houses rock collections from Antarctica and the Arctic, along with associated materials such as field notes, annotated photos and maps, raw analytic data, paleomagnetic cores, ground rock and mineral residues, thin sections, and microfossil mounts, microslides and residues.
Biological specimens
More than 31,000 samples comprising 300,000 specimens of antarctic benthic invertebrates, plankton, algae, and fish collected by U.S. Antarctic Program researchers are available for study and identification. The collection also includes the primary types of more than 400 antarctic invertebrate species. The Smithsonian Institution Department of Invertebrate Zoology handles the collection and maintains a database of cataloged material.
Meteorite samples
More than half the world's meteorites available to science have been recovered from Antarctica since 1969. Samples collected under U.S. Antarctic Program sponsorship are managed, described, curated, and made available for research at Johnson Space Center, NASA, under an interagency agreement between NSF, NASA, and the Smithsonian Institution.
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