Overview
You have reached the Data Coordination Center for the U.S. Antarctic Program. The USAP-DCC is funded by the NSF Office of Polar Programs to coordinate the management of data collected by U.S. funded scientists in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. The USAP-DCC also operates as the U.S.'s National Antarctic Data Center in the SCAR/COMNAP Joint Committee on Antarctic Data Management.
The goals of the USAP-DCC are to help scientists find Antarctic scientific data of interest and to submit their data for curation and long term preservation in accordance with their obligations under the NSF Office of Polar Programs Guidelines and Award Conditions for Scientific Data
Submitting data through the USAP-DCC
Data submission involves both the registration of a data description into the Antarctic Master Directory (AMD) and submission to a recognized national data center as described on the Contribute Data page of this site. The data description includes discovery information about the data set that will enable users to assess whether a data set is relevant for their research or education needs and are required to be in a standard format specified by the AMD.
What is the Antarctic Master Directory
The AMD is a node of the International Directory Network/Global Change Master Directory (IDN/GCMD). The AMD is a Web-based, searchable directory of thousands of data descriptions submitted by scientists from over 20 countries.
How to access data collected by U.S. scientists
Data and information about U.S. funded research programs in Antarctica can be accessed through the Search Data (coming soon) pages on this site.
How to find out about all data collected in the Antarctic
Visit the Antarctic Master Directory to access information about data collected by all Antarctic scientists internationally.
Brief History of Antarctic Treaty Agreements on Sharing of Data
The Antarctic Treaty calls on parties to exchange and make freely available scientific observations and results from Antarctica. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP) formed the Joint Committee on Antarctic Data Management (JCADM) in order to establish an Antarctic Data Directory System (ADDS). The ADDS is comprised of National Antarctic Data Centers linked to an Antarctic Master Directory (AMD). Researchers from all nations are requested to submit descriptions of their data sets in Data Interchange Format (DIF) to the AMD.