Off-site, data storage

you'd think this data would be all over the world, is it proprietary?

 

Most of the US gummint (a few notable three-letter agencies excepted for obvious reasons) has had a long, strong tradition of keeping information collected at public expense as publicly accessible as possible for public use as a public good. (That was my job during my IT stint at a federal court, and we regarded that role pretty solemnly.) Surely lots of individual researchers all have their own stuff and it could be recovered from them, but the US agencies have probably seemed like pretty reliable, well-run, long-term stable, easy go-to places for a lot of that information in one place. That being so, maybe there's been a lower sense of urgency about trying to wholesale replicate such volumes of stuff elsewhere.

All well and good, until you hand your government over to folks who aren't into all that.

-Chap

 

There are data files, metadata, gray and white literature, computational models, and 'web apps'. It seems not simply paranoia to desire backups.

I harangue 'the kids' often about file-storage hygiene. This should not be different.

Data.gov is 'doing something' now so that new files are not being added:

Migration Notification - Data.gov

But remember, no paranoia, just stay calm and carry on backing up.

 

Just to consider one area (hydrology) it's a pretty nifty thing to have all your rainfall, snowfall, and riverflow data online. From monitor establishment through real-time provisional data.

US science (scientists) are quite pampered in this regard. Europe lags behind, while Latin America, Africa and much of Asia lag way behind. In one large Asian country, some of those data are regarded as state secrets

Any reduction in vitality of data, or ardor with which they are collected and curated, would make US a more typical country. Instead of its current leadership status. If someone is happy with that outcome, OK no action would be required.

Or if leadership status is 'a thing' for you, well, actions speak more loudly than internet postings

 

So, people feel motivated to externally archive data. That's nice, and potentially overdue. I emphasize that it's not just temperature records that matter for earth system science. It's lots of things.

In terms of preserving physical material, ice cores come first to mind. I know of some places (not all) where there are stored. They must have very large freezer bills! It would be a very bad idea to 'save money' and let those things melt. Not that anyone is suggesting that I hope.

Some cores may be stored in situ in Antarctica etc. do not know. No freezer expense there, but not convenient for research and analyses.

The thing is, some new analytical technique may arrive in the next decade (or whenever) and it would be a shame to not still ice the ice in proper storage.

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Unknown to me how much primary data (like old stuff) has not been scanned or digitized. This is a different category. Maybe something like Bob's LANDSAT tapes.

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Anyway, not a fan of words in the WP title "frantically" & "vanish". Would oh too few people read these things without clickbait?

 

Wha happen Australia? Did they unsave some data? Canada did in about 2005 following a political pendulum swing.

I have little or no concern about electronically stored data, because "frantic". But paper and other artifacts might be subtle. I seem to recall NASA itself dumpstering a lot of early space-program artifacts.

Bad.

 

Thanks for ruining my day

 

Thinning the herd of Australian Earth Scientists is old news. Topic here is more about interrupted access to data and analyses. However the Australian situation does highlight what more might be at stake in US. Thus that fretting over data files is a type of deflection that 'we' bring upon ourselves.

This was the basis for my complaint @11

 

To some extent, 'old' data is secured by sites like archive.org (blocked in some countries ). A separate problem is new data not getting posted, only available by slow FOIA, exemplified here:

U.S. Animal Abuse Records Deleted—What We Stand to Lose