The World Data Center of Ionosphere and Space Weather has been a WDS Regular Member since November 2013. The WDC-ISW at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) archives and distributes ionospheric data and data related to space weather. The data handled by WDC-ISW includes Japanese domestic and Antarctic ionospheric observation data that have been accumulated and preserved since 1957.
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) has been a WDS Member since September 2016. GBIF is an international network and data infrastructure funded by the world’s governments and aimed at providing anyone, anywhere, open access to data about all types of life on Earth. Their Mission is to mobilize the data, skills, and technologies needed to make comprehensive biodiversity information freely available for science and decisions addressing biodiversity loss and sustainable development.GBIF maintains one of the most comprehensive global networks of intergovernmental and non-governmental partners in biodiversity informatics through its Secretariat in Copenhagen. The network draws these diverse data sources together through the use of data standards, including Darwin Core, which forms the basis for the bulk of GBIF.org’s index of hundreds of millions of species occurrence records. Read more about their strategic plan developed by the GBIF governing board here.
The International Environmental Data Rescue Organization has been a WDS Partner Member since January 2013. IEDRO’s mission is to save lives, protect crops, livestock and infrastructure, and mitigate severe weather and climate change by locating, protecting, digitizing, archiving and sharing historic weather data from around the globe.IEDRO recovers and digitizes historical environmental data that are at risk of disintegrating or being discarded, particularly in developing countries.
By rescuing and digitizing past extreme weather events such as extreme winds, precipitation, and storms, IEDRO empowers local decision-makers to adapt their infrastructure and agriculture to better withstand extreme weather and climate change while also helping predict the path of airborne disease.This vast knowledge offers the world community the ability to more accurately predict long-range weather patterns, and gives tools to meteorological professionals and others to better understand the nature and extent of global warming and climate change. Review more of what they do with weather events and activities here.
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wwPDB has been a Regular Member of WDS since February 2018. In 2021, the Worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB) celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the PDB. The Protein Data Bank (PDB) archive is the single worldwide repository of information about the 3D structures of large biological molecules, including proteins and nucleic acids. These are the molecules of life that are found in all organisms including bacteria, yeast, plants, flies, other animals, and humans. The structures in the archive range from tiny proteins and bits of DNA to complex molecular machines like the ribosome.
In 1971, the structural biology community established the single worldwide archive for macromolecular structure data–the Protein Data Bank (PDB). From its inception, the PDB has embraced a culture of open access, leading to its widespread use by the research community. PDB data are used by hundreds of data resources and millions of users exploring fundamental biology, energy, and biomedicine. Structural biology and structural bioinformatics have had an enormous impact on our understanding of the mechanism and function of biological macromolecules. The PDB acts as a custodian for all these data, representing a repository of the vast majority of the achievements and milestones of the structural biology community.
NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) has been a Network Member of WDS since January 2013. As a Network Member, ESDIS is an umbrella body representing Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs), all of which are Regular Members of WDS. ESDIS seeks to leverage and augment investments made in international coordination bodies that help to improve science access to key observation data sets. One of the primary organizations is the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). Established in 1984 with NASA as one of the founding members, CEOS coordinates civil space-borne observations of Earth.
There are over 50 participating space agencies, national, and international organizations that strive to enhance international coordination and data exchange and to optimize societal benefit. ESDIS supports several team members as active participants within the CEOS Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS). WGISS activities focus on the data system mechanisms and practices to improve data sharing and access, and ESDIS is involved in several WGISS activities including the Technology Exploration Interest Group, the International Directory Network, the Atmospheric Composition Interest Group (ACIG), and the CEOS WGISS Integrated Catalog (CWIC) Project.
PANGAEA – Data Publisher for Earth and Environmental Science is a joint facility of the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the Centre for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) at the University of Bremen. Essential services provided by PANGAEA are scientific project data management, long-term data archiving, data publication, and dissemination of metadata according to international standards and protocols.PANGAEA focuses on georeferenced observational and experimental data. Citability, comprehensive metadata descriptions, interoperability of data and metadata, a high degree of structural and semantic harmonization of the data inventory as well as the commitment of the hosting institutions ensures FAIRness of archived data.
The repository was recently recertified with CTS and has been a WDS regular member since June 2013.