Curating Atmospheric Data for long term use: Infrastructure and Preservation Issues for the Atmospheric Sciences community

Abstract

DCC SCARP aims to understand disciplinary approaches to data curation by substantial case studies based on an immersive approach. As part of the SCARP project we engaged with a number of archives, including the British Atmospheric Data Centre, the World Data Centre Archive at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association (EISCAT). We developed a preservation analysis methodology which is discipline independent in application but none the less capable of identifying and drawing out discipline specific preservation requirements and issues. In this case study report we present the methodology along with its application to the Mesospheric Stratospheric Tropospheric (MST) radar dataset, which is currently supported by and accessed through the British Atmospheric Data Centre. We suggest strategies for the long term preservation of the MST data and make recommendations for the wider community.