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World Data Service for Geophysics

Contribute Marine Geological and Geophysical Data to NCEI

NCEI is the official archive for data collected by NOAA scientists, observing systems, and research initiatives. We manage more than 30 petabytes of data and information that spans the entire spectrum of Earth's environmental systems and cycles. Our archive is one of the most comprehensive in the world, and includes data, metadata, and products from a broad range of time periods, observing systems, scientific disciplines, and geographic locations. We provide world class stewardship services to preserve data for future use on behalf of our science-user communities and the general public.

Who To Contact

Send details* of your marine geological and geophysical data, or questions, to:

Marine Geology:
Multibeam Bathymetry:
Passive Acoustics:
Trackline Geophysics:
Water Column Sonar:

Other data types and questions:



* Details may include: data type and formats, expected data volumes, and whether this is a one-time or ongoing data submission

Guidelines

NCEI is very flexible in accepting a wide variety of data types in marine geology and geophysics. We accept well documented data in almost any format, although we have preferred formats for some data types. We suggest that you contact us to work out the details before sending data.

For guidance, refer to How To Package and Submit Data. This document describes procedures to prepare various marine geophysical datasets (multibeam bathymetry, subbottom profiler, water column sonar, singlebeam bathymetry, side-scan sonar and supplemental data) for submission to NCEI. For marine geological data submissions, see: Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples.

NCEI has also developed CruisePack, a data packaging and metadata gathering software tool, to simplify data submission preparation for cruise-based data. CruisePack aims to meet a growing community need to submit geophysical data efficiently and in a consistent format.


Data Availability

Unless other arrangements are made in advance, all data sent to NCEI are in the public domain and will be distributed without restriction at cost of reproduction, processing, and handling. Please do not send data that are still under proprietary hold unless you have made prior arrangements with NCEI, otherwise by sending data to us, you are giving your consent to public dissemination.

For examples of how the data will be served, visit our interactive maps.

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