FY 1998

Scientific information model for deepsea mapping and sampling

Wright, D.J., C.G. Fox, and A.M. Bobbitt

Mar. Geod., 20(4), doi: 10.1080/01490419709388115, 367–379 (1997)

The Vents Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory is an interdisciplinary research initiative that brings together scientists from a wide range of disciplines, including geophysics, geology, physical oceanography, chemistry, and biology. Each discipline collects a variety of data types of varying structures and requiring intercomparison. The challenge of scientific information management is thus approached with a view of supporting data from multiple survey, mapping, and sampling tools and subject to multiple levels of interpretation. The ultimate objective is a system that integrates the functions of data storage, selective retrieval, display, and archiving. The results of our ongoing efforts in scientific information modeling and management have produced a relational database in which marine geological, geophysical, chemical, and biological observations can be accessed by any investigator.