FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is PANGAEA ?
PANGAEA is a public library for data from earth system research. The system is open to any individual scientist or project for the archiving of single files, data collections, time series, or supplements to publications. Data can be georeferenced in time and/or space.

Who are the hosts

 * Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research http://www.awi.de
 * Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University Bremen http://www.marum.de

Are there any restrictions
Data is in Open Access and thus freely available via download on the Internet. A few data sets might be password protected for a moratorium period; contact PI for access.

Under which license are data made available?
By default data is available under a Creative Commons license.

What is the data export format?
Data is available as text/ASCII files, tab-delimited, with a header for meta information. Large files might be available as binary objects (e.g. seismic data, models), other formats my follow ISO standards (e.g. images, films).

What is the resolution of the data?
Data stored in PANGAEA is from a wide range of parameter from all parts of the geosphere (atmo-, hydro-, cryo-, bio-, lithosphere). The spacial and temporal resolution can differ between sets and is discribed in the metadata.

Which parameter (variables) are available?
The systems has archived data from nearly 100 000 parameter from all fields of earth system research. (See the Parameter for details and example lists).

Where are the data stored?
Most of the data is stored in a relational database. Large binary files, images or proprietary formats are stored in a tape drive silo, requiring an access time of a minute. All data is secured by a daily backup on tapes in two different buildings. Data is also available through a data warehouse.

Can data be password protected?
Yes! For a moratorium, a login with password can be added to the data, e.g. until the data are published, a project has ended or on request by the owner.

How to submit data?
Submit data to the the PANGAEA's data submission form. Keep some rules for data submission in mind. After import the investigator receives a link (DOI) for proof-read.]

Are there any costs?
The price for archiving a data supplement of a publication is 500.-€. Other Costs, in partiuclar project participation are a matter of negotiations.

Contact
info(at)pangaea.de