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 of PANGAEA?

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

Are there any restrictions or costs?
All data are in Open Access and thus are freely available via download on the Internet. Very few data sets might be password protected because under moratorium. In this case, please contact PI for access. Costs for archiving is a matter of negotiation.

Under which license are data made available?
When data are archived in Pangaea, the owner agrees by default that data is available under a Creative Commons Attribution license. Other licenses can be defined on request.

What is the data export format?
Data are 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 in SEGY), other formats my follow ISO standards (e.g. images are available in tif or jpg format).

What is the resolution of the data?
Data stored in Pangaea are from a wide range of parameters and are from all parts of the Geosphere (Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Kryosphere, Biosphere, 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 80 000 parameter from all fields of earth system research and increasing at any time. (See the Parameter Dictionary for details and example lists).

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

Can data be password protected?
Yes! For a moratorium, a login can be added to the data, e.g. until the data are published or a project has ended. On request, data can remain protected and a are made available only via individual requests to the owner.

How to submit data?
Send your data/metadata to the email given below in the format required. After import the investigator receives an email with a DOI/link to the data for review.

Contact
info(at)pangaea.de