Data Rescue
PANGAEA Data Rescue Initiative 2025
Starting in 2025, the United States is facing unprecedented budget cuts to federal science agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). These cuts specifically target climate research, environmental monitoring, and public health data programs, with plans to significantly reduce funding for data services and websites.
In response, members of the scientific community—both within and outside the U.S.—approached PANGAEA to help preserve critical data products that were at immediate risk of being decommissioned. This includes the potential loss of data availability and the shutdown of data portals, which would make it much harder to locate and access existing datasets.
Consequently, PANGAEA has started data rescue efforts in agreement with the respective data providers by following the FAIR data principles. The following two approaches have been applied:
1. Stabilising Links to NOAA Scientific Documents:
- For existing PANGAEA datasets that reference NOAA-hosted documents, we downloaded the documents and replaced unstable direct NOAA links with permanent links provided through PANGAEA’s infrastructure. This ensures continued accessibility even if NOAA pages are taken offline. Browse examples: https://www.pangaea.de/?q=%40USDataRescue2025
2. Permanent Archiving of NOAA Data Products:
- We have directly archived various NOAA datasets that were scheduled to be decommissioned, ensuring they remain publicly accessible and easy to find. View archived data: https://www.pangaea.de/?q=project%3AUSDataRescue2025
This initiative is ongoing. PANGAEA welcomes contributions from scientists who hold Earth and Environmental Science datasets at risk of going offline. If you have such data or are aware of endangered data, please contact us at: info@pangaea.de.