THE VIRTUAL ANTARCTIC MASTER DIRECTORY: A PORTAL TO ANTARCTIC DATA SETS

The Joint Committee on Antarctic Data Management (JCADM) has joined with NASA's Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) to expand the exposure of Antarctic data sets. JCADM is comprised of data managers from National Antarctic Data Centers of various Antarctic treaty countries who, previously, held their metadata in a separate database, the Antarctic Master Directory (AMD). For the AMD, the GCMD has created a customized portal to Antarctic metadata. The portal increases the exposure of Antarctic data sets and benefits Antarctic researchers by delivering access to a far greater volume and range of metadata through the GCMD.

Users of the AMD can now search a virtual subset of the GCMD database to discover data set descriptions meeting the following criteria: - Geographic location equal to "Antarctic"; - Geographic location equal to "Southern Ocean"; - International Directory Network (IDN) Node beginning with "AMD".

Two search interfaces have been developed by the GCMD: a free-text interface and one based on a controlled set of science keywords. The Free-Text interface at http://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov/amd/ft_search.html, allows the user to type a word or phrase in one text box or use the Boolean operators, "and"/"or" to relate another word or phrase in a second text box. Users may also perform geospatial and/or temporal searches. The AMD Science Parameters Interface, http://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov/amd/amd_params.html, allows users to perform a search by choosing from a controlled set of science keywords.

The number of metadata records in the 'virtual AMD' is currently 1575, with 1263 records contributed by JCADM during CY2000. Antarctic researchers continue to submit metadata records in dramatically increasing numbers showing that research from cold regions is indeed a hot topic.