The CCCA Data Centre launched its operational phase with the new release of the data portal <link http: data.ccca.ac.at>data.ccca.ac.at on the first of December 2016. With this step, the official testing phase was completed and a stable, productive environment for data provision, data search, and standards-compliant data storage via web server was finalised.
Persistent Identifiers (PID) - the basis for proper citation
Climate modelling in particular involves handling very large amounts of data — individual datasets can easily exceed 10 gigabytes. The CCCA data portal is able to handle uploads and downloads of such data volumes both via the web interface and through an "sftp" interface with high performance. Another highlight is the assignment of so-called Persistent Identifiers (PID) — every digital object receives an identifier, similar to a DOI, which always directs the user unambiguously to the desired dataset. This forms the basis for proper scientific citation, allowing publications, chapters, or paragraphs to be directly linked to the dataset that was produced. These functionalities are collectively referred to by the technical term Data Citation.
Data Explorer offers new functionalities in a user-friendly tool.
Data contents, as well as their structure, attributes, etc., can be previewed before downloading. Simple visualisation tools are also available here, such as display on a web-based map, individual generation of charts, the compilation of a gallery for figures, and previews.
With this range of functions and standards-compliant implementations in the data portal, the CCCA Data Centre was listed as a research repository by re3data — an initiative of Humboldt University Berlin, the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and Purdue University. Criteria relating to metadata management, access conditions, Data Citation, the provision of a data policy, as well as the provision of licences and terms of use were assessed here.
Access figures averaging 600 unique users and a download volume of more than 370 GB over the last 3 months are indicators of the well-thought-out implementation of the CCCA Data Centre.
On the technical side, the Data Centre will be focusing increasingly on real-time visualisation of climate scenarios over the coming weeks. The existing prototype offers promising features and is currently being optimised with regard to performance, i.e. handling high numbers of user accesses.
A further focus is being set within the HRS-funded project GEOCLIM. The CCCA Data Centre is part of the consortium, led by the University of Graz, and is responsible for expanding the infrastructure for establishing data management in connection with the long-term archiving of research data, as well as strengthening links to European research activities.
