Ch. 7— Federal Programs for Collecting and Managing Oceanographic Data • 259 



Underway Geophysics Collected in the EEZ 



As the concentration of these ship tracks shows, a significant amount of geophysical Information has been collected 

 in the EEZ; however, much more mapping, sampling, and resource assessment remains to be done. 



Source: National Geophysical Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 



tors, and administrative matters. NMFS biological- 

 environmental data (i.e., oceanographic data) are 

 mainly of regional interest and are shared within 

 a region by more conventional means, such as di- 

 rect exchange of "hard" or paper copy. 



The National Geophysical Data Center 



The mission of the National Geophysical Data 

 Center (NGDC) is "to acquire, process, archive, 

 analyze and disseminate solid earth and marine 

 geophysical data . . .; to develop analytical, . . . 

 and descriptive products; and to provide facilities 

 for World Data Center A."*" Its Marine Geology 

 and Geophysics Division (one of four divisions) cov- 



'"The World Data System A was established as part of the Interna- 

 tional Geophysical Year 1956-57 to foster data exchange between coun- 

 tries. World Data System A coordinates information from '*free" world 

 countries; World Data System B, from Soviet bloc countries. 



ers most of the work of interest to the EEZ. The 

 archives of this Division include some 10 miUion 

 track miles of marine geophysical data, about 25 

 percent of which is in the U.S. EEZ. About half 

 of the requests for data come from private indus- 

 try. The next largest requesting groups are acade- 

 mia and the Federal Government. 



Funding for NGDC activities has declined 

 slightly from fiscal year 1981 through fiscal year 

 1987 while its archives and responsibilities have 

 steadily increased. Future projections suggest an 

 increase in data storage requirements of 600 per- 

 cent (presuming only high-density magnetic tapes 

 are used for storage) from fiscal years 1986 to 1992. 



NGDC data are processed and made available 

 to a worldwide community of clients through series 

 of "Data Announcements' ' on topics ranging from 



