Ch. 7— Federal Programs for Collecting and Managing Oceanographic Data • 263 



signed between NOAA's National Ocean Service 

 (NOS) and NODC to develop an Alaska regional 

 marine database in Anchorage, Alaska, at the Of- 

 fice of Marine Assessment's Ocean Assessment Di- 

 vision. NODC and NOS are both providing co- 

 pies of their data holdings in the Alaska EEZ region 

 and will provide routine updates every six months. 

 Database maintenance will be done in Anchorage, 

 and a full database copy will be available at the 

 Ocean Assessment Division there and at NODC . 



Consideration is being given to creating Level 

 II satellite data sets for the EEZ at NODC. While 

 massive global satellite data archives are available 

 from the Satellite Data Services Division of the Na- 

 tional Climatic Data Center, investigators require 

 easier data access than is now possible. NODC is 

 presently archiving and distributing data from the 

 U.S. Navy Geodetic Satellite which provide full 

 EEZ coverage as part of the satellite Exact Repeat 

 Mission. 



Prototype Coastal Information System Using 

 a Personal Computer. — In 1986, NOAA devel- 

 oped a prototype coastal information system for the 

 Hudson-Raritan Estuary. The system is designed 

 for use by regional planners, environmental 

 specialists and managers, and citizen groups with 

 access to an IBM compatible personal computer. 

 Information is accessed by file directory, menu, and 

 glossary and provides output as map sections and 

 vertical profiles with a wide variety of properties 

 ranging from temperature through water depth. 



Problems with NODC Data. — Data quality is 

 a continuing concern for both NODC and research- 

 ers using NODC data. To address this issue, a ser- 

 ies of "Joint Institutes" between NODC and vari- 

 ous research laboratories has been initiated. These 

 institutes are located on-site at the laboratories. 

 Data are collected, pre-processed, and checked for 

 quality by the program's principal investigator(s) 

 or their staff(s) before being provided to NODC 

 for archival. One such "Joint Institute" for sub- 

 surface thermal data from the Tropical Ocean 

 Global Atmosphere Study (TOGA) program is now 

 operating at the Scripps Institution of Oceanogra- 

 phy, and others are planned, depending on re- 

 sources, for other programs at the University of Ha- 

 waii and the University of Delaware. 



Another problem is the large number of organi- 

 zations collecting marine environmental data in 

 varying formats, employing various levels of quality 

 control. This situation makes it both expensive and 

 difficult to manage resulting data to the satisfac- 

 tion of an equally large user community. NODC 

 does not have financial or staff resources to rou- 

 tinely reformat and uniformly quality control every 

 data set received for archival. 



U.S. Department of the Interior 

 Minerals Management Service 



The Minerals Management Service (MMS) car- 

 ries out programs to implement the EEZ proclama- 

 tion through its Office of Strate- 

 gic and International Minerals. 

 The programs include: formulat- 

 ing a mineral leasing program 

 for non-energy minerals; estab- 

 lishing joint Federal-State task 

 forces in support of preparation 

 of lease sale EISs through cooperative agreements; 

 providing support for data- gathering activities of 

 other Federal and State agencies and universities; 

 and developing regulations for prospecting, leas- 

 ing, and operations for Outer Continental 

 Shelf/EEZ minerals. 



The MMS administers the provisions of the 

 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) 

 through regulations codified in Title 30 of the Code 

 of Federal Regulations. The regulations govern per- 

 mitting, data collection and release, leasing, and 

 postlease operations in the outer continental shelf. 

 The regulations prescribe: 



• when a permit or the filing of a notice requires 

 geological and geophysical explorations to be 

 conducted on the outer continental shelf; and 



• operating procedures for conducting explora- 

 tion, requirements for disclosing data and in- 

 formation, and conditions for reimbursing in- 

 dustry for certain costs. 



Prior to 1976, common depth point (CDP) seis- 

 mic data were primarily acquired by the govern- 

 ment through nonexclusive contracts or as a cost- 

 sharing participant in group shoots. As the cost of 



