Past and Present DARE projects
Projects are included and actively maintained by users of this Portal
Data rescue guidelines and best practice instructions
Range of software and technical tools for data rescuers from entry to expert levels
Latest news on data rescue activities
Current information on the development of individual data rescue projects, meetings and latest dataresue tools

The data rescue portal is designed to facilitate and coordinate the rescue of weather and climate data from around the world. The service runs an online user-based system that provides access to information on past, current and planned data rescue projects, as well as tools and guidance to facilitate each stage of the data rescue process.

Mission of the Data Rescue Portal:

  • a collaborative framework on sharing information, best practices, know-how, guidance, metadata on data rescue projects and activities worldwide.
  • provides a single entry point for accessing information on the status of climate data being digitized or in need of recovery and digitization.
  • enables collaboration among organizations, development agencies, donors, scientists, NGOs, citizens, to work on the data recovery and digitization of climate heritage which is at risk of loss forever.
  • through above and capacity building responds to the need for accelerating data rescue in support of climate assessment and adaptation, risk management and disaster risk reduction.

The practical information, data rescue projects and metadata inventories orginate from initiative of both the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). All practical information of the former WMO I-DARE portal is merged into this current project.  Additionally, part of this new collaboration is the merge of the datarescue guidelines of both organisation into one.

The portal is currently run under the leadership of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI).

The data rescue portal is designed to facilitate and coordinate the rescue of weather and climate data from around the world. The service runs an online user-based system that provides access to information on past, current and planned data rescue projects, as well as tools and guidance to facilitate each stage of the data rescue process.

Mission of the Data Rescue Portal:

  • a collaborative framework on sharing information, best practices, know-how, guidance, metadata on data rescue projects and activities worldwide.
  • provides a single entry point for accessing information on the status of climate data being digitized or in need of recovery and digitization.
  • enables collaboration among organizations, development agencies, donors, scientists, NGOs, citizens, to work on the data recovery and digitization of climate heritage which is at risk of loss forever.
  • through above and capacity building responds to the need for accelerating data rescue in support of climate assessment and adaptation, risk management and disaster risk reduction.

The practical information, data rescue projects and metadata inventories orginate from initiative of both the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). All practical information of the former WMO I-DARE portal is merged into this current project.  Additionally, part of this new collaboration is the merge of the datarescue guidelines of both organisation into one.

The portal is currently run under the leadership of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI).

News

Project highlight: ACMAD data rescue initative

Introduction

Important data from The African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD) recently underwent a significant data preservation initiative with the support of the EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service and the Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI) of Belgium. This effort involved rescuing crucial data from unstable fiche and film media, which were originally transferred from original hard copy records to micro-fiche by the RMI in the late 1980s… more

Datarescue projects

 

Many past weather observations that only exist in paper form are at risk of being lost and are not available for analysis of climate trends and natural variability. Data rescue is the discovery, preservation, quality control, digitisation and consolidation of past measurements of weather conditions.

Why does it matter?

Long records of weather conditions can give scientists vital insight into climate variability and long-term change. Before the digital age, weather observations were recorded in a variety of ways, including paper and magnetic tape, and paper records. Many of these measurements have been digitised, but scores of records are still awaiting processing, with many more historical records yet to be discovered. Those records reduce the uncertainty of climate reanalysis, in which the ensemble spread is sometimes not much smaller than the climatological variation. This is visualised in this video by Philip Brohan. 

Who benefits?

By adding previously unavailable historical measurements to existing data, scientists are able to improve the detection and analysis of climate trends, especially for the pre-satellite era and for data-sparse regions. At least 30 years’ worth of data are needed to generate seasonal forecasts and even longer time series for decadal forecasts.

How can I get involved?

Registered users can add new projects, and update existing ones, on the Data Rescue Projects page. Please, contact us at datarescue@knmi.nl if you want to include metadata inventories or if you need any help on Data Rescue.

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Data Rescue Projects

Search and find worldwide past and present data rescue projects. Projects are included and maintained by users of this datarescue portal.

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Tools

The Data Rescue Service provides a range of tools and support to assist with data rescue. This includes Guidelines and Software tools developed for the WMO and C3S.

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Data Deposition Service

The international reanalysis projects will reflect the rescued data and improve in quality when the rescued data are made available to the global repositories.

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