Data Management and Access | International Quiet Ocean Experiment (IQOE)

Data Management and Access

Chair

Rob McCauley (Australia)

Other Members

Lucy Dickinson (UK)

Robert Dziak (USA)

Tryggvi Edwald (Austria)

Torill Hamre (Norway)

Reyna Jenkyns (Canada)

Niels Kinneging (Netherlands)

G. Latha (India)

Marie Roch (USA)

Carrie Wall Bell (USA)

Terms of Reference

The IQOE Working Group on Data Management and Access will conduct the following activities:

Develop an IQOE data policy
Network national and international data managers who deal with acoustic and bioacoustic data
Review existing management of acoustic and bioacoustic data and standards for data management
Recommend whether data or metadata will be managed by IQOE (may differ by parameter measured), that is, whether data management will be centralized or distributed
Recommend where IQOE data and/or metadata will be managed, and interact with data managers
Recommend standards and formats for submission of IQOE data and metadata, and identify data quality standards
Data calibration
Identify and co-ordinate the delivery of data products, including Web services
Consider establishing model-data synergy workshops
Oversee content of WG’s Web page (being constructed)
Identify historical datasets (acoustic and bioacoustic) that could help IQOE achieve its goals
Lower technical, financial and juridical obstacles for exchange of acoustic and bioacoustic data

Status

IQOE is in its 9th year as a 10-year project and continues to implement of its Science Plan (available here). IQOE has successfully coordinated a variety of activities in ocean acoustics and bioacoustics through IQOE working groups on the use of acoustics to assess biodiversity, the importance of acoustic observations in the Arctic Ocean, standards for reporting ocean acoustic and bioacoustic data for IQOE, software for making acoustic observations comparable worldwide, and recommendations for implementation of an Ocean Sound Essential Ocean Variable for the Global Ocean Observing System. IQOE progress has been documented since June 2018 through IQOE Newsletters and since the beginning of the project through other products. IQOE identified 2020 as the Year of the Quiet Ocean because of evidence that ocean sound decreased because of decreases in human activities in the ocean due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Next Steps

Activities in 2024 will include actions to help implement the Ocean Sound Essential Ocean Variable Implementation Plan; continuation of new activities on low-cost ocean acoustic observing systems and expansion of the Open Portal to Underwater Sound (OPUS), implementation of the Global Library of Underwater Biological Sounds, sponsorship of the second World Ocean Passive Acoustic Monitoring Day; and meetings of IQOE working groups and Science Committee.