The World Data Centre (WDC) system was created to archive and distribute data collected from the observational programmes of the 1957–1958

International Geophysical Year The International Geophysical Year (IGY; ), also referred to as the third International Polar Year, was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War w ...

by the International Council of Scientific Unions (

ICSU The International Council for Science (ICSU, after its former name, International Council of Scientific Unions) was an international non-governmental organization devoted to multilateralism, international cooperation in the advancement of scie ...

). The WDCs were funded and maintained by their host countries on behalf of the international science community. Originally established in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

(WDC A),

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

(WDC B),

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

(WDC C), the WDC system expanded to other countries and to new scientific disciplines. The WDC system included up to 52 Centres in 15 countries, with some data centres replicating another. All data held in WDCs were available for the cost of copying and sending the requested information. In 1968 the ICSU Panel on World Data Centers (Geophysical, Solar, and Environmental) was established to coordinate activities and to establish operating criteria for the WDCs. At the end of 2008, following the ICSU General Assembly in Maputo (Mozambique), the World Data Centres were reformed and a new

ISC World Data System The World Data System (WDS) was created by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the predecessor to the International Science Council (ISC), at their 29th General Assembly in October 2008. The mission of the World Data System is to enha ...

(WDS) established in 2009. Expanding on the 50-year heritage of the ICSU World Data Centre system (WDC) and the ICSU Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical data-analysis Services,''Open Science by Design: Realizing a Vision for 21st Century Research''
National Academies Press 2018 p103 most of the legacy data centers and services continued under the WDS.

References

External links

International Council for Science (ICSU)

List of former WDCs
{{Authority control Scientific organizations established in 1957 Organizations disestablished in 2008 Open data International scientific organizations

See also

References

External links