The NCAR Earth Observing Laboratory recognizes that data is the final product of any research field campaign. While EOL operates and archives a large number of observational research instruments and platforms, when funded to do so, EOL provides curation and long-term stewardship for field campaign datasets from research instrumentation operated by universities and government or private entities as well in the Field Data Archive.
EOL has been funded to provide real-time data services and post-campaign data archival over the past several decades by agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Office of Naval Research, The Federal Aviation Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the World Meteorological Organization, the United States Coast Guard, the Department of Energy and the State of Colorado.
Software is the engine that allows users to query, manipulate, process and plot data. EOL provides open-source community software for many such applications. EOL also produces software for internal use to process raw data, perform Quality Analysis and Control (QA/QC) and provide specific data services. This latter software type, while not generally available to the community is accompanied by documentation that explains its purpose, techniques and/or it’s results.
The EOL Field Data Archive contains atmospheric, meteorological, and other geophysical datasets from operational sources and the scientific research programs and projects for which NCAR/EOL has provided data management support.
The EOL Field Catalog is a suite of tools that provide support for the documentation of observational field project operations, mission planning, cross-project collaboration, real-time situational awareness, communication with and direction of remote instrument platforms and post operations product review and playback.
EOL develops and maintains a wide variety of software downloads that are available as a community resource.