|
The Marine Environmental Data Base (MUDAB) is a joint project of the Federal
Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) in Hamburg and of the
Federal Environmental Agency
(UBA) in Berlin. It is located at the
German Oceanographic Data Centre in Hamburg and serves as the central German
data base for marine data collected within the framework of international
and national conventions for the protection of the North Sea and Baltic Sea.
At present the data base covers about 5 500 cruises, with the data from some
250,000 stations - altogether more than 13 million records. The data covers
physical variables such as temperature and salinity, O2, chemical variables
like, e.g., nutrients and the organic, inorganic and radiochemical components
of sea water, and physical and chemical variables in sediment.
The data base scheme encompasses a large amount of meta-information at different
levels, e.g. a Cruise Summary Report (CSR) for each cruise, information about
measured variables and the methods used, quality assurance, and intercomparison
exercises. Each of the measured data can be linked to meta-information, including
information at other structural levels. At present, data bases for sediment,
water and contaminants in organisms are in operation. The data base for sea
water covers casts, time series as well as CTD/XBT profiles.
A menu-based interface guides the user to the desired information. Starting
points are either the cruise, the station or the data level. It is, of course,
also possible to retrieve information by SQL. The criteria for database retrieval
are dependents of space and time, measured variables, and sampling and analysis
methods. The retrieved information can be exported for further data processing
in a format readable by many PC based tools. In the near future, the data
export facilties will be implemented either into standard formats or into
an interface for biological data.
| 
