Abstract

The first step in many environmental analyses is locating and assembling a dataset. Many environmental analyses are inherently interdisciplinary and there is no single controlled vocabulary or document format making the assembly a difficult and time consuming process. SciScope (www.sciscope.org) is a data discovery engine for locating and retrieving environmental data from over 1.8 million sites across the United States operated by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) as well as individual researchers and smaller regional agencies. Scientists can use SciScope to discover relevant data by simply typing in a keyword and selecting a geographical feature such as a watershed or eco-region. Data of interest can then be retrieved to the scientist's desktop in a consistent format. We believe by creating a unified view over multiple data repositories and with its geographical search capabilities, SciScope will dramatically expedite data assembly.