Data Issues in the
Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia
Carlos A.Nobre
© 1989 - FOTOS/ LIANA JOHN
Center for Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies - CPTEC/INPE
Inter-American Workshop on Environmental Data Access
Campinas, Brazil
4 March 2004
The two overarching questions of LBA
How Amazonia functions currently as a regional
entity with respect to the natural cycles of water,
energy, carbon, nutrient and trace-gases?
 How will changes in land use and climaten affect
the biological, chemical and physical functioning of
Amazonia, including its sustainability and influence
on global climate?
LBA LINKAGES
PHYSICAL CLIMATE SYSTEM:
Water and Energy
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
CARBON STORAGE
AND EXCHANGE
BIOGEOCHEMISTRY:
Trace Gases and Nutrients
LAND SURFACE HYDROLOGY AND
WATER CHEMISTRY
LAND USE/LAND
COVER
Primary Research Areas
Ecoclimatic Transects
Secondary Research Areas
(with Flux Towers)
Sites to be established
SANTARÉM
MANAUS
PARÁ
RONDÔNIA
Mesoscale
Experiments
BRASÍLIA
RESEARCH
STRATEGY I:
ECOLOGICAL
TRANSECTS
LBA ECOLOGICAL TRANSECTS
-65,5
-70,5
Vegetation
Types in
Brazilian
Amazonia
Data source:
Radam
-60,5
-55,5
-50,5
Area of Study
-70,0
-45,0
-45,-10
Vegetation
A, Aa, Ab, As
C, Cs
D, Da, Db, Dm, Ds
F, Fa, Fs
LO, La, Ld, Lg
ON
P, Pa, Pf
S, SM, SN, SO, ST, Sa, Sd, Sg, Sp
Td, Tp
WATER
rm
N
-45,-15
200
100
100
0
100
0
200 M
200 km
E
W
Scale 1:16.000.000
Projection
longitude of central meridian - 57 00 00
S
100-10000 km
Bacia Amazônica
[obs. contínuas]
10-100 km
2 Áreas de estudo
Rondônia
Pará
[CIC + obs. Contínuas]
-1 km
Sítios para as Torres
[CIC + obs. contínuos]
Modelos de escala de bacias
Análise de dados(4DDA)
Produtos de SR de satélite
Transeções extensivas por avião
Transeções ecológica
Validação dos algoritmos dos
satélites
Meteorologia de mesoescala
Hidrologia de sub-bacias
Fluxos medidos na superfície e
por avião (H, E,CO2, gasestraços, R
)
Validação do SR de superfície e
de aviões
Química da Atmosfera
Medições de fluxo em torre
Química Atmosférica
Hidrologia de Micro Bacias
Química do escoamento
Estudo de processos
Fisiologia
Ótica de Fito-elementos
Câmara de solo
Isótopos
Hidráulica do solo
Química do solo
1-10 m
Estudos de processos
Sítios para validação
Sítios para validação
Sítios de estudos
de processos
Sítios de validação
Alometria/Biometria
Alvos do SR
RESEARCH
STRATEGY II:
SCALING UP
LBA Research Sites
“Tour”
Rancho Grande
LBA Research Sites
Tour continued ...
Rebio-Jaru
Fazenda Nossa Senhora
Santarém
Fazenda Nossa Senhora
LBA Research Sites
Tour continued ...
Use of atmospheric research
Aircraft in the Wet Season
Atmospheric Mesoscale
Campaign – LBA WET AMC
Jan-March 1999, Rondonia
SOUTH AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS PARTICIPATING IN LBA
LBA in numbers
• 130 studies (30% completed) covering the 7 LBA themes
• Over 150 institutions from all Amazonian countries, US and EU
• Over 1200 participants (about 500 students; 160 PhD students)
• To date over 400 peer-reviewed articles in scientific literature
LBA Data Diversity ....
 Variety of multidisciplinary in situ data from
over 50 research sites (< 10 Terabytes); researcher´s
responsibility to deliver research-quality data on a
timely fashion.

Satellite data (large volumes of tens of
Terabytes).
 Gridded data from an array of numerical models
(large volumes of tens of Teraybites)
Scientific and Technical Issues
 Technical interoperabilitty of LBA data across
software and hardware systems.
 Semantic interoperability of LBA data across
disciplines and languages.
 Facilitating interdisciplinary and international
access to LBA data resources.
 Scientific and technical requirements for longterm preservation and accessibility of LBA data.
 The scientific ‘culture’ of data ownership
LBA-DIS
The LBA Data and Information System is a data management system acting
as a repository for all the LBA data. The data is quality checked,
rendered to a common format, and made available to the LBA community as
rapidly as possible and transferred to a permanent archive. To
facilitate use by non-LBA investigators, each data set is carefully
documented and linked in the orderly framework, so that it remains
useful after the project has been completed.
The LBA-DIS main components are the Beija-flor and LBA Metadata Editor (LME) Systems.
LBA Data Policy
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Data generated by LBA will become public domain and will be permanently archived in Brazil. The
LBA Data Information System (DIS) will provide tools for documenting, storing, searching and
distributing these data.
All data collected in the field must be sent to LBA-DIS no longer than 2 years after data collection.
All LBA data should be available to all LBA researchers. Exceptions may be made in the case of raw or
preliminary data, for which distribution can be restricted for a limited period of time.
There will be no periods of exclusive rights to publish LBA results. Exceptions are possible for students
where graduation requirements prohibit publication of results prior to acceptance of a Thesis.
Individual investigators may make their own data more widely available at any time. Outside
investigators may be given access to this data as soon as the data have been submitted to the LBA DIS,
with some prudent time period for quality control.
Each LBA module is responsible for establishing a time schedule for data exchange within the projects
and data delivery to LBA DIS. The time limit for data delivery to LBA-DIS will be no more than one
year.
Data should be analyzed cooperatively by all scientists involved in obtaining them. Especially
cooperation across disciplines and among South American, European and North American researchers
should be encouraged. Publications resulting from work under LBA should be co-authored by all
scientists who have participated substantially in the work, unless some participants choose not to be on
the authors’ list. The same applies to presentations at meetings. Special effort by each non-South
American researcher should be put into integration of South American researchers in their work and in
the publication of the results.
Where data are used for modeling or integrating studies, the scientist collecting the data will be credited
appropriately, either by co-authorship or by citation. Investigators using data provided by another
investigator as a substantial component of a paper should offer the originating investigator coauthorship. In cases where data from other investigators are a minor contribution to a paper, the data
should be referenced by a citation. Users of the data will always have to state the source of the data.
Specific constraints for certain data sources (e.g. satellite products, global meteorological analysis, etc)
may be subject to copyright restrictions which are more limiting than this LBA data policy. It is up to the
LBA-OIC to take the first steps in making contacts with officials and institutions in order to prepare
specific agreements that will allow LBA scientists to use the data.
If conflicts do occur, they should be resolved at the level of the LBA modules.
What is Beija-flor?
• A Web-based metadata search and data retrieval
system.
• A system designed for tracking scientific metadata.
• A standards-based system.
• A “virtual system” with data and metadata
distributed over the Internet under the control of
investigators.
• A system providing rapid (nightly) updates.
What’s Beija-flor Good For?
• A Metadata search and data retrieval system.
Especially where the following may be applicable:
• International metadata standards
• “Light” database apps (skills DB, not payroll).
• A Web layer to a legacy database.
• A “Roll Up” interface to multiple heterogeneous
databases.
• Making data and documentation searchable.
• Topical search engines (e.g., Biomass).
• Using the Internet as its repository.
LBA Overall Status:
Metadata Registered in Beija-flor
450
413
# of data sets registered
400
379
# of posters registered
350
418
325
300
231
250
207
200
211
152
150
118
133
83
100
26
0
63
62
40
50
211
0
80
92
100
8
0
06/99 01/00 06/00 10/00 02/01 05/01 11/01 05/02 11/02 05/03 11/03
N=629
LBA Overall Status:
Data Volume Archived at LBA-DIS / CPTEC
79.6
80
69.0
Unrestricted Data
Restricted Data
Posters
70
Gigabytes
60
50
40
30
14.8
20
10
4.0
1.2
1.1
0.5 0.6
9.2
8.9
8.7
1.3
0
11/01
11/02
05/03
11/03