Data

LinkedEarth Data Resources

LinkedEarth develops data standards and curates compilations for paleoclimate information through community collaboration and NSF support.

Data Standards

LinkedEarth got started because of how impractical it was (back in 2015 or so) to work with paleoclimate data. Since then, we have created comprehensive data standards. These standards comprise three key elements:

  • Data Representation: The LiPD format and its associated LinkedEarth Ontology provide structural organization for paleoclimate datasets. LiPD is a flexible, metadata-rich open access data format designed for paleoclimate and other paleogeoscientific datasets. We have developed packages in python and R to make it easy to interact with LiPD data in those programming languages.

  • Standard Vocabulary: NOAA developed the PaST Thesaurus to establish consistent terminology across the field. For datasets on the LiPDverse, we have aligned key components of the LiPD vocabulary with the PaST Thesaurus. You can browse the LiPDverse vocabulary here

  • Reporting Guidelines: The PaCTS standard specifies crowdsourced guidelines for reporting paleoclimate data. This collaborative effort involved over 135 international researchers and received recognition from the American Geophysical Union, at its 2019 annual meeting plenary session.

Data Conversion

One of the major hurdles to standardize paleoclimate datasets is getting them into the LiPD format. To aid this process, we created the LiPD Playground, a web interface that allows users to easily create LiPD files. The system incorporates PaleoRec, a recommendation tool employing deep learning to assist with metadata completion during dataset annotation.

Data Compilations

LiPDverse serves as a repository housing datasets formatted according to LiPD standards. The collection features more than 7000 datasets in the LiPD format, which are also available through a graph interface. Most of these datasets have were curated as part of international compilation efforts, including many PAGES working groups, and have community-vetted metadata. The platform enables straightforward data access and visualization capabilities for paleoclimate data.

How to Contribute Data

To contribute data to LinkedEarth, please use the LiPD Playground to format your dataset or contact us at linkedearth@gmail.com for assistance.