GeoData Center

1. GeoData Center 1952 - As part of the first International Geophysical Year, “World Data Center A” established 1975 - Becomes the Geophysical Institute official archive 1985 - Merged with the “Landsat Library”, to become the GeoData Center under Katie Martz Early 1990’s - Under Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) management Merle Young 1952-1977 1985 - GDC becomes a NCIC (National Cartographic Information Center), later an ESIC (Earth Science Information Center) 1994 - USGS closed its map distribution office in Fairbanks, and GI approved the integration of map sales into ESIC “to expand the role of the GDC”. 2007 - Under ASF Management

2. The Data held by GDC can be divided (roughly) into 4 primary categories: •Aeronomy - All-Sky Camera film, worldwide magnetograms, Poker Flat rocket launch data, plus a long list of other collections, including conjugate flights and South Pole Station film. • Climate Data - Original McCall Glacier data, radiosonde temperature data, Fairbanks raobs, Ice island position charts and documents, T-3 telegrams, Project Ice Skate photos and report (first research project based on an ice island) • Historical Information - Scrapbooks, photos from the beginning of time (GI history), Lawrence Neilsen collection - first ascents of peaks in SE AK, many peaks named by his expedition, earliest JIRP (Juneau Ice field Research Project • Remote Sensing Data - AHAP, Amchitka Island, low altitude, 1968; Austin Post aerial collection, plus thousands of his personal slides, North American Glaciers - Ice and Climate Project photography, NARL (Naval Arctic Research Laboratory) hardcopy collection, N.O.S. (National Ocean Service), Wrangell Collection (Carl Benson’s, beginning in the late 1940’s), several smaller miscellaneous collections. Landsat 1-5 film (1972-1991), NOAA AVHRR (1974-1988). Some collections are unique, exist nowhere else.