A new generation of data sharing platform for eddy covariance flux data

This paper introduces a case study of establishing a new generation of data sharing platform for eddy covariance flux data for the US-China Carbon Consortium. This platform manages the information about the observation sites, principle investigators, research projects, related publications, and the processed flux data. It supports data query and on-line data presentation based on these centralized managed metadata information. It introduced a relational database scheme for flux data storage. The system architecture, information model, metadata standards, data sharing and citation policies and dedicated flux data interchange format are introduced. Two advantages of this case study are discussed at the end: a dedicated flux data interchange format, and an ISO 19115-based metadata standard profile dedicated for the eddy covariance flux data.