World Data Center System

The World Data Center (WDC) system was created to archive and distribute data collected from the observational programs of the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year. Originally established in the United States, Europe, Russia, and Japan, the WDC system has since expanded to other countries and to new scientific disciplines. The WDC system now includes 52 Centers in 12 countries. Its holdings include a wide range of solar, geophysical, environmental, and human dimensions data. These data cover timescales ranging from seconds to millennia and they provide baseline information for research in many ICSU disciplines, especially for monitoring changes in the geosphere and biospheregradual or sudden, foreseen or unexpected, natural or man-made.