Submitting Data to the World Data Centre for Aerosol (WDCA)
The WDCA data holdings are hosted in the EBAS database, which was originally designed for the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP). WDCA data are identified with the project associations GAW-WDCA for fully quality assured data, and GAW-WDCA_NRT for near-real-time data. Data providers benefit from improved data dissemination through WDCA with an increased number of collaborations. Data submitted to WDCA are protected by a fair-use data policy.
GAW stations make a voluntary commitment to submit their data to the respective GAW World Data Centres. The deadline for data reporting is 31 December of the year following the reporting year. For example, 2015 data are to be reported by the end of 2016.
Before submitting data to WDCA, please make sure that your station is registered with the GAW Station Information System (GAWSIS). For the submission instructions themselves, please refer to the
EBAS submission instructions
In these submission instructions, you will find for each observation type templates for 3 data levels (0, 1, and 2). The default format for data submissions to WDCA is level 2. However, data providers are strongly encouraged to also submit the level 0 and 1 versions of their data in addition. The hirachy of data levels from level 0 (annotated raw data) to level 2 (quality assured hourly averages) makes data processing transparent and reproducible for data users, even decades into the future.
WDCA also supports submission and dissemination of data in Near-Real-Time (NRT), i.e. within latest 3 hours of measurement, and typically within 1 hour of measurement. For details on how to participate in the NRT programme, please refer to the NRT page on the EBAS data submission instruction site.