Projects Database

Solid Earth Sample Registry SESAR

Earth Institute Contact: Dr. Kerstin Lehnert

EI Collaborators:
Steven Goldstein
Sritharan Vinayagamoorthy

Description:
The Solid Earth SAmple Registry (SESAR) is web-based digital registry that provides globally unique identifiers (the International Geo Sample Number = IGSN) for solid earth samples. SESAR addresses the urgent need for unique sample identifiers in the development of a Geoscience Cyberinfrastructure by providing for the first time a way to uniquely name and identify samples on a global scale. SESAR will have a wide-ranging impact on sample and data management, especially with respect to sample sharing and data integration.

SESAR is a response to the problem of ambiguous naming of samples, which has been a major obstacle in the development of a Geosciences Cyberinfrastructure. Different samples are often given identical names, and the same sample is often renamed, making it difficult to link disparate data for a sample in relational databases. Through the ability to track a sample through its history, the system will facilitate the ability of investigators to build on previously collected data on samples as new measurements are made or techniques are developed.

SESAR will have a dramatic impact on the future of the Geosciences, as several major existing and emerging data and information management projects that handle sample-based data, such as CHRONOS, EarthChem, SedDB, PaleoStrat - to name a few – are seriously hampered in their potential to link disparate data for samples and develop interoperability among the systems by the inability to uniquely identify samples. The Solid Earth SAmple Registry (SESAR) will allow wide ranges of sample-based data types to be linked and integrated, thus leading to new interdisciplinary approaches in research.

EI Unit:
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO)

Core Disciplines:
Cross-Disciplinary

Address:
61 ROUTE 9W PALISADES, NY 10976 USA

Project Web Site:
http://www.geosamples.org

Collaborating Institutions:
CIESIN

Funding Agency:
NSF

Last Modified: 06-23-2005