The GTN-P database is hosted at the Arctic Portal in Akureyri, Iceland. It is managed in close cooperation with the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Potsdam, Germany, which is also coordinator of the PAGE21 project within EU 7th framework programme, the main sponsor for the establishment of this database.
The GTN-P database operates towards providing a web-based resource for essential climate variables (ECV) of the Global Terrestrial Network on Permafrost (GTN-P), aiming to enable the assessment of the relation between ground temperature, gas fluxes and the Earth’s climate system. The database contains time series for borehole temperatures and grids of active layer thickness (TSP, CALM) plus air and surface temperature and moisture (DUE Permafrost, MODIS) measured in the terrestrial Panarctic, Antarctic and Mountainous realms. The GTN-P database will provide, for the first time, a dynamic and comprehensive database for permafrost monitoring parameters where permafrost researchers and other stakeholders will be able to download data and detailed metadata for a specific site or region of optional size.
The GTN-P Data Management System (DMS) aims to be the one location where the researcher can find data, metadata, and information of all relevant parameters for a specific site. Each component of the DMS, including parameters, data levels and metadata formats were developed in cooperation with the GTN-P and the IPA. The general framework is based on an object oriented model (OOM), open for as many parameters as possible, and implemented into a spatial database. To ensure interoperability and enable potential inter-database search, field names are following international metadata standards and are based on a control vocabulary registry. Tools are developed to provide data processing, analysis capability, and quality control. Our system aims to be a reference model, improvable and reusable. It allows a maximum top-down and bottom-up data flow, giving scientists one global searchable data and metadata repository, the public a full access to scientific data, and the policy maker a powerful cartographic and statistical tool.
To engage the international community in GTN-P, it was essential to develop an online interface for data upload. Aim for this was that it is easy-to-use and allows data input with a minimum of technical and personal effort. In addition to this, large efforts will have to be produced in order to be able to query, visualize and retrieve information over many platforms and type of measurements. Ultimately, it is not the layer in itself that matter, but more the relationship that these information layers maintain with each other.
Designed and developed by Arctic Portal (technical) and AWI (science and project management). Co-hosted by Arctic Portal and AWI 
