Advances in Geosciences www.adv-geosci.net 1680-7340 1680-7359 8 Earth System Science Data access, distribution and use for education and research 2006 10.5194/adgeo-8-91-2006 http://www.adv-geosci.net/8/91/2006/ http://www.adv-geosci.net/8/91/2006/adgeo-8-91-2006.html http://www.adv-geosci.net/8/91/2006/adgeo-8-91-2006.pdf 91 95 2006-06-06 Internet Data Distribution – extending real-time data sharing throughout the Americas T. Yoksas W. Gambi de Almeida D. Garrana Coelho V. Castro Leon T. Spangler Unidata Program Center/UCAR, CO, USA Centro de Previsã de Tempo e Estudos Climticos/INPE, São Paulo, Brazil Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Universidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica COMET/UCAR The Unidata Program Center (Unidata) of the University Corporation of Atmospheric Research (UCAR) is involved in three international collaborations whose goals are extension of real-time data delivery-to and sharing-of locally held datasets-by educational institutions throughout the Americas. These efforts are based on the use of Unidata's Internet Data Distribution (IDD) system which is built on top of its proven Local Data Manager Version 6 (LDM-6) technology. The Unidata IDD is an event-driven network of cooperating Unidata LDM servers that distributes discipline-neutral data products in near real-time over wide-area networks. The IDD, a collaboration of over 150 mostly North American institutions of higher education, has been the primary source of real-time atmospheric science data for the US university community for over a decade,. In addition to providing a highly reliable mechanism for delivering real-time data, the IDD allows users to easily share locally held datasets.