Peer-review of data products: an automated assistance system for INTERMAGNET

Abstract

INTERMAGNET, a global network of geomagnetic observatories, publishes so-called “definitive” data products, which are subjected to an international peer-review system. Currently, geomagnetic data is submitted by about 100 observatories worldwide. Besides the mandatory one-minute data products, INTERMAGNET has also accepted one-second (1 Hz, 1 s) data products for the past decade. The amount of data to be reviewed has significantly increased, making traditional manual data reviews increasingly challenging. The INTERMAGNET ROBOT (short IMBOT) has been developed to perform automated routines to convert and evaluate INTERMAGNET (IM) data submissions. The primary objectives of IMBOT are to (1) simplify one-second and one-minute data submissions for providers, (2) speed up the evaluation process significantly, (3) consider current IM archive formats and meta information, (4) simplify and speed up the peer-review process and finally, (5) reduce the workload of human data checkers. IMBOT automatically generates detailed reports and notifies submitting institutes and human referees. It provides templates for corrections and also triggers re-evaluations automatically when data or any information in the submission directory is updated. This automated system makes data review faster and more reliable, providing high-quality data for the geomagnetic community.