However, due to the rapid increase of data accumulation, and due to increasing requirements for high quality data products, JODC has difficulty in responding to all needs of various users. As one of the governmental organizations, JODC would focus its efforts on basic data management such as collection, arrangement, storage and distribution, if other organization can serve for producing data products for specific requirements from individual users. The data and information compiled by JODC would be useful for popularization of oceanic knowledge for the public, but it is hard for JODC to work for this due to limited man power and funds. These are the reason why we planned to establish a new research center, the Marine Information Research Center (MIRC). The Nippon Foundation kindly provides necessary funds to establish and to operate the new center, and the center was established in the Japan Hydrographic Association. Here, we shall introduce the purpose and constitution of MIRC. Computer and communication systems of MIRC will be operating after October 1,1997, but we have already started to investigate new techniques of quality control. Some of our preliminary results will be also introduced.
TASK AND CONSTITUTION OF MIRC
Task and possible contribution of MIRC are illustrated in Fig.1. The activities of MIRC would be classified into three categories： 1) establishing the methods of quality control and of data distribution which are applicable for JODC system, 2) enlightening and popularization of oceanic knowledge using various data products, and 3) serving for international co-operation programs relating to data management. MIRC will create the data base by using the data files in JODC, make high level quality control, produce various data products and distribute them speedily through the internet. In order to respond quickly to newly generated needs of marine data and information, MIRC will conduct basic investigations on data management problems and produce desirable data products. MIRC will join actively to co-operative projects with domestic and overseas investigators.
In order to accomplish these task, co-operation with JODC would be most essential. MIRC is located on the 5th floor of a building which is very near to JODC (about 5 mm. on foot). The facilities of MIRC will be also used by JODC staff. JODC formed a special task team to co-operate with MIRC. MIRC has a service office in the same building as JODC to conduct consulting business and distribution and data products for general users. At the present stage, MIRC has three researchers, three service engineers, and three supporting staffs. Two more researchers would be added in the next fiscal year.
BASIC STRATEGY OF MIRC
Data and information are essential for any research and exploitation business in various fields. Especially in the oceanographic field, due to huge accumulation of data and to increases in variety of the data items, it is hard for an individual researcher to arrange the data by himself in applicable form for his own interest, if raw data sets are supplied directly. For example, for world ocean simulation studies for climate prediction, time series of the oceanic data distributed to three dimensional lattice points would be most desirable. Usually, investigators of this field use the data products arranged by other investigators or other organizations. Namely, they do not use the most suitable data set for their study, but arrange their scheme so as to fit the available data Set. Under this circumstance, accuracy, variability and representativeness of the data is are almost in a black box for individual users. Thus, the data products should be high quality, and the investigators of the organizations producing such data products should have high responsibility. Also, mutual understanding between product producers and users is essential for future investigations.
To produce the high quality, data products, high-level quality control is required. It would be one of the study items to clarify the definition of "high-level" quality control. Usually, the first step of quality control is to exclude the data having extremely deviated and unbelievable values from the data set, by eye inspection. In the next step, we may make statistical calculation, and obtain "mean value and standard deviation" for some sub-domains and for some given period or given season. These values are often used to judge reliability of the data and to asward quality flags.
