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Geologic mapping and mineral resources assessment of the Guyana shield; erosion rates and sediment composition of the Orinoco River. Yugoslavia

Soils surveys; geochemical exploration methods; seismology and earthquake hazards; granite metamorphic complexes; remote sensing; coal quality.

Programs in which activities were conducted under multilateral agreements in FY 1989 included the following: • International Strategic Minerals Inventory, cooperative studies by USGS and U.S. Bureau of Mines with Australia, Canada, West Germany, South Africa, and the United Kingdom to develop a global assessment of strategic commodities including cobalt, nickel, platinum, titanium, and tin.

• Global Seismic Network, the generation of a comprehensive, unrestricted seismic data base for fundamental earthquake monitoring and research (150 stations in 54 countries).

• Famine Early Warning System, (FEWS), the application of geographic information systems to target populations at risk of famine in eight sub-Saharan and Horn of Africa countries: Mauritania, Mali, Burkina, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. • AGRYMET, identification of remote sensing data requirements to make agricultural, hydrological, and meteorological assessments in nine west African countries: Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Mali, Niger, Burkina, and Chad.

• Grasshopper and locust habitat identification and monitoring by remote sensing in Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Sudan. (See article on p. 69.) • Antarctic research including acquisition of seismic and other geophysical data, geodetic data, aerial photography, and satellite imagery to produce base maps and to assess changes due to global change in the glaciers and ice sheets comprising the margin of Antarctica; multinational crustal transect studies; operation of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research's (SCAR) Library for Cartography and Geodesy; seismology and data telecommunications at the South Pole; ice-cap motions, sea-ice monitoring; ice-penetrating radar surveys; biochemistry of lakes.

• Interagency Volcano Early Warning Disaster Assistance Program provides for emergency responses worldwide to crises related to volcanic eruptions. (See article on Galeras Workshop, p. 75.)

• Advisory consultations, particularly in resource assessment methodologies, to intergovernmental geoscience organizations in eastern Asia; preparation of regional base maps at 1:2,000,000 scale covering approximately 12 million square miles.

• Circum-Pacific Mapping Project, program coordination and the cartographic preparation of about 60 thematic maps. • Southwestern Pacific offshore exploration for petroleum resources.

Ground-water modeling, Senegal River Basin, Senegal and Mauritania.

• Advisory coordination and training in coastal geologic hazards and resources assessments in the western-southwestern Pacific.

• Technical expertise provided to agencies of the United Nations as requested: Gold geology and chemistry (Turkey); gamma-ray spectrometry (Cameroon); installation of geophysical computer programs (China); geotechnical measurements on unconsolidated sediments (China); marine geology workshop (Turkey); geoscientific studies of the South

Pacific (Fiji); design and implementation of computerized hydrologic data bases (India); ground-water modeling (Suriname).

Technical expertise provided to member nations of the Pan American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH) through the Commissions on Cartography and Geophysics as requested; remote sensing applications (Bolivia); onshoreoffshore mapping (Central American nations).

Information Systems Activities

Mission

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The Information Systems Division provides support and services to the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, to major programs in each division of the USGS, to the Department of the Interior, and to other government agencies on information technology an automated data processing (ADP). The Division operates the USGS's mainframe computer located in Reston, Va., and Technology Information Centers and minicomputers in four ADP Service Centers nationwide. The Division assists users in acquiring ADP and telecommunications hardware, software, and services; coordinates and improves information systems through systems analysis and design; provides user education and assistance; and conducts research into better ways to use computer technology to solve mission-related problems. The Division coordinates, manages, and operates voice, data, and radio communications for the USGS, including GEONET, the data communications network of the Department of the Interior, from which gateways provide access to other national networks and supercomputer systems.

Highlights

Earth-Science Data Search Solution

By C.R. Baskin

Researchers and scientists, managers and planners alike are increasingly finding the solution to their search for sources of earth-science data in the Earth

Science Data Directory (ESDD). Operational since 1985, ESDD now involves a large community of participants-both contributors and users-who find the directory a useful source and outlet of information for a variety of projects, everything from global change and polar research to industrial site development.

Not only does ESDD deliver information from a U.S. Geological Survey mainframe computer about the location of a data source, but it also provides considerable descriptive material about the source of that data. Because ESDD can be accessed from almost any local computer terminal equipped with a modem and telecommunications software, and because its powerful, menu-guided search features make it extremely easy to use, it is easy to understand the rapid growth in its use. The availability of the ESDD on compact disk since mid-1988 has extended its use to an even broader community.

A substantial subset of the ESDD is the Arctic Environmental Data Directory (AEDD). Now that AEDD is expanding to include information about Antarctica, it will aid scientists and researchers who are concerned with polar processes at both poles and the relation of these processes to global change. The AEDD is being used to provide a connection between polar scientists and global change data sets through a shared "interoperable directory," created for the U.S. Global Change Research Program by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the USGS. The "interoperable directory" allows researchers to tap the complete coverage of the directories of all of these agencies by simply querying any one agency directory. Among many others, AEDD data sets include those relating to sea ice, polar mammals, marine life, Arctic soils, mean snow depth, climate,

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In today's fast-paced world of earthscience and natural-resource research, developmental planning, and environmental monitoring projects, a geographic information system is often an essential component in problem solving. Over one-fourth of the respondents to a 1988 ESDD user survey, for example, indicated that the directory had helped them to locate data for use in a geographic information system. One respondent said, "It has allowed us to view what other data are available for the State for future use." The ESDD is a mechanism having many users who will be increasingly better served as the directory continues to grow. ESDD contains more than 2,000 references to data from over 200 sources. System users-more than 150 authorized online-are located in all parts of the country and include all levels of government, the university community, and the private sector. Coverage has been extended to include sources in every State. New sources of references and new users of ESDD are continually being sought by the USGS in order to develop an even more effective solution to the researcher's quest for reliable and accessible earth-science data.

Local Area

Networking at the U.S. Geological Survey

By Kathleen Schabacker

The number of USGS scientists, administrators, and support personnel who are using local area networking technology has grown rapidly over the past several years. A local area network (LAN) is an excellent method for sharing both information and computing resources. It is a communications network whose com

ponents are located within a relatively small geographic area (for example, within a building) and are tied together via telecommunications wiring so that all components are physically accessible to all other components. Examples of the components that can be linked together are personal computers, workstations, file "servers," printers, and mini- and mainframe computers. A file server can be a microprocessor having storage capacity to store sharable data files; the printer could be a high-quality laser printer to which all the LAN users can direct output. With a LAN, users can enjoy the convenience of a desktop processor and at the same time benefit from equipment that provides the power of mainframe processing, the sharing of data and information, and the quality of expensive laser printers without duplication of equipment.

Different hardware specifications (for example, Ethernet, Appletalk) and software protocol standards [for example, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Xerox Network Services (XNS)] exist that can be combined to create a LAN. Successful implementation is the result of much analysis and planning. For this reason, the USGS has begun to define local area networking policies and guidelines so that users can more easily procure and implement the most applicable hardware and software for their needs.

Local area networks can also be interconnected, which makes them even more powerful and accessible as shared resources. Geographically dispersed areas can be connected via long distance

telecommunications links (wide area networking); in the case of the USGS, many of the local area network facilities (GEOLAN) are connected via the wide area network facility (GEONET). Procurements for new computer systems, such as the Department of Interiorwide Distributed Information Systems II procurement that provides high performance information systems and services to satisfy a multitude of departmental needs, now specify LAN capabilities.

...the USGS has begun to define local area networking policies and guidelines so that users can more easily procure and implement the most applicable hardware and software for their needs.

Different hardware and software can reside on different LANs. To allow these different systems to talk to one another, specialized equipment such as "gateways" can connect networks that use different communications software protocols, and "repeaters" can connect networks that use different physical media. "Routers" are available to send data across a network in the most efficient way, and "bridges" are used to filter and forward data across a network.

Local area networks exist at many USGS sites across the country. The National Coal Resources Database System, the many geographic information systems being used, the distributed information systems of water-resources information, and the Federal Financial System of the Department are just a few of the major applications that use local area networking. Because of the flexibility that LANS afford, the USGS has begun development of a network system that is truly capable of sharing information and resources throughout the USGS.

Generating Color Separations of Geologic Maps on Low-Cost Computer Systems

By Alex Acosta and Janet Barrett

Geologic maps are the basic tools by which scientists, planners, and managers can study the rocks and structure beneath the surface of the Earth and other planets. These maps allow scientists to see the planet as it would appear with all the overlying materials stripped away to reveal the layers of rock below. To portray the complex structure of these buried rock layers, geologic maps are produced in multiple colors.

Color separations for printing these geologic maps may be generated by using manual or computerized methods. The manual method is labor-intensive and time-consuming and requires several photographic products. The computerized procedure requires few photographic products to prepare a map for scanning. In the computerized procedure, manual steps include preparing the geologist's original compilation, editing the scanned version of the map, tagging polygons, and doing some color coding. The computerized procedure helps to reduce or eliminate materials, labor, time, and registration errors.

As part of a productivity enhancement effort begun in 1989, USGS computer scientists are experimenting with a procedure on a general-purpose computer to produce the necessary color separations for printing geologic maps. The computer scientists are also developing a procedure using a low-cost personal computer that will make this capability available to field geologists. With this procedure, field geologists will be able to do more detailed processing of their original field work on their own computers.

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