An early metadata initiative from the Earth sciences community, intended for the description of scientific data sets. It inlcudes elements focusing on instruments that capture data, temporal and spatial characteristics of the data, and projects with which the dataset is associated. It is defined as a W3C XML Schema.
Sponsored by the Global Change Master Directory, the DIF Writer's Guide Version 6 is from November 2010.
Some repositories have decided that current standards do not fit their metadata needs, and so have created their own requirements.
A metadata standard for describing environmental monitoring activities, programmes, networks and facilities published by the UK Environmental Observation Framework (UKEOF).
The European Directory of Marine Environmental Datasets metadata scheme, which is a profile of ISO 19115.
This tool uses the Observations and Measurements standard to define a Web service interface which allows querying observations, sensor metadata, as well as representations of observed features.
The UKEOF Catalogue contains over 2000 metadata records of environmental observations undertaken and funded by public and third sector organisations.
The Catalogue provides a unique management tool to underpin the activities and requirements of the environmental observation community. It provides a strong basis for strategic planning, giving a holistic overview of environmental observations as well as a place to discover who is doing what, where, why and when.
An international effort headed by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites developed to assist users in locating Earth science data sets, data services, and visualizations using DIF metadata.
The Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) is a Natural Environment Research Council Data Centre hosted by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH). It manages nationally-important datasets concerned with the terrestrial and freshwater sciences.
The GCMD uses DIF metadata to promote the discovery, access, and use of Earth science data and data-related services worldwide, parcitularly focusing on NASA data.