The National Tibetan Plateau Data Center (TPDC) is one of the first of 20 national data centers established in 2019 by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China. It is the only data center in China with the most complete scientific data for the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding regions. TPDC is hosted by the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of Chinese Academy of Sciences (ITPCAS), with support from Lanzhou University, Beijing Normal University, and Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences. ITPCAS also hosts the Third Pole Environment (TPE) International Program Office.
Over the years, Third Pole Environment (TPE), an international program for interdisciplinary study of the Third Pole region and beyond, has built a global 3D observation network in the region to monitor environmental changes at the Third Pole and beyond. Data from the TPE observation network are stored and managed in the TPE Big Data Systems managed by TPDC. TPDC stores, integrates, analyses, excavates and publishes scientific data from the Third Pole and its surrounding areas, currently (as of June 2020) including over 2,000 datasets covering geography, atmospheric science, cryospheric science, hydrology, ecology, geology, geophysics, natural resource science as well as social sciences, all available for global users via the TPE global network. Data from the “Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP),” will also be integrated into the system.
A cloud service platform is also being developed at TPDC for the extensive integration of data, methods, models and services, with a view toward enabling big data analysis for TPE research.
In the future, TPDC will continue to enhance cooperation with international programs and projects to become a reliable data repository that both provides scientific data for Third Pole research and hosts the database that stores in situ observations and model outputs.