A global chronology of atmospheric, cryospheric, hydrological, oceanic, ecological and emissions-monitoring systems

Scope: A selective global chronology of durable or influential monitoring services, observation networks, databases, scientific data centres, repositories and emissions/commitment registries. The list covers 1854-2023 and includes public, intergovernmental, academic, nonprofit and private systems. It does not attempt to enumerate every national station network, local water laboratory, commercial weather application or short-lived research project. “Data centre” is used primarily in the scientific-archival sense, rather than for commercial colocation facilities.

Abstract

This report maps 80 major climate-related observation and data infrastructures established between 1854 and 2023. It follows the transition from national meteorological services and long-term manual observing networks to planetary satellite systems, federated archives, near-real-time emissions platforms and corporate-pledge registries. The chronology includes atmosphere and air quality, glacier and permafrost condition, sea level and ocean carbon, river discharge and water quality, biodiversity and forest change, greenhouse-gas inventories, model repositories and open-data utilities. It is selective rather than exhaustive: inclusion favours durable, internationally influential systems with verifiable establishment dates and active or historically significant public data functions. Most early infrastructures are state-financed or intergovernmental; from the 1990s onward, academic consortia and nonprofit platforms multiply, while the 2010s introduce commercial satellite and geospatial-intelligence firms. For The Sunshine Find, these institutions form an expanding apparatus that converts environmental change into measurements, maps, alerts, rankings and claims of accountability. Their databases are both evidence of climate transformation and material infrastructures dependent on satellites, laboratories, servers, data centres, standards and political funding.

Project links and cross-references: Project website  ·  Supporting archive  ·  Related object reports: Memory; Countdown; Thirst; The cloud is not in the sky!; glacial archaeology institutions and projects.

Position in the project

The chronology supplies institutional background for several archive objects. Memory concerns the storage and circulation of environmental data; Countdown converts emissions estimates into a real-time public display; Thirst depends on glacier, groundwater and water-quality monitoring; and The cloud is not in the sky! makes visible the material energy, cooling and land requirements of the data infrastructure that supports planetary observation. The list also clarifies how glaciers move from scenic objects within panoptic tourism to measured climate indicators, archived evidence and triggers for scientific or political action.

Method and source policy

Selection and dating. Establishment years were checked against official institutional histories, programme records and, where necessary, peer-reviewed accounts. Where an infrastructure has a long lineage, merger or operational transition, the entry states more than one date instead of presenting a false single origin. Current financing classifications are functional rather than absolute: many systems combine state appropriations, intergovernmental contributions, university support, grants, philanthropy and commercial contracts.

Source hierarchy. Official agency and programme pages are used as primary/institutional evidence for names, dates, governance and current functions. Peer-reviewed articles and scholarly books support the historical and methodological significance of major systems and appear in the numbered academic reference list. No claim of comprehensiveness is made; absence from this chronology does not imply that an institution lacks scientific importance.

Terminology. “Monitoring” includes direct in-situ measurement, remote sensing, model-assisted analysis, reporting and verification. “Repository” denotes long-term stewardship and access; “registry” denotes an authoritative or organised record of emissions units, commitments, disclosures or nationally submitted documents. Commercial services are included only when they materially extend climate or emissions observation rather than merely repackaging public forecasts.

Typology used in the chronology

Contents

1. Chronological list, 1854-1989
2. Chronological list, 1991-2008
3. Chronological list, 2009-2023
4. Interpretive synthesis: from planetary observation to data politics
5. Numbered academic reference list
Appendix: User prompts related to this report

1. Chronological list, 1854-1989

The earliest systems institutionalised continuous measurement, data standardisation and international exchange. Their archives remain the temporal baseline against which recent climate change is assessed.

1. 1854 – UK Met Office

Institution / financing: State-financed national meteorological service; an executive agency and trading fund of the UK government.
Established: 1854.
Type and focus: Operational weather and climate observation, forecasting, national climate records, atmospheric research and climate services.
Website: Met Office
Primary / institutional evidence links: Met Office history
Academic source links: A Vast Machine
References: [1].

2. 1873 / 1950-1951 – International Meteorological Organization / World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

Institution / financing: Intergovernmental; financed principally by member-state contributions and programme funds.
Established: 1873 for the IMO lineage; WMO Convention entered into force in 1950 and WMO became a UN specialised agency in 1951.
Type and focus: International coordination and standardisation of weather, climate, hydrological and related environmental observations and data exchange.
Website: World Meteorological Organization
Primary / institutional evidence links: History of IMO and WMO
Academic source links: A Vast Machine
References: [1].

3. 1894 – World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) lineage

Institution / financing: International scientific service hosted by the University of Zurich; public and academic support, with WMO/UNESCO links.
Established: Internationally coordinated glacier monitoring began in 1894; the present WGMS name dates from 1986.
Type and focus: Standardised glacier mass-balance, front-variation and thickness-change observations; global glacier database and reference-network coordination.
Website: World Glacier Monitoring Service
Primary / institutional evidence links: WGMS history | WGMS database
Academic source links: Historically Unprecedented Global Glacier Decline | Essential Climate Variables
References: [2], pp. 745-762; [26], pp. 1431-1443.

4. 1933 – Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL)

Institution / financing: International scientific service hosted by the UK National Oceanography Centre; publicly funded research infrastructure.
Established: 1933.
Type and focus: Collection, quality control, publication and analysis of long-term tide-gauge records for sea-level and vertical land-motion studies.
Website: PSMSL
Primary / institutional evidence links: PSMSL overview
Academic source links: A Vast Machine
References: [1].

5. 1951 – NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) lineage

Institution / financing: US federal, state-financed.
Established: 1951 as the US National Weather Records Center/National Climatic Data Center lineage; NCEI formed by consolidation in 2015.
Type and focus: Long-term stewardship and access for weather, climate, ocean, coastal and geophysical observations; one of the world’s largest environmental data archives.
Website: NOAA NCEI
Primary / institutional evidence links: About NCEI
Academic source links: A Vast Machine | FAIR Guiding Principles
References: [1]; [24].

6. 1956-1958 – Scripps CO2 Program / Keeling Curve

Institution / financing: University-based research programme supported by public grants and philanthropic funding.
Established: Programme initiated in 1956; continuous Mauna Loa measurements began in 1958.
Type and focus: High-precision atmospheric carbon-dioxide measurements at Mauna Loa and other stations, producing the foundational continuous record known as the Keeling Curve.
Website: Scripps CO2 Program
Primary / institutional evidence links: Programme overview
Academic source links: Atmospheric CO2 Variations at Mauna Loa
References: [3], pp. 538-551.

7. 1957 – Global Ozone Observing System / World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre (WOUDC)

Institution / financing: WMO intergovernmental programme; data centre operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Established: Global ozone observation coordination began in 1957; the data-centre lineage was formalised under WMO arrangements.
Type and focus: Surface and profile observations of ozone, ultraviolet radiation and related atmospheric variables; long-term global archive.
Website: WOUDC
Primary / institutional evidence links: WOUDC overview | WMO GAW history

8. 1957 – World Data Centres / International Science Council World Data System (WDS)

Institution / financing: International scientific federation and distributed member repositories; mixed public, academic and institutional support.
Established: World Data Centres created for the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year; WDS established in 2008 as their successor framework.
Type and focus: Trusted scientific repositories, data standards, preservation, interoperability and cross-disciplinary access for Earth and environmental data.
Website: World Data System
Primary / institutional evidence links: WDS history and mission
Academic source links: FAIR Guiding Principles
References: [24].

9. 1960 – World Ocean Database / former US National Oceanographic Data Center lineage

Institution / financing: US federal, state-financed, with international data contributions.
Established: The US National Oceanographic Data Center was established in 1960; its archive functions are now within NOAA NCEI.
Type and focus: Global quality-controlled ocean profile data, including temperature, salinity, oxygen, nutrients and biological variables.
Website: World Ocean Database
Primary / institutional evidence links: World Ocean Database

10. 1969 / 1989 – WMO Background Air Pollution Monitoring Network / Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW)

Institution / financing: WMO intergovernmental programme supported by member states and participating laboratories.
Established: Background Air Pollution Monitoring Network established in 1969; merged with the Global Ozone Observing System into GAW in 1989.
Type and focus: Long-term global observations of greenhouse gases, ozone, aerosols, reactive gases, precipitation chemistry and solar radiation.
Website: WMO Global Atmosphere Watch
Primary / institutional evidence links: GAW background and history
Academic source links: Essential Climate Variables
References: [26].

11. 1972 – NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML) lineage

Institution / financing: US federal, state-financed.
Established: 1972 as the Geophysical Monitoring for Climatic Change programme; later the Earth System Research Laboratories Global Monitoring Division and, from 2020, GML.
Type and focus: Baseline observations of greenhouse gases, aerosols, ozone, radiation and carbon-cycle processes from global stations and aircraft.
Website: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory
Primary / institutional evidence links: GML network history
Academic source links: Atmospheric CO2 Variations at Mauna Loa
References: [3].

12. 1975 – European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and MARS archive

Institution / financing: Intergovernmental public organisation financed by member and co-operating states.
Established: ECMWF established in 1975; its Meteorological Archival and Retrieval System (MARS) evolved as the operational forecast and reanalysis archive.
Type and focus: Numerical weather prediction, climate reanalysis, atmospheric composition and one of the largest meteorological data archives.
Website: ECMWF
Primary / institutional evidence links: ECMWF history | MARS archive access
Academic source links: A Vast Machine
References: [1].

13. 1976 – National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)

Institution / financing: University-based US research data centre, supported mainly by federal agencies and grants.
Established: 1976.
Type and focus: Cryosphere data stewardship and services covering snow, sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, frozen ground and related remote-sensing records.
Website: NSIDC
Primary / institutional evidence links: NSIDC history
Academic source links: FAIR Guiding Principles
References: [24].

14. 1977 – European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP)

Institution / financing: Intergovernmental UNECE programme financed by parties to the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution.
Established: 1977.
Type and focus: Transboundary air-pollution monitoring, emissions inventories, atmospheric modelling and source-receptor assessment across Europe and adjacent regions.
Website: EMEP
Primary / institutional evidence links: UNECE EMEP overview
Academic source links: Introduction to EMEP
References: [4], pp. 5447-5481.

15. 1977 – US National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP)

Institution / financing: Co-operative public-university network supported by federal, state, tribal and other participating agencies.
Established: 1977; regular precipitation-chemistry sampling began in 1978.
Type and focus: Wet deposition, atmospheric mercury, ammonia, passive ammonia and related chemical monitoring across North America.
Website: National Atmospheric Deposition Program
Primary / institutional evidence links: NADP history and mission

16. 1978 – UNEP GEMS/Water

Institution / financing: UN intergovernmental programme, implemented through public research partners and national focal points.
Established: 1978.
Type and focus: Global freshwater quality monitoring, capacity development and the GEMStat database for rivers, lakes, reservoirs and groundwater.
Website: UNEP GEMS/Water
Primary / institutional evidence links: GEMS/Water programme | GEMStat database

17. 1985 – Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS)

Institution / financing: Intergovernmental programme of UNESCO-IOC and WMO, supported by national agencies.
Established: 1985.
Type and focus: International tide-gauge network, sea-level standards, near-real-time and delayed-mode data, and support for climate, oceanography and tsunami services.
Website: GLOSS
Primary / institutional evidence links: GLOSS and PSMSL | GLOSS website
Academic source links: A Global Ocean Observing System
References: [23].

18. 1988 – Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC)

Institution / financing: WMO data centre operated and financed by Germany’s Federal Institute of Hydrology.
Established: 1988.
Type and focus: International archive of river-discharge time series and associated catchment metadata for hydrology, climate and water-resources research.
Website: GRDC
Primary / institutional evidence links: GRDC history

19. 1988 – INPE PRODES Amazon Deforestation Monitoring

Institution / financing: Brazilian federal, state-financed.
Established: 1988.
Type and focus: Annual satellite-based measurement of clear-cut deforestation in the Brazilian Legal Amazon; official basis for national deforestation rates.
Website: TerraBrasilis / PRODES
Primary / institutional evidence links: INPE TerraBrasilis | Amazon Fund monitoring overview
Academic source links: High-Resolution Global Forest Cover Change
References: [21], pp. 850-853.

20. 1989 – Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC)

Institution / financing: German federal service hosted by Deutscher Wetterdienst under WMO auspices.
Established: 1989.
Type and focus: Quality-controlled global land-surface precipitation analyses based on gauge data, including climatologies, monitoring products and long time series.
Website: GPCC
Primary / institutional evidence links: GPCC service
Academic source links: GPCC Global Precipitation Products
References: [5], pp. 71-99.

2. Chronological list, 1991-2008

The 1990s and 2000s added satellite observation, global modelling, distributed repositories, biodiversity databases and regulatory emissions registries. Public agencies remained central, but academic and nonprofit infrastructures became increasingly important.

21. 1991 – Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS)

Institution / financing: Intergovernmental UNESCO-IOC programme with WMO, UNEP and partner support.
Established: 1991.
Type and focus: Coordinated global ocean observations for climate, operational services, ecosystem health and hazard reduction across physical, biogeochemical and biological variables.
Website: GOOS
Primary / institutional evidence links: GOOS history
Academic source links: A Global Ocean Observing System
References: [23], article 291.

22. 1991 – Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring Network (CALM)

Institution / financing: International academic network supported by national research agencies and universities.
Established: 1991.
Type and focus: Standardised measurements of seasonal thaw depth and near-surface permafrost conditions at circumpolar and mountain sites.
Website: CALM Network
Primary / institutional evidence links: CALM programme

23. 1991 – Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC)

Institution / financing: International public-agency and academic consortium.
Established: 1991.
Type and focus: Long-term, high-quality remote-sensing observations of stratospheric and tropospheric composition, including ozone, greenhouse gases, aerosols and temperature.
Website: NDACC
Primary / institutional evidence links: NDACC overview
Academic source links: NDACC: History, Status and Perspectives
References: [6], pp. 4935-4964.

24. 1992 – Global Climate Observing System (GCOS)

Institution / financing: Intergovernmental programme co-sponsored by WMO, IOC-UNESCO, UNEP and the International Science Council.
Established: 1992.
Type and focus: Definition and assessment of Essential Climate Variables and coordination of sustained atmosphere, ocean and terrestrial climate observations.
Website: GCOS
Primary / institutional evidence links: GCOS history
Academic source links: Essential Climate Variables
References: [26], pp. 1431-1443.

25. 1992 – Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN)

Institution / financing: US federal data set maintained by NOAA NCEI with global national-service contributions.
Established: First global monthly release in 1992; daily and updated versions followed.
Type and focus: Integrated station records for temperature, precipitation and other climate variables used in monitoring and global climate analyses.
Website: GHCN
Primary / institutional evidence links: GHCN Monthly
Academic source links: Global Historical Climatology Network, Version 3
References: [7], article D19121.

26. 1992-1993 – PANGAEA Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science

Institution / financing: Public academic infrastructure operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute and MARUM, Germany.
Established: System reconceived in 1992; public data publication began in 1993.
Type and focus: Long-term publication, DOI assignment and preservation of georeferenced Earth, ocean, polar, climate and environmental data.
Website: PANGAEA
Primary / institutional evidence links: PANGAEA at AWI
Academic source links: PANGAEA Information System | FAIR Guiding Principles
References: [8], pp. 1201-1210; [24], article 160018.

27. 1993 – NASA Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET)

Institution / financing: US federal NASA programme with international public and academic partners.
Established: 1993.
Type and focus: Federated ground-based sun-photometer observations and archive for aerosol optical, microphysical and radiative properties.
Website: AERONET
Primary / institutional evidence links: AERONET programme
Academic source links: AERONET Federated Instrument Network
References: [9], pp. 1-16.

28. 1993 – FAO AQUASTAT

Institution / financing: UN intergovernmental programme financed through FAO and donor support.
Established: 1993.
Type and focus: Global water-resources, irrigation, agricultural water management and country-level water-use statistics and metadata.
Website: AQUASTAT
Primary / institutional evidence links: AQUASTAT

29. 1994 – European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet)

Institution / financing: European Union public network coordinated by the European Environment Agency and national institutions.
Established: 1994.
Type and focus: Distributed environmental reporting and data exchange on air, climate, water, biodiversity, land, waste and environmental health across Europe.
Website: Eionet
Primary / institutional evidence links: EEA key partners and Eionet

30. 1994 – Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR)

Institution / financing: European Commission public database developed by the Joint Research Centre with partner institutions.
Established: Database development documented from 1994; successive versions expanded global sectoral coverage.
Type and focus: Consistent gridded and national inventories of greenhouse gases and air pollutants by sector, fuel and technology.
Website: EDGAR
Primary / institutional evidence links: EDGAR database | Early EDGAR publication record
Academic source links: EDGAR Global Greenhouse Gas Atlas
References: [22], pp. 959-1002.

31. 1994 – NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS)

Institution / financing: US federal, state-financed.
Established: Operational EOSDIS services began in 1994.
Type and focus: Distributed processing, archiving and open access for NASA Earth-observation data across atmosphere, oceans, land, cryosphere and biosphere.
Website: NASA EOSDIS
Primary / institutional evidence links: EOSDIS overview
Academic source links: FAIR Guiding Principles
References: [24].

32. 1995 – Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS)

Institution / financing: NASA-led international academic and public-agency consortium.
Established: 1995; the public glacier database became operational in the 2000s.
Type and focus: Repeat satellite mapping of glacier outlines and change, with a distributed network of regional centres and a global geospatial database.
Website: GLIMS
Primary / institutional evidence links: GLIMS history
Academic source links: GLIMS Remote Sensing and GIS Technology
References: [27], pp. 104-125.

33. 1995 – Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP)

Institution / financing: International public research programme under the World Climate Research Programme.
Established: 1995.
Type and focus: Common experimental protocols and distributed archives for comparing climate and Earth-system models; central evidentiary infrastructure for climate assessment.
Website: CMIP
Primary / institutional evidence links: CMIP overview
Academic source links: A Vast Machine | Earth System Grid Federation
References: [1]; [15].

34. 1997 – FLUXNET

Institution / financing: International academic consortium supported by national research agencies and regional flux networks.
Established: 1997.
Type and focus: Eddy-covariance observations of carbon dioxide, water vapour and energy exchange between ecosystems and the atmosphere.
Website: FLUXNET
Primary / institutional evidence links: FLUXNET history
Academic source links: FLUXNET: A New Tool
References: [10], pp. 2415-2434.

35. 1997 – Global Forest Watch

Institution / financing: Nonprofit platform of the World Resources Institute, supported by philanthropic, public and corporate partners.
Established: 1997; relaunched as an interactive near-real-time platform in 2014.
Type and focus: Satellite-based forest-cover change, fire, commodity-risk and land-use monitoring with alerts and open geospatial data.
Website: Global Forest Watch
Primary / institutional evidence links: About Global Forest Watch
Academic source links: High-Resolution Global Forest Cover Change
References: [21], pp. 850-853.

36. 1998 – Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET)

Institution / financing: Intergovernmental regional network supported by participating countries and hosted through UNEP-linked institutions.
Established: Preparatory phase began in 1998; regular-phase monitoring began in 2001.
Type and focus: Acid deposition, particulate matter, ozone, precipitation chemistry, inland aquatic and soil/vegetation monitoring across East Asia.
Website: EANET
Primary / institutional evidence links: EANET history

37. 1999 – Argo

Institution / financing: International public research programme funded and operated by national oceanographic agencies and institutions.
Established: 1999.
Type and focus: Global autonomous profiling-float array measuring upper-ocean temperature, salinity and, increasingly, biogeochemical variables.
Website: Argo
Primary / institutional evidence links: Argo mission
Academic source links: Argo Data 1999-2019
References: [11], article 700.

38. 1999 – Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P)

Institution / financing: International scientific network under GCOS/WMO with national and academic support.
Established: 1999.
Type and focus: Permafrost temperature and active-layer thickness observations through the Thermal State of Permafrost and CALM components.
Website: GTN-P
Primary / institutional evidence links: International Permafrost Association GTN-P

39. 2000 – CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project)

Institution / financing: Independent nonprofit charity financed by grants, membership, service income and philanthropic support.
Established: 2000.
Type and focus: Corporate, city, state and regional disclosure system for greenhouse-gas emissions, climate risks, water security and forests.
Website: CDP
Primary / institutional evidence links: About CDP

40. 2000 – Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS)

Institution / financing: Intergovernmental distributed network under UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, with national nodes.
Established: 2000.
Type and focus: Open-access marine biodiversity occurrence data, taxonomic information and analytical services for ocean science and conservation.
Website: OBIS
Primary / institutional evidence links: About OBIS
Academic source links: Ocean Biogeographic Information System
References: [28], pp. 5-7.

41. 2001 – Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

Institution / financing: Intergovernmental research infrastructure financed by participating countries and organisations.
Established: 2001.
Type and focus: Open global biodiversity occurrence records, species checklists and publishing tools assembled from museums, surveys, citizen science and research collections.
Website: GBIF
Primary / institutional evidence links: What is GBIF?
Academic source links: GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit
References: [29], article e4011.

42. 2001 – Global Carbon Project (GCP)

Institution / financing: International academic research programme under Future Earth, supported by research institutions and grants.
Established: 2001.
Type and focus: Global carbon-cycle synthesis, annual carbon budgets, methane and nitrous-oxide budgets, city emissions and data products.
Website: Global Carbon Project
Primary / institutional evidence links: Global Carbon Project
Academic source links: Global Carbon Budget 2023
References: [25], pp. 5301-5369.

43. 2003 – International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC)

Institution / financing: UNESCO/WMO-affiliated centre hosted in the Netherlands; public and project funding.
Established: 2003.
Type and focus: Global groundwater information, transboundary aquifer assessment, monitoring support and the Global Groundwater Information System.
Website: IGRAC
Primary / institutional evidence links: IGRAC history

44. 2004 – Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON)

Institution / financing: International academic and public-agency network.
Established: 2004.
Type and focus: Ground-based high-resolution Fourier-transform spectrometer measurements of column-averaged greenhouse gases used to validate satellites and study the carbon cycle.
Website: TCCON
Primary / institutional evidence links: TCCON data archive | TCCON at NDACC

45. 2004 – INPE DETER Near-Real-Time Deforestation Detection

Institution / financing: Brazilian federal, state-financed.
Established: 2004.
Type and focus: Rapid satellite alerts for deforestation and forest degradation in the Brazilian Amazon to support enforcement and operational response.
Website: TerraBrasilis / DETER
Primary / institutional evidence links: INPE TerraBrasilis

46. 2005 – European Union Emissions Trading System / Union Registry

Institution / financing: European Union public regulatory infrastructure.
Established: EU ETS began operation in 2005; the single Union Registry replaced national registry arrangements in 2012.
Type and focus: Regulated installation and aviation emissions, allowance issuance, transfers, surrender and compliance-account records.
Website: EU ETS Union Registry
Primary / institutional evidence links: Union Registry | EU ETS overview

47. 2005 – WorldClim

Institution / financing: Academic/open-data project developed through public research institutions.
Established: First version released in 2005.
Type and focus: High-resolution interpolated global climate surfaces and future climate projections for ecological, agricultural and impact modelling.
Website: WorldClim
Primary / institutional evidence links: WorldClim data

48. 2007 – Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT)

Institution / financing: International academic and public-agency consortium.
Established: Initiated in 2007; first major public release in 2011.
Type and focus: Quality-controlled global surface-ocean carbon-dioxide observations for air-sea flux, ocean acidification and carbon-budget research.
Website: SOCAT
Primary / institutional evidence links: SOCAT
Academic source links: Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT)
References: [14], pp. 125-143.

49. 2007 – NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS)

Institution / financing: US federal NASA service with partner-agency support.
Established: Operational public service developed in 2007.
Type and focus: Near-real-time satellite active-fire and thermal-anomaly data, downloadable products, alerts and global fire mapping.
Website: NASA FIRMS
Primary / institutional evidence links: FIRMS

50. 2007-2008 – Global Energy Monitor

Institution / financing: Independent nonprofit research organisation supported by philanthropic grants.
Established: Origins in 2007; CoalSwarm launched in 2008 and later expanded into Global Energy Monitor.
Type and focus: Open trackers and databases for coal, oil, gas, renewables, steel, cement, methane emitters and other energy infrastructure.
Website: Global Energy Monitor
Primary / institutional evidence links: About Global Energy Monitor

51. 2007 – UNFCCC International Transaction Log (ITL)

Institution / financing: UN intergovernmental registry infrastructure financed through the UNFCCC process.
Established: Operational in 2007.
Type and focus: Automated verification of transactions among Kyoto Protocol registries, including issuance, transfer, acquisition, cancellation and retirement of emissions units.
Website: UNFCCC International Transaction Log
Primary / institutional evidence links: International Transaction Log

52. 2008 – European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (ESA CCI)

Institution / financing: Intergovernmental public programme financed by ESA member states.
Established: 2008.
Type and focus: Long-term satellite climate data records for Essential Climate Variables, with open data and uncertainty characterisation.
Website: ESA Climate Change Initiative
Primary / institutional evidence links: ESA Climate Office
Academic source links: ESA Climate Change Initiative
References: [16], pp. 2-8.

53. 2008 / 2015 – Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS)

Institution / financing: European public research infrastructure; an EU-recognised ERIC financed by member countries and host institutions.
Established: Preparatory phase began in 2008; ICOS ERIC was established in 2015.
Type and focus: Standardised long-term measurements of greenhouse gases and carbon fluxes across atmosphere, ecosystems and oceans.
Website: ICOS
Primary / institutional evidence links: About ICOS

3. Chronological list, 2009-2023

Since 2009, near-real-time processing, cloud distribution, commercial microsatellites, machine learning and public accountability platforms have accelerated the conversion of environmental signals into alerts, rankings and source-level claims.

54. 2009 – Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF)

Institution / financing: International public research consortium supported by national laboratories and agencies.
Established: Federation formed in 2009.
Type and focus: Distributed data nodes, authentication, cataloguing and access for CMIP and other large climate-model and observational collections.
Website: ESGF
Primary / institutional evidence links: ESGF
Academic source links: Earth System Grid Federation
References: [15], pp. 400-417.

55. 2009 – Climate Action Tracker

Institution / financing: Independent nonprofit research collaboration between Climate Analytics and NewClimate Institute.
Established: 2009.
Type and focus: Comparative assessment of national climate targets, policies, emissions pathways and compatibility with temperature goals.
Website: Climate Action Tracker
Primary / institutional evidence links: Historical progress

56. 2009 – DataONE

Institution / financing: Nonprofit/academic cyberinfrastructure originally funded by the US National Science Foundation and partner institutions.
Established: 2009.
Type and focus: Federated discovery, preservation and access for Earth and environmental science data across member repositories.
Website: DataONE
Primary / institutional evidence links: About DataONE
Academic source links: FAIR Guiding Principles
References: [24].

57. 2010 – Berkeley Earth

Institution / financing: Independent US nonprofit supported by philanthropic donations and grants.
Established: 2010.
Type and focus: Independent land and ocean temperature analyses, regional climate data, air-pollution products and open methods/data.
Website: Berkeley Earth
Primary / institutional evidence links: About Berkeley Earth
Academic source links: Berkeley Earth Land/Ocean Temperature Record
References: [19], pp. 3469-3479.

58. 2011 – WRI Aqueduct

Institution / financing: World Resources Institute nonprofit platform with philanthropic, public and corporate partners.
Established: 2011.
Type and focus: Global water-risk indicators, maps and scenarios covering scarcity, variability, floods, drought, groundwater and water-quality proxies.
Website: Aqueduct
Primary / institutional evidence links: Aqueduct launch

59. 2011 – WMO Global Cryosphere Watch (GCW)

Institution / financing: WMO intergovernmental programme supported by member states and partner networks.
Established: 2011.
Type and focus: Coordination and assessment of observations of snow, glaciers, ice sheets, sea ice, permafrost and other cryosphere components.
Website: Global Cryosphere Watch
Primary / institutional evidence links: GCW
Academic source links: Essential Climate Variables
References: [26].

60. 2011 – Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI)

Institution / financing: Intergovernmental partnership led by space agencies, FAO and partner governments.
Established: 2011.
Type and focus: Methods, satellite data access and capacity support for national forest monitoring and greenhouse-gas reporting under REDD+ and the Paris Agreement.
Website: GFOI
Primary / institutional evidence links: About GFOI

61. 2011 – GHGSat

Institution / financing: Private commercial company.
Established: 2011.
Type and focus: High-resolution satellite and aircraft measurement of facility-scale methane and carbon-dioxide emissions for industrial monitoring and analytics.
Website: GHGSat
Primary / institutional evidence links: Who we are

62. 2012 – US Water Quality Portal

Institution / financing: US federal interagency service operated by USGS, EPA and the National Water Quality Monitoring Council.
Established: 2012 as an integrated portal; predecessor federal databases are older.
Type and focus: Unified access to surface-water, groundwater and biological water-quality observations from federal, state, tribal and local organisations.
Website: Water Quality Portal
Primary / institutional evidence links: Water Quality Portal
Academic source links: The Water Quality Portal
References: [13], pp. 1735-1745.

63. 2012 – Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI)

Institution / financing: International academic/open-data product developed under GLIMS and research-agency support.
Established: Version 1 released in 2012.
Type and focus: Globally complete vector inventory of glacier outlines used for sea-level, hydrology and glacier-change modelling.
Website: Randolph Glacier Inventory
Primary / institutional evidence links: RGI
Academic source links: Randolph Glacier Inventory
References: [12], pp. 537-552.

64. 2013 – Global Carbon Atlas

Institution / financing: Academic/public-facing data platform of the Global Carbon Project and partner institutions.
Established: 2013.
Type and focus: Interactive visualisation and download of fossil-fuel emissions, natural carbon fluxes, carbon budgets and city-level data.
Website: Global Carbon Atlas
Primary / institutional evidence links: Global Carbon Atlas
Academic source links: Global Carbon Budget 2023
References: [25].

65. 2014 – Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S)

Institution / financing: European Union public service implemented by ECMWF.
Established: Established in 2014; operational development continued through 2018.
Type and focus: Climate reanalyses, observations, seasonal forecasts, projections, sectoral indicators and the Climate Data Store.
Website: Copernicus Climate Change Service
Primary / institutional evidence links: C3S
Academic source links: Copernicus Climate Change Service
References: [17], pp. E2669-E2687.

66. 2015 – Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Institution / financing: European Union public service implemented by ECMWF and partner institutions.
Established: Operational service from 2015.
Type and focus: Global and European analyses and forecasts of air quality, aerosols, greenhouse gases, ozone, solar radiation and wildfire emissions.
Website: Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service
Primary / institutional evidence links: CAMS

67. 2015 – Copernicus Marine Service

Institution / financing: European Union public service implemented by Mercator Ocean International and partners.
Established: Operational service from 2015.
Type and focus: Global and regional ocean observations, model analyses, reanalyses and forecasts for physical and biogeochemical variables, sea ice and waves.
Website: Copernicus Marine Service
Primary / institutional evidence links: Copernicus Marine Service
Academic source links: A Global Ocean Observing System
References: [23].

68. 2015 – OpenAQ

Institution / financing: Independent nonprofit organisation supported by grants and donations.
Established: 2015.
Type and focus: Aggregation and open dissemination of ground-level air-quality measurements from government and research sources worldwide.
Website: OpenAQ
Primary / institutional evidence links: About OpenAQ

69. 2016 – Global Surface Water Explorer

Institution / financing: Public research product of the European Commission Joint Research Centre with Google and international partners.
Established: First global release in 2016.
Type and focus: Satellite-derived maps and time series of surface-water occurrence, seasonality, transitions and long-term change since 1984.
Website: Global Surface Water Explorer
Primary / institutional evidence links: Global Surface Water Explorer
Academic source links: High-Resolution Mapping of Global Surface Water
References: [18], pp. 418-422.

70. 2016 – Kayrros

Institution / financing: Private commercial geospatial-intelligence company.
Established: 2016.
Type and focus: Satellite, sensor and artificial-intelligence services for methane, energy infrastructure, carbon markets, wildfire and physical climate-risk monitoring.
Website: Kayrros
Primary / institutional evidence links: Kayrros

71. 2016 – UNFCCC NDC Registry

Institution / financing: UN intergovernmental public registry.
Established: Interim registry launched in 2016 under the Paris Agreement process; the public registry has since been updated.
Type and focus: Official repository for nationally determined contributions and related submissions by Parties to the Paris Agreement.
Website: UNFCCC NDC Registry
Primary / institutional evidence links: NDC Registry

72. 2017 – Climate Watch

Institution / financing: Nonprofit platform of the World Resources Institute with philanthropic and partner support.
Established: 2017.
Type and focus: Open climate-policy and emissions platform integrating national targets, long-term strategies, historical emissions, net-zero commitments and sectoral data.
Website: Climate Watch
Primary / institutional evidence links: Climate Watch | WRI launch announcement

73. 2018 – MethaneSAT programme

Institution / financing: Nonprofit mission conceived and developed by Environmental Defense Fund with philanthropic and public partners.
Established: Concept publicly introduced in 2018; satellite launched in 2024 and lost communication in June 2025; the data and analytical programme continued.
Type and focus: High-resolution quantification of methane emissions from oil and gas regions and point sources, with open data products and satellite-algorithm development.
Website: MethaneSAT
Primary / institutional evidence links: MethaneSAT mission | Mission update and continuing data work

74. 2020 – Climate TRACE

Institution / financing: Independent nonprofit coalition of research, technology and civil-society organisations, supported by philanthropy.
Established: July 2020.
Type and focus: Independent, facility- and sector-level greenhouse-gas emissions estimates using satellites, remote sensing, machine learning and public records.
Website: Climate TRACE
Primary / institutional evidence links: About the coalition | Data downloads

75. 2020 – Carbon Monitor

Institution / financing: International academic research collaboration supported by public research institutions and grants.
Established: 2020.
Type and focus: Near-real-time daily estimates of fossil-fuel and cement carbon-dioxide emissions by country and sector.
Website: Carbon Monitor
Primary / institutional evidence links: Carbon Monitor
Academic source links: Carbon Monitor Daily CO2 Dataset
References: [20], article 392.

76. 2021 – Carbon Mapper

Institution / financing: US nonprofit organisation and public-private coalition supported by philanthropy, state agencies and technology partners.
Established: 2021.
Type and focus: Airborne and satellite detection and attribution of methane and carbon-dioxide super-emitters, with public emissions data products.
Website: Carbon Mapper
Primary / institutional evidence links: About Carbon Mapper

77. 2021 – UNEP International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO)

Institution / financing: UN intergovernmental initiative supported by the European Union and other partners.
Established: 31 October 2021.
Type and focus: Integration of company reporting, national inventories, satellite observations and scientific studies into policy-relevant methane data and verification.
Website: UNEP IMEO
Primary / institutional evidence links: IMEO launch

78. 2021 – Net Zero Tracker

Institution / financing: Academic and nonprofit consortium involving the University of Oxford, NewClimate Institute, Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit and Data-Driven EnviroLab.
Established: 2021.
Type and focus: Public database and assessment of net-zero targets adopted by countries, regions, cities and major companies, including target quality and implementation criteria.
Website: Net Zero Tracker
Primary / institutional evidence links: Net Zero Tracker | Oxford project announcement

79. 2022 – Methane Alert and Response System (MARS)

Institution / financing: UNEP intergovernmental public service within IMEO, supported by public and philanthropic partners.
Established: Launched at COP27 in 2022; operational notifications began in 2023.
Type and focus: Global satellite detection, attribution and notification of very large methane emissions to governments and companies for mitigation response.
Website: UNEP MARS
Primary / institutional evidence links: MARS service | MARS frequently asked questions

80. 2023 – Net-Zero Data Public Utility (NZDPU) proof of concept

Institution / financing: Public-private, nonprofit-oriented initiative developed through the Climate Data Steering Committee with philanthropic and institutional partners.
Established: Proof-of-concept platform launched in 2023.
Type and focus: Standardised open access to company greenhouse-gas emissions and net-zero transition data intended to support financial and public accountability.
Website: Net-Zero Data Public Utility
Primary / institutional evidence links: NZDPU

4. Interpretive synthesis: from planetary observation to data politics

The chronology records a shift from isolated instruments and national archives towards an interlinked apparatus of planetary observation. Meteorological stations, tide gauges, glacier stakes and chemical samplers first produced long serial records. Satellites, autonomous floats and model intercomparisons then enlarged the field of vision, while federated repositories and cloud services made heterogeneous records searchable as a single environmental system. This expansion resembles a scientific form of the panoramic gaze: distant and inaccessible landscapes become legible through maps, time series and dashboards.

For The Sunshine Find, this apparatus is not neutral scenery. The same infrastructures that establish scientific evidence also decide which variables are measured, where stations are maintained, what counts as an official record, how uncertainty is communicated and which publics gain access. State-financed and intergovernmental networks provide much of the durable baseline, but their continuity depends on political funding. Nonprofit trackers often make data more accessible and confrontational, while private satellite firms introduce valuable resolution alongside proprietary methods, subscription access and commercial priorities.

The report should be read beside Memory and Countdown. A flash drive and an emissions counter condense the archive into portable or instantaneous forms, but both rely on hidden chains of instruments, calibration laboratories, servers, data centres, software standards and human maintenance. It also connects to Thirst and the glacial-archaeology reports: glacier retreat and changing water quality become public facts only through repeated observation, stable metadata and long-term comparison. Finally, The cloud is not in the sky! exposes the material contradiction within digital climate knowledge: monitoring can support mitigation and accountability, yet its computational infrastructure itself consumes electricity, water, minerals and land.

No direct line from monitoring to environmental radicalism should be assumed. The evidence assembled by these systems can support government regulation, corporate reporting, adaptation, litigation, protest or direct action. The political conflict lies not in measurement alone but in how measurements are funded, interpreted, delayed, disclosed and converted – or not converted – into collective decisions.

5. Numbered academic reference list

Chicago bibliography style. The numbered list contains only verified scholarly books and peer-reviewed journal articles. Official and institutional records are linked locally within the chronology and are not presented as academic literature.

1. Edwards, Paul N. A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010. Publisher record

2. Zemp, Michael, Holger Frey, Isabelle Gärtner-Roer, Susanne U. Nussbaumer, Martin Hoelzle, Frank Paul, Wilfried Haeberli, et al. “Historically Unprecedented Global Glacier Decline in the Early 21st Century.” Journal of Glaciology 61, no. 228 (2015): 745-762. Persistent link

3. Keeling, Charles D., Robert B. Bacastow, Arnold E. Bainbridge, Carl A. Ekdahl Jr., Peter R. Guenther, Lee S. Waterman, and John F. S. Chin. “Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Variations at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii.” Tellus 28, no. 6 (1976): 538-551. Persistent link

4. Tørseth, K., W. Aas, K. Breivik, A. M. Fjæraa, M. Fiebig, A. G. Hjellbrekke, C. Lund Myhre, S. Solberg, and K. E. Yttri. “Introduction to the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP) and Observed Atmospheric Composition Change during 1972-2009.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 12 (2012): 5447-5481. Persistent link

5. Becker, Andreas, Peter Finger, Anja Meyer-Christoffer, Bruno Rudolf, Katharina Schamm, Udo Schneider, and Markus Ziese. “A Description of the Global Land-Surface Precipitation Data Products of the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre with Sample Applications Including Centennial (Trend) Analysis from 1901-Present.” Earth System Science Data 5 (2013): 71-99. Persistent link

6. De Mazière, Martine, Anne M. Thompson, Michael J. Kurylo, John D. Wild, Peter F. Bernath, Thomas Blumenstock, Geir O. Braathen, et al. “The Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC): History, Status and Perspectives.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 18 (2018): 4935-4964. Persistent link

7. Lawrimore, Jay H., Matthew J. Menne, Byron E. Gleason, Claude N. Williams Jr., David B. Wuertz, Russell S. Vose, and Jared Rennie. “An Overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network Monthly Mean Temperature Data Set, Version 3.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 116 (2011): D19121. Persistent link

8. Diepenbroek, Michael, Hannes Grobe, Manfred Reinke, Uwe Schindler, René Schlitzer, Rainer Sieger, and Gerold Wefer. “PANGAEA – an Information System for Environmental Sciences.” Computers & Geosciences 28, no. 10 (2002): 1201-1210. Persistent link

9. Holben, Brent N., Thomas F. Eck, Ilya Slutsker, Didier Tanré, J. P. Buis, A. Setzer, Eric Vermote, et al. “AERONET – A Federated Instrument Network and Data Archive for Aerosol Characterization.” Remote Sensing of Environment 66, no. 1 (1998): 1-16. Persistent link

10. Baldocchi, Dennis, Eva Falge, Lianhong Gu, Richard Olson, David Hollinger, Steve Running, Peter Anthoni, et al. “FLUXNET: A New Tool to Study the Temporal and Spatial Variability of Ecosystem-Scale Carbon Dioxide, Water Vapor, and Energy Flux Densities.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 82, no. 11 (2001): 2415-2434. Persistent link

11. Wong, Annie P. S., Susan E. Wijffels, Stephen C. Riser, Sylvie Pouliquen, Hiroshi Hosoda, Dean Roemmich, Gary C. Johnson, et al. “Argo Data 1999-2019: Two Million Temperature-Salinity Profiles and Subsurface Velocity Observations from a Global Array of Profiling Floats.” Frontiers in Marine Science 7 (2020): 700. Persistent link

12. Pfeffer, W. Tad, Anthony A. Arendt, Andrew Bliss, Tobias Bolch, J. Graham Cogley, Alex S. Gardner, Jon-Ove Hagen, et al. “The Randolph Glacier Inventory: A Globally Complete Inventory of Glaciers.” Journal of Glaciology 60, no. 221 (2014): 537-552. Persistent link

13. Read, Emily K., Luke Carr, Laura A. De Cicco, Hilary A. Dugan, Paul C. Hanson, James A. Hart, John Kreft, Jordan S. Read, and Luke A. Winslow. “Water Quality Data for National-Scale Aquatic Research: The Water Quality Portal.” Water Resources Research 53, no. 2 (2017): 1735-1745. Persistent link

14. Pfeil, Benjamin, Are Olsen, Dorothee C. E. Bakker, Samuel Hankin, Hisayuki Koyuk, et al. “A Uniform, Quality Controlled Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT).” Earth System Science Data 5 (2013): 125-143. Persistent link

15. Cinquini, Luca, David Crichton, Chris Mattmann, Jason Harney, Galen Shipman, Feiyi Wang, Roland Ananthakrishnan, et al. “The Earth System Grid Federation: An Open Infrastructure for Access to Distributed Geospatial Data.” Future Generation Computer Systems 36 (2014): 400-417. Persistent link

16. Plummer, Stephen, Catherine Lecomte, and Mike Doherty. “The ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI): A European Contribution to the Generation of the Global Climate Observing System.” Remote Sensing of Environment 203 (2017): 2-8. Persistent link

17. Buontempo, Carlo, et al. “The Copernicus Climate Change Service: Climate Science in Action.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 103, no. 12 (2022): E2669-E2687. Persistent link

18. Pekel, Jean-François, Andrew Cottam, Noel Gorelick, and Alan S. Belward. “High-Resolution Mapping of Global Surface Water and Its Long-Term Changes.” Nature 540 (2016): 418-422. Persistent link

19. Rohde, Robert A., and Zeke Hausfather. “The Berkeley Earth Land/Ocean Temperature Record.” Earth System Science Data 12 (2020): 3469-3479. Persistent link

20. Liu, Zhu, Philippe Ciais, Zhu Deng, Steven J. Davis, Bo Zheng, Yilong Wang, Duo Cui, et al. “Carbon Monitor, a Near-Real-Time Daily Dataset of Global CO2 Emission from Fossil Fuel and Cement Production.” Scientific Data 7 (2020): 392. Persistent link

21. Hansen, Matthew C., Peter V. Potapov, Rebecca Moore, Matt Hancher, Svetlana A. Turubanova, Alexandra Tyukavina, David Thau, et al. “High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change.” Science 342, no. 6160 (2013): 850-853. Persistent link

22. Janssens-Maenhout, Greet, Monica Crippa, Diego Guizzardi, Marilena Muntean, Edwin Schaaf, Francesco Dentener, Peter Bergamaschi, et al. “EDGAR v4.3.2 Global Atlas of the Three Major Greenhouse Gas Emissions for the Period 1970-2012.” Earth System Science Data 11 (2019): 959-1002. Persistent link

23. Moltmann, T., T. Turton, H. Zhang, et al. “A Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), Delivered Through Enhanced Collaboration across Regions, Communities, and New Technologies.” Frontiers in Marine Science 6 (2019): 291. Persistent link

24. Wilkinson, Mark D., Michel Dumontier, IJsbrand Jan Aalbersberg, Gabrielle Appleton, Myles Axton, Arie Baak, Niklas Blomberg, et al. “The FAIR Guiding Principles for Scientific Data Management and Stewardship.” Scientific Data 3 (2016): 160018. Persistent link

25. Friedlingstein, Pierre, Michael O’Sullivan, Matthew W. Jones, Robbie M. Andrew, Judith Hauck, Are Olsen, Glen P. Peters, et al. “Global Carbon Budget 2023.” Earth System Science Data 15 (2023): 5301-5369. Persistent link

26. Bojinski, Stephan, Michel Verstraete, Thomas C. Peterson, Carol Richter, Adrian Simmons, and Michael Zemp. “The Concept of Essential Climate Variables in Support of Climate Research, Applications, and Policy.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 95, no. 9 (2014): 1431-1443. Persistent link

27. Raup, Bruce, Andre Kääb, Jeffrey S. Kargel, Martin P. Bishop, Greg Hamilton, Eva Lee, Frank Paul, et al. “Remote Sensing and GIS Technology in the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) Project.” Computers & Geosciences 33, no. 1 (2007): 104-125. Persistent link

28. Grassle, J. Frederick. “The Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS): An On-Line, Worldwide Atlas for Accessing, Modeling and Mapping Marine Biological Data in a Multidimensional Geographic Context.” Oceanography 13, no. 3 (2000): 5-7. Persistent link

29. Robertson, Tim, Markus Döring, Robert Guralnick, David Bloom, John Wieczorek, Kyle Braak, Javier Otegui, Laura Russell, and Pierre Desmet. “The GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit: Facilitating the Efficient Publishing of Biodiversity Data on the Internet.” Biodiversity Data Journal 2 (2014): e4011. Persistent link

Appendix: User prompts related to this report

Prompts are reproduced chronologically as a research-process record. Typographic normalisation is limited to line breaks and spacing.

1. 1. Make a research on climate related monitoring services /air, glaciers condition, water quality, etc/, data bases, data centers, repositories, registries.
2. Create a numbered chronological list of them:
a) Name of institution (state financed, private)
b) year of establishment
c) type, focus(es)
d) link to their website
3. create an RTF according to standards and criteria

2. note: pay attention to formatting in order to make it structurally clean (compact entry paragraphs, space before each entry)