CDIAC

CDIAC stands for the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center. It is a data center established to provide archival and analytical support for carbon dioxide and related greenhouse gas data to the climate science community. Operating under the U.S. Department of Energy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, CDIAC collects, curates, analyzes, and disseminates a wide range of data on atmospheric composition, the carbon cycle, and anthropogenic emissions. The center collaborates with national and international researchers and agencies, contributing to major assessments and policy-relevant studies.

CDIAC's data products include historical records of atmospheric CO2 concentrations from monitoring networks (notably the Mauna Loa record), datasets on fossil-fuel CO2 emissions by country and sector, isotopic ratios, radiative forcing estimates, and greenhouse gas inventories. It also provides energy statistics, model outputs, and documentation to support data discovery and reuse. The center emphasizes data quality, metadata standardization, and long-term accessibility, offering online catalogs, search tools, and downloadable data in common formats.

In the scientific community, CDIAC is cited as a primary source of authoritative climate-related data and has supported climate research, policy analysis, and educational activities. Access to its holdings is typically provided via its online portal and through interagency data repositories managed by DOE and partner organizations.