The Global Observing Systems Information Center (GOSIC), initiated in 1997 at the request of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Steering Committee (see http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/gcos/ Publications/gcos-39.pdf), responds to a need identified by the global climate observing community for easier and more effective access to observational climate data and information. GOSIC manages an online portal providing an entry point for users of climate-related global observing systems data and information systems.

Following its initial development and implementation at the University of Delaware from 1997 to 2006, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) assumed operational responsibility for GOSIC on behalf of the international climate observing and data user communities. The goal of GOSIC is to provide basic user services, including a description of the systems and their data as well as a tailored search capability that facilitates access to a worldwide set of observations and derived products. GOSIC's unique value is its ability to quickly link users, via a consistent and user-friendly interface, to a wide range of data sets that reside at multiple data centers; the GOSIC portal (http://GOSIC.org) provides users with links to data, metadata, other search tools, and related climate-observing information.