VOLC-TCS
The Volcanic Observations Data Center
About Us
‘Volcano Observations’ Thematic Core Service (VOLC-TCS)
The Thematic Core Service (TCS) Volcano Observations (VOLC) provides access to the available multidisciplinary data collected on European volcanoes and their geodynamic surroundings. Thousands of operating stations located around the European volcanoes, run by the main EU Volcano Observatories and Volcano Research Infrastructures, record huge geophysical, volcanological, geochemical, and environmental data sets. The objective of the VOLC-TCS is to offer scientists Virtual Access to a portfolio of data, products, software and services (DDSSs) to promote improvement of the knowledge of volcanic processes and better assessment of the related hazards. The TCS operates to makes available also diverse facilities and infrastructures belonging to the main EU Volcano Observatories and Volcano Research Infrastructures via Trans-national Access (either physical or remote) mode. The Trans-national access allows scientists to use instrumentations and infrastructures that are not available in their own institutions, and above all this kind of access fosters the international scientific cooperation, the innovation in science, and the service of the science for society. The knowledge gathered and distributed by the VOLC-TCS will be, in fact, valuable also for governmental and private decision-makers, which must be thoroughly informed about the volcano hazards in Europe. Overall, the integration of the volcano multidisciplinary DDSSs in EPOS will ensure the sustainability of the accessibility of such scientific information, and fostering of the open science paradigm.
Over time, the VOLC-TCS has benefited from past EU projects, among which it is worth mentioning the supersite projects MED-SUV for the Italian volcanoes, FUTUREVOLC for the Icelandic volcanoes, and the EU infrastructural EUROVOLC project, as well as EPOS Preparatory Phase and EPOS Implementation Phase. Among the most recent EU projects, the VOLC-TCS is taking advantages from Geo-INQUIRE (geo-inquire.eu) and DT-Geo (dtgeo.eu).