C05_02

Development of the IntCal database

Bronk Ramsey C¹, Austin W², Bard E³, Bayliss A⁴, Cheng H⁵, Friedrich M⁶, Heaton T⁷, Hogg A⁸, Hughen K⁹, Manning S¹⁰, Muscheler R¹¹, Palmer J¹², Pearson C¹³, Reimer P¹⁴, Reimer R¹⁴, Turney C¹², Wacker L¹⁵, IntCal Working Group

¹University Of Oxford, , United Kingdom, ²University of St Andrews, , United Kingdom, ³Cerege, Aix-en-Provence, France, ⁴Historic England, , United Kingdom, ⁵Xi'an Jiaotong University, , China, ⁶University of Hohenheim, , Germany, ⁷University of Sheffield, , United Kingdom, ⁸University of Waikato, , New Zealand, ⁹Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, , USA, ¹⁰Cornell University, , USA, ¹¹Lund University, , Sweden, ¹²University of New South Wales, , Australia, ¹³University of Arizona, , USA, ¹⁴Queen's University Belfast, , United Kingdom, ¹⁵ETH Zurich, , Switzerland

The IntCal family of internationally-agreed radiocarbon calibration curves is built upon data from research spanning several decades. Most of the data are presented within primary publications and includes meta-data.  In addition to the curves themselves, the IntCal group have collated these data and (since 2010) made them available for other sorts of analysis through an open-access database portal and to ensure transparency in what has been used in the construction of the ratified calibration curves.  As the database of associated data expands, work is underway to facilitate best practice for new data submissions, make more of the associated metadata available in a structured form, and to help those wishing to work with the data using programming languages such as R, Python and MatLab.  The data is complex because of the range of different types of archive, each with their specific requirements. A restructured interface will include visualisation that enable the data to be plotted and compared without needing to be exported.  This development is building on a general open access data model 'IntChron' designed for the sharing of databases of this kind.  The intention is to include complementary datasets which can be used with the main radiocarbon series to provide new insights into the global carbon cycle. As well as facilitation of access to (and use of) the data by other researchers, this work aims to streamline the generation of new calibration curves.