The United States National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) provided scientific stewardship, products and services for geophysical data describing the solid earth, marine, and solar-terrestrial environment, as well as earth observations from space.

[1] Since 1972 the NGDC was located in Boulder, Colorado as a part of the US Department of Commerce (USDOC), National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS).

[2] NGDC's data holdings contained more than 300 digital and analog databases, with over 37 terabytes of unique digital records plus paper, film, slides and microfilm in 2003.

[3] As technology advanced, so did the search for more efficient ways of preserving these data.

They welcomed cooperative projects with other government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and universities, and encourage data exchange.