ABSTRACT
The unique Arctic environment effects significant technological and economic barriers to developing the Alaskan oil and gas resources. Therefore, the U.S. Department of Energy has established a computerized information system to assist industry and government in the development of these Arctic resources. This paper describes the DOE Arctic and Offshore Research Information System (AORIS), its development and public assessment, which sources were accessed for inventory, examples of contents, how it can be queried, and potential uses. The AORIS has an on-line thesaurus and other personal computer, user-friendly aids to assist in querying the AORIS. There are three principal components:a directory that lists 85 data bases containing Arctic energy-related information and how to access them; a bibliographic information system containing over 8,000 references and abstracts on energy-related research (sea ice, ice gouging, seafloor soils, subsea permafrost, seismic activity, and offshore structures); and a scientific and engineering information system (or data component) containing over 800 data sets, extracted from the cited material, in both tabular and graphical formats, on sea ice characteristics (morphological, mechanical, and physical properties) and ice-structure interaction. This unique data component provides preliminary information useful in the design of Arctic offshore oil and gas development structures. The AORIS, its operational software, and users' manual are contained on Compact Disk—Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM) media. The AORIS is available through the DOE National Energy Software Center, Argonne National Laboratory.
