Science Keyword Taxonomy and SKOS/Semantic Relationships in NASA's Global Change Master Directory (GCMD)

In order to provide smarter searches on metadata records, the Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) is extending the Keyword Management System (KMS) to allow GCMD Science Keywords to be related to any other existing keyword within the broader GCMD keyword hierarchy. This functionality is needed to allow soft linkages (hard linkages being SKOS style parent-child relationships) to be made between science keywords and other keyword hierarchies such as keywords within Projects, Platforms, or Instruments. One example would be relating keywords for a particular science keyword such as ATMOSPHERE to the keyword for an instrument that generates atmospheric data. These linkages can then be used in the future to provide optional expanded lists of metadata records not directly searched for within the GCMD search results. This functionality would be similar to how web sites today provide a "you may also be interested in..." section in the search results.