SESAR² is happy to announce that its new website has been launched on May 3, 2021. The new website provides updates to content and structure that document SESAR²’s mission to serve all members of the greater sample community and to support, in the best way possible, community-based efforts to establish and promote best practices for registering sample metadata. The new web site features an improved user interface with clearer navigation and concise communication. Updates made to the website highlight the diverse range of backgrounds that our users come from. 

Newly featured content on the website includes:

Resources pages containing new content tailored for Researchers and Institutions with information on best practices for SESAR²’s samples registration, use of the IGSN, and metadata management services and a new space on GitHub for Developers.

Updated Tutorials for how to use MySESAR and register samples.

Information about the benefits and services that SESAR² provides, including its role as an IGSN allocating agent. 

We hope that you enjoy clicking around our new website. If you have any comments or  feedback regarding the website please fill out this form.

Announcing SESAR²’s new website!

On November 24th, we released a new version of SESAR. The release includes new enhancements and improvements.

Enhancements include additional validations to the batch registration process and updated security features (moving select pages from http to https).  Improvements include minor bug fixes to the edit page for managing sample metadata and the processes for transferring ownership of large scale numbers of samples.

You can read the full list of new enhancements and bug fixes on the SESAR Release Notes page.

SESAR 7.4.2 Released

On July 27th, we released a new version of SESAR. The release includes new features, enhancements and improvements.

New features include adding JSON-LD to our sample profile pages and a new REST API. General enhancements and improvements include updates to our map search and minor bug fixes in our image upload tool and web services.

You can read the full list of new features and enhancements on the SESAR Release Notes page.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact info@geosamples.org.

MARS Group Awarded an ESIP FUNding Friday Mini-Grant

SESAR² Curator Sarah Ramdeen and Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Geological Collections Manager Alex Hangsterfer were awarded an ESIP FUNding Friday mini-grant at this year’s ESIP Summer Meeting.  The funds from the grant will be used to support MARS (Middleware for Assisting with the Registration of Samples), a software developed by Dr. Jim Bowring and his group of undergraduate students at the College of Charleston.

MARS is an open-source web application that streamlines the registration of samples in SESAR² to obtain IGSNs, i.e. globally unique identifiers, for the samples and make them Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (“FAIR”).  The application allows investigators or sample curators to submit sample metadata to SESAR²  using their own sample metadata files, rather than having to transfer sample metadata to the SESAR² batch registration template.  MARS currently supports mapping of NOAA’s Index to Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples (IMLGS) metadata to the SESAR² schema. Version 1 of MARS will be released in the coming months.

The MARS team is working to expand the functionality of the tool to allow any user to create a map between their preferred sample metadata format and SESAR²’s to broaden the utility of the tool beyond the marine and lacustrine sample community.  The funding from ESIP will be used to support Dr. Bowring’s students as they continue this effort.  At the ESIP Summer Meeting several sample repositories already expressed interest in adopting the tool.

Read more about the history of MARS and SESAR² here, and look for more updates in the coming months!

SESAR Updates, July 2020

The Index to Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples (IMLGS) that has been developed and maintained by NOAA’s NCEI, has been decommissioned and will no longer be accessible on the NCEI web site starting May 5, 2025. In order to ensure continued access and updates to the IMLGS, SESAR and NCEI have agreed that SESAR will take over stewardship of this resource. SESAR staff is working with NCEI and the marine and lacustrine repository community to ensure persistence of this valuable resource. 

SESAR is planning a phased approach to continuing the services of the IMLGS: 

Phase Ia (completed December 1, 2025): Provide access to the current content of the IMLGS. SESAR will create a user interface for searching the current IMLGS and displaying search results. The priority is to make the contents of the IMLGS accessible again as quickly as possible and minimize downtime after the May 5 shutdown of NCEI-based Interactive Map Tool.

Phase Ib (completed February 10, 2026): SESAR has assumed management of the IMLGS Curators Listserv, previously hosted by NCEI. This listserv is an unmoderated forum for discussion and announcements related to the Curators group and Index to Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples (IMLGS) database. To join the listserv, request to join here (log in to a Google email account first, or email info@geosamples.org to be manually added to the list): https://groups.google.com/a/geosamples.org/g/imlgs

Phase II (in progress, requires additional funding): Fully integrate the IMLGS services with SESAR. SESAR is starting to work with NCEI and contributing sample repositories to understand their needs and desires for a streamlined data ingest process and user needs for search. Based on these needs and desires, we will generate an implementation plan and try to identify sources of funding to perform the necessary technical developments.

Please note that much of the IMLGS data remains accessible also via GeoMapApp here.

We are grateful for the many notes of support we have received from the community reiterating the importance of the IMLGS resource and expressing gratitude to SESAR for helping to steward this resource in the future. We thank the community for your continued support and patience with this transition. 

If you have questions or comments, please reach out to us at info@geosamples.org.

Notice to the Community Regarding the IMLGS

We are excited to announce the release of our new “Teams” feature, live now in MySESAR. Teams allows multiple users to work on a shared platform within MySESAR, each utilizing their own individual account. This feature was designed to support groups that require multiple members to access and maintain shared sample metadata within their institution. We will be hosting two informational webinars on March 24th and April 3rd to introduce the Teams feature. To sign up, please see the links below:

March 24, 2025 at 11am ET: Register here

April 3, 2025 at 2pm ET: Register here

With the release of the Teams feature, the legacy GeoPass login system will now officially shut down on June 1, 2025. After June 1, 2025, SESAR will solely utilize ORCID validation for login and access to MySESAR. If you have not yet added your ORCID to your account, you can do this by following the steps outlined in our previous newsletter describing the GeoPass Phase out.

Our team is ready to support you during this transition, if you have any concerns or questions please email us at info@geosamples.org.

New Feature Release: Teams Functionality

The following message was sent to SESAR users who are not yet using ORCID to log in to their MySESAR accounts, in anticipation of the shutdown of the legacy IEDA2 GeoPass authentication system in 2025.

Dear SESAR2 GeoPass User,

This message is to inform you that SESAR2 is shutting down its GeoPass login system on January 1st, 2025. You are receiving this message because you have a GeoPass account currently registered with SESAR2. 

After January 1st, 2025, SESAR2 will solely utilize ORCID validation for login and access to MySESAR. ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a free, unique, persistent identifier for individuals. Usage of this internationally-recognized identifier and validation service makes our system safer and easier to access.

ACTION REQUIRED FROM YOU: To ensure undisrupted access and functionality to your SESAR2 account, please login to MySESAR via GeoPass and add your ORCID by December 31st, 2024. You can do this now by:

Registering for an ORCID if you do not have one: https://orcid.org/register

Logging into your SESAR account using GeoPass: https://geopass.iedadata.org/josso/

Under “MyAccount,” add your ORCID. This will allow you to “Login with your ORCID” once GeoPass is no longer available.


For our institutional and web services users, we understand this transition may bring changes that impact your workflow:


For institutional accounts using GeoPass, the primary SESAR2 user from the institution should link their ORCID to the institutional GeoPass. In the coming months we will make changes on the backend that will make it possible to create “Organizations” within SESAR2 and assign and/or transfer sample management permissions to multiple people.

Web Services registrations will begin incorporating ORCID authentication in the coming months. Access through GeoPass will no longer be available after January 1st, 2025.


We are dedicated to helping make this transition as smooth as possible for you. Please email us at info@geosamples.org with any questions or concerns.

Thank you!
The SESAR2 Team

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