VENUS & NEPTUNE Canada Data Archive: Access 2007

Benoit Pirenne
NEPTUNE Canada
University of Victoria

Venus and Neptune are ocean observatories, which monitor the sea floor via cabled connections. Provide realtime data to the surface from instruments on the ocean floor. This, of course, generates massive data sets. In order to get around the limitations of seasons and weather, the goal is now to extend the Internet underwater and use those protocols remotely to gather realtime data yearround. Currently they are testing lines (VENUS) in the Saanich Inlet and the Strait of Georgia. NEPTUNE will be an 800km loop west of Vancouver Island, currently in the installation phase.

UVic is the lead university in a consortium of 12, with $84 million in funding to do Neptune. US also taking part (to study the Juan de Fuca plate, smallest of the large earth plates, which is sliding under another plate), but is about four years behind Canada.

This project presents numerous IT challenges. Not least is the variety of data formats, including scalar, array, and stream data, all of which must be captured and handled correctly. The goal of the Data Management and Archive System (DMAS) is to get data to researchers in near real time and to store data for long-term study. Other goals: human interaction with instruments (e.g.- pan cameras), access via the Web (and/or client software), ability to react to events such as earthquakes or storms along the Juan de Fuca and Pacific plates by increasing the sampling frequence.

They're ready and willing to change their data storage platforms over the 25-year project. They're currently using spin disks (i.e.- hard drives), but expect to migrate soon to whatever comes next. The willingness to do so is key to success. For users, they are creating an Ocean Commons, a collaborative environment where users can interact and exchange applications, scripts, etc.