Building Standards for Access to Oceanographic Observatory Instrumentation

Andrew Maffei, A.D. Chave, J. Edson, J. Fredricks, J. Ammerman, J. Graybeal and R. Hanisch

Abstract:

The methods used by scientists and observatory operations staff to access data generated by sensors and instruments attached to oceanographic research observatories varies widely from observatory to
observatory. The methods used to access instrument metadata and to control various parameters associated with these instruments also varies between observatories. An international effort has begun in the US to define a software standard that could be implemented at each oceanographic research observatory to provide a common way to access oceanographic instruments no matter what observatory they are connected to. This paper describes a proposed process to develop such a standard.

Conversion of SEED format to XML representation for a new standard of seismic waveform exchange

Seiji Tsuboi and Shinya Morino

Abstract:

The Standard for the Exchange of Earthquake Data (SEED) has been designed as an international standard format for the exchange of digital seismological data. It is now widely used among the community which maintains the broadband seismograph network and recognized as a standard format for data exchange. SEED volume consists of headers and data records and blockettes are stored in headers. The format for data records is called mini-SEED and it is closely related to the format recorded in data loggers. Since SEED blockettes are defined as a collection of named fields with fixed length data, this introduces difficulties of extension of data structures. However, because there already exist huge amount of waveform data saved in mini-SEED format, it is a formidable task to fully revise the current SEED format to allow future flexible extensions. Although it has been recognized that the revision of SEED format is necessary, there has been no attempt for revision since its latest release of Ver. 2.3 in February, 1993 because of this difficulty.
Here, we represent SEED header structure in XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and show that this representation allows extension of header content without introducing any modification to existed mini-SEED waveform data structure. To represent SEED header structure in XML, we have paid attention to (1) entities described in the current SEED headers should be identical to those described in XML representation; (2) changes in structures of SEED headers should be as small as possible; (3) XML document should have structures that allow validation with XML-Schema language. The first requirement is essential to keep compatibility with XML-based SEED description with the current SEED volumes. The second one is to avoid complexity of conversion. The third one is for more robust data validation. Although we do not modify the current structure of mini-SEED formatted waveform data in our XML-based full-SEED format, our representation of SEED header in XML may allow a distribution of waveform data through header only XML-based SEED volume. Then, to get seismic wave data, one can access data server or look for data files according to data location described in this header file.

Development of Costal and Estuarine Environmental Markup Language for Data Sharing

Yutaka KAMEYAMA, Tsuneki SAKAKIBARA, Keita FURUKAWA

Abstract:

In each oceanographic observation and research, they independently acquire most of necessitated data. In this situation, they have carried on that some collaborative projects with data sharing by cooperative observations. However, each project employs independent data sharing method. Consequently, if this independency continues, it may be difficult to connect more widely these data shared within each project. Hence, in this research, we develop the oceanographic data standard using XML. Oceanographic data are also spatial information. Therefore, on the development, we attempt to apply ISO/TC211 (spatial information standard in ISO).

MBARI's SSDS: Operational, Extensible Data Management for Ocean Observatories

John Graybeal, Kevin Gomes, Michael McCann, Brian Schlining, Rich Schramm and Daniel Wilkin

Abstract:

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) has collected science data for 15 years from many oceanographic instruments and systems. The MBARI Ocean Observing System, or MOOS, presents new oceanographic data management challenges. To meet the data management requirements, MBARI is developing a flexible, extensible data management solution, the Shore Side Data System(SSDS). This data management solution addresses the complete data life cycle, including instrument (and metadata) development, data ingest, archival, search and access, and visualization and analysis. Working with MOOS infrastructure software, the SSDS can easily support new instruments, data streams, and data sets, from all types of instruments and platforms (for example, moorings, AUVs, and ships). The current status of SSDS development will be presented, including lessons learned from work to date, and the standard tools and protocols which have been adopted.