developing a data management system for the new uk polar
TRANSCRIPT
Alex Tate, Senior Data & Systems ArchitectBritish Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK
ABSTRACT
The new UK polar research vessel, RRS Sir David Attenborough (SDA), is currently under construction at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Liverpool. When the ship is ready foroperation in 2020, it will host a wide array of scientific instrumentation and as a marine platform will deploy a range of remotely-operated data gathering equipment, bothmarine and airborne. The resulting datasets will be both complex and voluminous and their management and availability will need to fulfil the requirements of a wide range ofend users from cruise participants to global data archiving facilities.
The UK Polar Data Centre, based at the British Antarctic Survey, is leading on the development of the scientific data management systems aboard the new vessel. Anextensive user requirements gathering exercise identified major areas to focus on including: data and event logging, data visualisation and access, automated quality controlroutines and the management of physical samples.
Developing a data management system for the new UK polar research vessel, the RRS Sir David Attenborough
Find out more information and news about the ship: www.bas.ac.uk/attenborough
Figure above shows the averaged results from one of the survey questions asking, “If direct access to data onboard is important to you, what formats would you find most useful?” Answers ranged from ‘Not at all useful’ (0) to ‘Extremely Useful’ (5). This was one of 20+ questions answered by survey respondents.
4x Dell R640 as VMware Cluster. 150 VMs can be supported
2x Quantum QXS 4 Hybrid Platforms, each with ~250TB storage
Tape library and VEEAM backup
10Gb/s server connections, 1Gb/s to the desktop. 900 network ports
VSAT communications: 1.5 – 3 Mb/s
180 24″ monitors in various combinations, including 4x3 video walls
Expected data volume: >100TB per 60 day cruise leg
50+ data collecting sensors built into the ship or fixed to deployable platforms
60 biologically-based sensors (scientists) roaming around the ship
User requirement gathering
A comprehensive online user survey waslaunched in September 2018. There were 80responses from a range of stakeholder typeswith many respondents providing extensivefree-text comments. Analysis of the surveydata was instrumental in planning a follow-on data workshop and the results have beenused when considering many aspects of thedata and IT systems across the NERCmarine fleet as well as the SDA. The surveywas followed up with a number of one-to-oneand small team meetings as well asattendance at relevant national andinternational meetings.
The vessel was formally named inOctober 2019 (left) and the firsttest data were collected from amultibeam echosounder aboardthe workboat Erebus in November2019 (above). The SDA will beginscientific equipment trials in 2020.
IT and data facts and figuresData system prioritisation
A one-day SDA data workshop was held in November 2018,attended by 24 participants from a wide range of stakeholders.One of the workshop outputs was a list of development priorities(table above) with an estimate of how much resource should beallocated to each data system component. Work in 2019 hasfollowed this prioritised list and focussed on:• A statement of requirements for an underway and event logging
system which has been completed by all major suppliers.• Working with the British Oceanographic Data Centre on a
sensor (meta)database for the SDA.• Improving our existing event logging system to better integrate
with the NERC vocabulary service.• Developing video wall configurations for displaying many
individual data feeds on the ship.