Posts Tagged ‘Program update’
New Data Explorer Tool Coming Online in October
To help make OOI data more accessible, useable, and easily integrated into research and classrooms, the OOI data team has spent the last year developing a new tool that will allow users to discover the data required to meet their needs. The new “Data Explorer” has been undergoing user testing for the past three months and will be ready for broad distribution in early October.
Data Explorer will allow users to search and download cabled, uncabled, and recovered data, compare datasets across regions and disciplines, generate and share custom data views, and download full data sets using ERDDAP.
“We are really excited about the launch of Data Explorer version 1,” explained Jeffrey Glatstein, head of OOI’s cyberinfrastructure, who guided a team of data and visualization experts in developing the tool. “It is an excellent tool that offers a variety of ways for researchers, educators – and others interested in ocean observations—to use OOI data to answer their ocean observation data questions. What we’ve learned over the test period is that additional refinements will be needed, but we first want input from the community, to help identify and prioritize the most important ones. Subsequent versions will build upon this first release to make the Data Explorer the primary tool to explore OOI data.”
Data Explorer contains physical, chemical, geological, and biological ocean observation data collected in near real time. Glatstein and the OOI Data Team worked with Axiom Data Science to develop a system that is both powerful yet user friendly.
Stay tuned. The launch is set for the beginning of October 2020.
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Endurance Cruise Delayed by COVID-19
The spring 2020 OOI Endurance Operations and Management (O&M) turn cruise has been delayed for at least 30 days due to travel and personnel restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the virus COVID-19.
The 16-day cruise was set to depart on 31 March from Newport, Oregon aboard the R/V Sikuliaq to service the array off the Oregon and Washington coasts. The R/V Sikuliaq is part of the US academic research fleet managed by UNOLS (the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System). UNOLS imposed a 30-day suspension in fleet operations on 13 March to help ensure the safety of the ship’s crew and science party and to mitigate the risk of virus spread. Rescheduling of activities will commence once the situation stabilizes and UNOLS sees a path forward to re-start research vessel operations safely.
Upcoming O&M cruises for the Pioneer, Irminger, and Papa Arrays also are scheduled aboard UNOLS vessels (R/V Neil Armstrong and R/V Sikuliaq). These cruises fall outside of the UNOLS current 30-day suspension so cruise preparation continues.
We do not anticipate that cruise schedule changes will affect the collection nor dissemination of OOI data, which will continue to be available for users here.
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Metadata Review Improves OOI Data
OOI’s data teams have just completed an extensive, year-long review of critical metadata to ensure the quality and usability of data for OOI data users. The review covered data collected through the end of 2019 and included instrument calibration coefficients, instrument deployment assignments, and deployment dates. Moving forward, all metadata verification will conform to the standards established during the review.
“Our reason for undertaking this review was no more complicated than to make the data better for our data users,” explains Jeffrey Glatstein, Senior Manager of Cyberinfrastructure and OOI Data Delivery Lead. “It is the first time since the inception of the program that we’ve really gone in and looked at the metadata from top to bottom. If there was a calibration that was off, a depth missing, or something misspelled, we found it.
“This intense and deliberative review process brought historic metadata up to current standards to ensure continuity, completeness of records, and consistency in how metadata are reported now and moving forward.”
The data teams used a combination of human review and an automated script development process to identify and correct data issues. The human-in-the-loop (HITL) process ensured that two sets of eyes verified each metadata product, whenever possible, while the scripts performed automated verification and generated reports to pass back into the HITL workflow.
“This initiative is part of ongoing OOI efforts to make its data more accessible, user friendly, and integrated into ongoing science,” adds Glatstein.
Check Previously Downloaded Data
The OOI Data Portal operates on a process-on-demand model, which means that data downloaded prior to the end of 2019 should be checked to see if relevant metadata has been modified.
Users can check to see if changes were made to relevant metadata by clicking here. This link provides a searchable database by array, platform, and instrument to help ensure that previously downloaded data are correct or if they need to be re-downloaded so users are working with the best available data. The OOI data teams are continuing to verify the historical deployment assignments/dates, and the results will be updated accordingly
[feature]A Gargantuan Effort
As part of the transition of OOI to 2.0 in October 2018, the RCA data team initiated a comprehensive audit of all critical metadata to ensure that data products served by the OOI Cyberinfrastructure system meet Quality Assurance/Quality Control standards set by the program and expected from the user community. This daunting task included the examination of over 700 calibration files from 2013 to the present. The results of this audit were used to aid in evaluation of current processes and guide in adapting workflows to improve QA/QC efforts and communication to the users, a vital component to building confidence in the OOI datasets as reliable and valuable resources that can be used in scientific research and education.
Wendi Ruef, Research Scientist, Regional Cabled Array
The CGSN Data Team worked carefully and methodically through thousands of files containing over 30,000 calibration coefficients and other critical metadata. We now have a high level of confidence in past metadata and a strong process for continued review going forward.
Al Plueddemann, Chief Scientist, Coastal Global Scale Nodes
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OOI Facility Board Position Open; Application Deadline 20 March 2020
The Ocean Observatories Initiative Facility Board (OOIFB) is soliciting applications to fill one membership position that is currently open. Scientists with experience using scientific observing systems such as OOI are encouraged to apply.
The OOIFB was created in 2017 to provide independent input and guidance regarding the management and operation of the National Science Foundation-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). The OOIFB provides a way to expand scientific and public awareness of OOI, and ensure that the oceanographic community is kept informed of developments of OOI.
The responsibilities of the OOIFB may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Serving as the prime scientific and technical conduit between the oceanographic community and NSF regarding OOI.
- Examining the accomplishments and work flow of the OOI Operator, in order to provide feedback regarding the OOI Annual Work Plans.
- Via workshops, community meetings, and/or other mechanisms, stimulate and engage the user community in keeping the accomplishments of the OOI at the cutting edge of scientific inquiry and technological innovation.
- Developing and implementing strategies to expand scientific and public awareness of the unique scientific and technological opportunities of the OOI.
Facility Board terms of office are three years, with the possibility of re-appointment for a second three-year term. We anticipate up to two in-person meetings per year and one teleconference per month.
Applications should be submitted to Annette DeSilva, at the OOIFB Administrative Support Office, and must include a letter of interest and an academic CV. Applications are due by March 20, 2020. Applications will be reviewed by the OOIFB, who will give due consideration to the qualifications of applicants, as well as to maintenance of career level, disciplinary, and regional balance on the OOIFB.
For more information about OOIFB and its activities, please visit OOIFB’s website or contact Kendra Daly, OOIFB Chair or read the OOIFB Charter.
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Graduate Student Cruise Opportunities
Opportunities abound for graduate students to have hands-on experience aboard the OOI deployment expeditions in 2020. The first opportunity is during the spring Endurance Array deployment aboard the R/V Sikuliaq. as part of the UNOLS Cruise Opportunity Program. The Endurance cruise will run from 31 March-15 April 2020, departing from and returning to Newport, Oregon. Applications to UNOLS are due by 28 February 2020.
Students currently completing (or who have recently completed) a degree in a field of oceanographic research are eligible to apply. Those selected will learn about the functional aspects of seagoing work, while helping to deploy and recover oceanographic moorings, profilers, and gliders off the Washington and Oregon coast. Students also will assist in CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) casts and acquisition of data while underway. Other specific assignments can be developed based on students’ expertise and interests.
To learn more and to apply for the Spring 2020 Endurance Array cruise, visit UNOL’s Cruise Opportunity Program. Other OOI array deployment cruises are being planned for the fall, so stayed tuned for more exciting opportunities later this year.
Read MoreNSF / OCE update on the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI)
As part of its continuing commitment to ensuring the most efficient use of its resources, and consistent with recommendations in the National Academy of Sciences’ 2015 report “Sea Change: Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences 2015-2025”, the Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE) is working with the Consortium for Ocean Leadership…
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