Luis Bermudez

Instrument interface standards for interoperable ocean sensor networks

The utility and cost-effectiveness of instrument networks are enhanced by instrument interoperability. Todays oceanographic instruments are characterized by very diverse non-standard software protocols and data formats. This diversity of protocols poses serious challenges to integration of large-scale sensor networks. Standard instrument protocols are now being developed to address these challenges. Some of these standards apply at the IP-network level and enable integration of existing “lower level” proprietary instrument protocols and software components. Other approaches are intended to be implemented by the instrument device itself. These native instrument protocol standards offer the possibility of more uniform and simpler system architectures. We compare these various approaches, describe how they can be combined with one another, and describe some prototypes that implement them.

'Marine metadata interoperability project: leading to collaboration

The marine metadata interoperability project is halfway through its first year of marine metadata and community development. In that time it has established Steering and Technical Committees, developed a collaborative Web site with many hundreds of references and an active membership, and initiated a domain vocabulary mapping project and demonstration development effort. We describe the projects international collaboration and results to date, and suggest that metadata is an admirable starting point for collaborations between other science projects.

Making scientific data sets easier to find, access, and use

Over the years, a tremendous challenge has developed in the Earth and atmospheric sciences: that of managing and searching increasingly large volumes of data collected over relatively short time periods across multiple disciplines and from multiple platforms. Significant resources have been spent often on activities that are program- or project-specific, which has resulted in many different standards, conventions, approaches, and tools for data documentation and management. However, it is still difficult to make data truly interoperable across the breadth and depth of the Earth and atmospheric sciences. Indeed, a key issue identified by scientists and technologists alike is the ability to use data (and its descriptive metadata), as described by different vocabularies, in a transparent, discipline-independent, and scientifically valid way. With the proliferation of vocabularies specific to individual projects, data repositories, domains, and even individual scientists, finding and using data has become a manual and often labor-intensive task.