17,178 research outputs found
The Astrolabe Project: Identifying and Curating Astronomical Dark Data through Development of Cyberinfrastructure Resources
As research datasets and analyses grow in complexity, data that could be
valuable to other researchers and to support the integrity of published work
remain uncurated across disciplines. These data are especially concentrated in
the Long Tail of funded research, where curation resources and related
expertise are often inaccessible. In the domain of astronomy, it is undisputed
that uncurated dark data exist, but the scope of the problem remains uncertain.
The Astrolabe Project is a collaboration between University of Arizona
researchers, the CyVerse cyberinfrastructure environment, and American
Astronomical Society, with a mission to identify and ingest
previously-uncurated astronomical data, and to provide a robust computational
environment for analysis and sharing of data, as well as services for authors
wishing to deposit data associated with publications. Following expert feedback
obtained through two workshops held in 2015 and 2016, Astrolabe is funded in
part by National Science Foundation. The system is being actively developed
within CyVerse, and Astrolabe collaborators are soliciting heterogeneous
datasets and potential users for the prototype system. Astrolabe team members
are currently working to characterize the properties of uncurated astronomical
data, and to develop automated methods for locating potentially-useful data to
be targeted for ingest into Astrolabe, while cultivating a user community for
the new data management system.Comment: To be published in Proceedings of Library and Information Services in
Astronomy (LISA) VIII; conference held in Strasbourg, France, June 6-9, 201
Looking before leaping: Creating a software registry
What lessons can be learned from examining numerous efforts to create a
repository or directory of scientist-written software for a discipline?
Astronomy has seen a number of efforts to build such a resource, one of which
is the Astrophysics Source Code Library (ASCL). The ASCL (ascl.net) was founded
in 1999, had a period of dormancy, and was restarted in 2010. When taking over
responsibility for the ASCL in 2010, the new editor sought to answer the
opening question, hoping this would better inform the work to be done. We also
provide specific steps the ASCL is taking to try to improve code sharing and
discovery in astronomy and share recent improvements to the resource.Comment: 11 pages; submission for WSSSPE2. Revised after review for
publication in the Journal of Open Research Softwar
AstroGrid-D: Grid Technology for Astronomical Science
We present status and results of AstroGrid-D, a joint effort of
astrophysicists and computer scientists to employ grid technology for
scientific applications. AstroGrid-D provides access to a network of
distributed machines with a set of commands as well as software interfaces. It
allows simple use of computer and storage facilities and to schedule or monitor
compute tasks and data management. It is based on the Globus Toolkit middleware
(GT4). Chapter 1 describes the context which led to the demand for advanced
software solutions in Astrophysics, and we state the goals of the project. We
then present characteristic astrophysical applications that have been
implemented on AstroGrid-D in chapter 2. We describe simulations of different
complexity, compute-intensive calculations running on multiple sites, and
advanced applications for specific scientific purposes, such as a connection to
robotic telescopes. We can show from these examples how grid execution improves
e.g. the scientific workflow. Chapter 3 explains the software tools and
services that we adapted or newly developed. Section 3.1 is focused on the
administrative aspects of the infrastructure, to manage users and monitor
activity. Section 3.2 characterises the central components of our architecture:
The AstroGrid-D information service to collect and store metadata, a file
management system, the data management system, and a job manager for automatic
submission of compute tasks. We summarise the successfully established
infrastructure in chapter 4, concluding with our future plans to establish
AstroGrid-D as a platform of modern e-Astronomy.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures Subjects: data analysis, image processing,
robotic telescopes, simulations, grid. Accepted for publication in New
Astronom
Interoperable geographically distributed astronomical infrastructures: technical solutions
The increase of astronomical data produced by a new generation of
observational tools poses the need to distribute data and to bring computation
close to the data. Trying to answer this need, we set up a federated data and
computing infrastructure involving an international cloud facility, EGI
federated, and a set of services implementing IVOA standards and
recommendations for authentication, data sharing and resource access. In this
paper we describe technical problems faced, specifically we show the designing,
technological and architectural solutions adopted. We depict our technological
overall solution to bring data close to computation resources. Besides the
adopted solutions, we propose some points for an open discussion on
authentication and authorization mechanisms.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Astronomical Society of the Pacific
(ASP
Managing Research Data in Big Science
The project which led to this report was funded by JISC in 2010--2011 as part of its 'Managing Research Data' programme, to examine the way in which Big Science data is managed, and produce any recommendations which may be appropriate. Big science data is different: it comes in large volumes, and it is shared and exploited in ways which may differ from other disciplines. This project has explored these differences using as a case-study Gravitational Wave data generated by the LSC, and has produced recommendations intended to be useful variously to JISC, the funding council (STFC) and the LSC community. In Sect. 1 we define what we mean by 'big science', describe the overall data culture there, laying stress on how it necessarily or contingently differs from other disciplines. In Sect. 2 we discuss the benefits of a formal data-preservation strategy, and the cases for open data and for well-preserved data that follow from that. This leads to our recommendations that, in essence, funders should adopt rather light-touch prescriptions regarding data preservation planning: normal data management practice, in the areas under study, corresponds to notably good practice in most other areas, so that the only change we suggest is to make this planning more formal, which makes it more easily auditable, and more amenable to constructive criticism. In Sect. 3 we briefly discuss the LIGO data management plan, and pull together whatever information is available on the estimation of digital preservation costs. The report is informed, throughout, by the OAIS reference model for an open archive
Managing Research Data: Gravitational Waves
The project which led to this report was funded by JISC in 2010–2011 as part of its
‘Managing Research Data’ programme, to examine the way in which Big Science data
is managed, and produce any recommendations which may be appropriate.
Big science data is different: it comes in large volumes, and it is shared and
exploited in ways which may differ from other disciplines. This project has explored
these differences using as a case-study Gravitational Wave data generated by the LSC,
and has produced recommendations intended to be useful variously to JISC, the funding
council (STFC) and the LSC community.
In Sect. 1 we define what we mean by ‘big science’, describe the overall data
culture there, laying stress on how it necessarily or contingently differs from other
disciplines.
In Sect. 2 we discuss the benefits of a formal data-preservation strategy, and the
cases for open data and for well-preserved data that follow from that. This leads to our
recommendations that, in essence, funders should adopt rather light-touch prescriptions
regarding data preservation planning: normal data management practice, in the areas
under study, corresponds to notably good practice in most other areas, so that the only
change we suggest is to make this planning more formal, which makes it more easily
auditable, and more amenable to constructive criticism.
In Sect. 3 we briefly discuss the LIGO data management plan, and pull together
whatever information is available on the estimation of digital preservation costs.
The report is informed, throughout, by the OAIS reference model for an open
archive. Some of the report’s findings and conclusions were summarised in [1].
See the document history on page 37
Building a Disciplinary, World-Wide Data Infrastructure
Sharing scientific data, with the objective of making it fully discoverable,
accessible, assessable, intelligible, usable, and interoperable, requires work
at the disciplinary level to define in particular how the data should be
formatted and described. Each discipline has its own organization and history
as a starting point, and this paper explores the way a range of disciplines,
namely materials science, crystallography, astronomy, earth sciences,
humanities and linguistics get organized at the international level to tackle
this question. In each case, the disciplinary culture with respect to data
sharing, science drivers, organization and lessons learnt are briefly
described, as well as the elements of the specific data infrastructure which
are or could be shared with others. Commonalities and differences are assessed.
Common key elements for success are identified: data sharing should be science
driven; defining the disciplinary part of the interdisciplinary standards is
mandatory but challenging; sharing of applications should accompany data
sharing. Incentives such as journal and funding agency requirements are also
similar. For all, it also appears that social aspects are more challenging than
technological ones. Governance is more diverse, and linked to the discipline
organization. CODATA, the RDA and the WDS can facilitate the establishment of
disciplinary interoperability frameworks. Being problem-driven is also a key
factor of success for building bridges to enable interdisciplinary research.Comment: Proceedings of the session "Building a disciplinary, world-wide data
infrastructure" of SciDataCon 2016, held in Denver, CO, USA, 12-14 September
2016, to be published in ICSU CODATA Data Science Journal in 201
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