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Sensor maintenance during the ACO-8 cruise (5/28-6/2/2021): the BSP-5 with CTD4 and CAM2 with lights were installed.

Data Management

The ACO data management is conducted using various computers and storage devices located at the AT&T Makaha cable station and at the University of Hawaii (Hawaii Institute of Geophysics [HIG-319], and Engineering Support Facility (School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology)). At least three copies of each dataset are made, and two of them are in separate locations for safety. Details of the equipment and software used for data management can be found in the ACO wiki.

The day-to-day operation of the power and communication links of the ALOHA Cabled Observatory system are managed by a computer (Makaha_CC_1) at the Makaha cable station. This computer runs a C++ program developed at the ESF.

The Makaha_CC_1 computer collects the 96 kHz data from two hydrophones, decimates them to two additional 24 kHz data sets, produces spectrum data, and collects pressure, and engineering data. These data are stored in an 18 TB RAID. The 24 kHz hydrophone data together with the spectrum, pressure and engineering data are transmitted via TCP/IP to a Makaha_Archive computer and Seagate NAS located at HIG-319, and to a RAID located at ESF, an additional copy of these data are to be stored in another NAS at HIG-319. The 96 kHz hydrophone data are not transmitted to UH via TCP/IP due to bandwidth restrictions, these data are transported physically (see below).

One more computer at the Makaha station (Makaha_1) manages the data collection from other ACO instrumentation (CTDs, Acoustic Doppler Profilers, etc.) using SIAM software provided by MBARI. These data are transmitted via TCP/IP to a database managing system (SSDS) in a computer (Malino) at HIG-319, to be stored in a 5 TB RAID. Data from SIAM also gets stored in the 18 TB RAID at the Makaha station.

An additional computer at the Makaha station (Makaha_2) serves as a backup for Makaha_1, and for network traffic monitoring.

The data collected in the 18 TB RAID at the Makaha station (96 and 24 kHz hydrophone, spectrum, pressure and engineering data) are copied to external drives and transported to UH about once a month, these data are to be archived at UH.

The data transmitted to the Malino and Makaha Archive computers get processed in separate computers (Kainani, Lea), the results are displayed in the ACO web site, and released to the public in a ftp site. These data are also to be released to data distribution centers (APDRC, NODC).