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Data Management
Detailed Information About the JGOFS Distributed Database Management System (DDMS)
Introduction
Large oceanographic programs such as JGOFS (The Joint Global Ocean
Flux Study) require data management systems which enable the exchange
and synthesis of extremely diverse and widely spread data sets. We
have developed a distributed, object-based data management system for
multidisciplinary, multi-institutional programs. It provides the
capability for all JGOFS scientists to work with the data without
regard for the storage format or for the actual location where the
data resides. The approach used yields a powerful and extensible
system (in the sense that data manipulation operations are not
predefined) for managing and working with data from large scale,
on-going field experiments.
In the “object-based” system, user programs obtain data by
communicating with a program (the “method”) which can interpret the
particular data base. Since the communication protocol is standard
and can be passed over a network, user programs can obtain data from
any data object anywhere in the system. Data base operations and data
transformations are handled by methods which read from one or more
data objects, process that information, and write to the user
program.
Purpose:
- Permit scientists to use data without concern for storage
technique, location, or format
- Networked interchange of data sets
- Access to most recent versions of data sets during experiments
- Handle multidimensional data
- Transmit metadata
- Extensible data manipulation routines
- Usable interactively or from programs
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