Information Technology Research

For the GEON effort, UNAVCO is focusing on GPS data, derived products and models, and seismic tomography data models. Raw GPS data is available from UNAVCO and Scripps Institute of Oceanography (SIO) in the form of RINEX common exchange files. A system called the GPS Seamless Archive Centers (GSAC) was developed by SIO and UNAVCO and provides access to locations of files on remote "wholesale" data servers.

For more information on GPS data from UNAVCO see our data page.

UNAVCO currently operates a number of operational and prototype data servers. Many of these will be moved to the GEON point of presence or POP node in the next year. Of particular interest is the OPeNDAP server now running (geon.unavco.org). OPeNDAP (formerly DODS, the Distributed Ocean Data System) is a distributed data system originally developed for the ocean science community that has become widely used by the atmospheric science community and is maintained by UNIDATA. OPeNDAP is a platform independent system allowing remote access to a variety of data types. In addition to html previews of files, data on OPeNDAP servers can be accessed by Matlab, the Integrated Data Viewer (IDV), IDL, Excel, and a variety of other tools. Other tools can easily be modified to allow access to OPeNDAP servers. As with most data servers, data discovery can be a difficult process. Two tools, the OPeNDAP Data Connector (ODC) and the THREDDS cataloging system are helping with the task of data discovery.

These techniques help fulfill the goals of improved data sharing and accessibility as described in the GEON objectives. We are also currently working on online data translators to help convert data from other commonly used formats into OPeNDAP and IDV compatible formats.