Data Support & Services

Data collection starts during cruise planning, which covers what will be collected, if and how it will be processed, and where it will be made publicly available. Raw data from Schmidt Ocean Institute's owned systems is made publicly available at outside data centers as soon as possible after an expedition.

Expedition participants may also bring their own scientific instrumentation. During the planning phase, we discuss integration with our data acquisition system and any additional instrumentation needs. The way in which all data and related products (e.g., post-processed data, physical samples) are stored and eventually made available will be discussed in partnership with Schmidt Ocean Institute.

On R/V Falkor (too), data, files, and information are collected from sensors and computer systems and then written and/or moved to a central location. Depending on the individual system, and how data is captured, the route the data takes, as well as the structure of the file containing the information, differs. Raw data is written to file so that there is a clear understanding of every stage of data acquisition and processing. Some data is processed automatically by systems on the ship and also written to files and databases. The ship and shoreside staff continuously check the systems during an expedition to ensure data collection is occurring as planned. Several automated systems and alerts are also run to ensure timely and accurate data collection. Data is continuously backed up and transferred to a network-attached storage (NAS) drive during the cruise. The chief scientist will be given a NAS drive with all of the expedition data that has been collected by the ship’s data acquisition system.

On board, we also make use of event loggers for both the ship's activities and ROV SuBastian’s activity. This allows information to be captured along with associated metadata and sensor data for later analysis. Scientists work with the marine technicians to set up the event logging templates to fit the needs of all expedition participants. The associated data, events, and images are collected with the appropriate data streams. Scientists will be able to input events and review all the information collected while on the ship. Data from the event loggers is exported to the expedition data directory and included in the final data package.

The expedition data package compiled during the expedition is uploaded to Schmidt Ocean Institute’s cloud storage system as soon as possible after the expedition. Once the data is off the ship, additional quality assurance checks are made to ensure that it has been copied completely. For the data collected via our normal systems,we work with several partners to move data as appropriate to a variety of data centers. The chief scientist from an expedition will have their individual NAS drive and can distribute data to their own partners.

During the expedition, participants on the ship will be able to view and interact with real-time data as it is collected. Multiple dashboards of streaming real-time data are available on screens on the ship and via the ship's local network. These dashboards also allow for search and download if needed. Scientists will also be able to connect to the network via their own computers to interact with the repository of saved data files as they are written, ensuring that participants can access data to inform the science happening on the vessel.

Video and limited real-time data from the R/V Falkor and ROV SuBastian are made available in near-real time on this website and YouTube.

We are constantly working to increase the availability and access on the ship and onshore to real-time and past data and video.

Through partnerships with data centers in the oceanographic and general science community, Schmidt Ocean Institute enables standard-compliant sharing of scientific information and data collected during research expeditions and by the scientists on board. Scientists are responsible for the data they collect and work with Schmidt Ocean Institute to ensure their data is made available in an appropriate repository. Schmidt Ocean Institute ensures that data from our owned systems makes its way to the locations listed below.

Underway data collected using embedded instrument systems on R/V Falkor (too) during science expeditions and transits are made available post-cruise to the general public via Schmidt Ocean Institute’s partnership with Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R).

Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler data from Schmidt Ocean Institute’s ship-based platform is processed by the University of Hawaii Data Acquisition System (UHDAS).

Sensor-based marine geoscience data, such as robotic vehicle data and still images, metadata, and processed multibeam data, will be made available via Schmidt Ocean Institute’s partnership with Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS). Processed data from expeditions can also often be found here.

Multibeam data that has been processed by Schmidt Ocean Institute and partners is also added to the GEBCO database as part of Seabed 2030.

Interested in other oceanographic data?

Catalogue of data search tool

A copy of the event logger used for ROV SuBastian is uploaded and made available for review off the ship at https://seacloud.schmidtocean.org/. Access is provided to all scientific expedition participants and those named by the chief scientist.

For requests related to our data email: data@schmidtocean.org