UCSC-CRL-94-08: REINAS: REAL-TIME ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION NETWORK AND ANALYSIS SYSTEM: PHASE III - SYSTEMS DESIGN

03/01/1994 09:00 AM
Computer Engineering
REINAS is a continuing engineering research and development program with the goal of designing, developing and testing an operational prototype system for data acquisition, data management, and visualization. This system is to support the real-time utilization of advanced instrumentation in environmental science. Advances in continuous time measurements and improved spatial resolution allow the monitoring and understanding environmental phenomena in much greater detail than has previously been possible. The system is also designed to support the retrospective use of integrated environmental data sets. The project is a multi-year effort of the Baskin Center for Computer Engineering and Information Sciences of the University of California, Santa Cruz, in cooperation with environmental scientists from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), and the Center for Ocean Analysis and Prediction (NOAA/COAP). This report documents the Third Phase of REINAS and describes the actual System Design of the project as it is being implemented. During the last half of 1993 the detailed requirements of the proposed users for the system were sharpened, selections of the technologies being used in the prototype system were made, and detailed architectures of REINAS and its subsystems for data collection, data management, processing, and visualization were worked out. The evaluations of the key components of the system is also a continuing task. Several new instruments and potential users not included in Phase II were studied. The objective of this document is to provide project participants and reviewers with the System Design of REINAS as it enters the prototype implementation phase. It spells out the technologies to be applied, and the plans for implementing the project goals. The REINAS system has been designed for regional real-time environmental monitoring and analysis. REINAS is a modern system, compatible with the Internet, for conducting interactive real-time coastal air/ocean science. The database design of REINAS is independent of specific database technology and is designed to support operational scientific needs throughput the entire scientific data life-cycle.

UCSC-CRL-94-08