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NIDAS In-Situ Data Acquisition Software Overview

Learn about NIDAS, the primary data system for NCAR's research aircraft, supporting diverse topics and surface measurements. Developed since 2004, it features extensive network services and supports a wide range of sampling rates. The system is open-source, highly configurable, and supports remote login and power control.

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NIDAS In-Situ Data Acquisition Software Overview

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  1. NIDAS NCAR In-Situ Data Acquisition Software Gordon Maclean Software Engineer NCAR/EOL

  2. Background • Developed at the NCAR Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL), starting in 2004. • Targeted as the primary data system for the NSF HIAPER, NCAR's Gulfstream V research aircraft. • Developers included software engineers with experience at EOL's Research Aviation Facility (RAF) and In-Situ Sensing Facility (ISF) • Design was expanded to include the acquisition of ground-based meteorological measurements. • Built on the past experience of EOL engineers: • Aircraft Data System: ( ADS, ADS-2), 1970s – 2009 • Surface systems: Portable Automated Mesonet (PAM I,II,III), 1973-2004 and the Atmosphere-Surface Turbulence Exchange Facility (ASTER), 1988-2002

  3. Targeted Research Diverse topics, primarily NSF funded • Aircraft • Boundary layer to 50K ft • Cloud physics, convection, severe weather, chemistry and pollution, remote sensing, sensor validation • 20 to 200 flight hours per research project • Surface • PBL surface boundary conditions, energy balance, turbulence • Fluxes of momentum, heat, moisture and trace gases • Horizontal and vertical (0-50 meter) gradients • 24x7 operations, often unattended • Short term, typically 1 to 3 months per project

  4. AirborneInstrumentation

  5. Aircraft Deployments

  6. Surface Instrumentation

  7. Surface Deployments

  8. RequiredData System Interfaces

  9. Initial Design Choices • Operating System: Linux • Open source, near real-time, wide choice of system vendor • Same OS on embedded systems and processing and display servers • Extensive network services • Multithreaded, dynamic (run-time) object loading • Data Sampling Modules: ARM Processors and PC104 expansion bus • Low power (~2 Watt) low heat generation • Extensive vendor support for PC104 interface cards • Languages: • C++: object oriented, compiled • C: low level interface driver modules • Configuration: • XML: flexible, tree structured, widely used, field editable (by NIDAS geek) • Software Tools: • Version control: subversion • Builds: scons • Packaging: RPM, Debian (embedded)

  10. Server Systems Networks Data Sampling Modules, DSMs

  11. NIDAS Sample Flow

  12. Sensor Object Hierarchy

  13. Highlights • Supports diverse instrumentation • Wide range of sampling rates: ~0 to ~1000 samples/sec • Highly configurable, distributed processing • Runnable on low power (~2 Watt) embedded processors • Networked, supporting remote login, serial sensor interaction, power control • Open source, including all low level driver code • Acquired data is archived in raw sensor format • Archived time tags have microsecond precision • System clocks have ~20 microsecond accuracy • Many deployments • Revision controlled, automated tests • GUI configuration editor for aircraft deployments

  14. Future Plans, More Info • Kernel upgrades on DSMs, using newer real-time capabilities of Linux. • Reduce serial sampling latency (line discipline kernel module) • Improve network service discovery mechanism • Enhancements to real-time displays, diagnostics • Framework for instrumentation control • Calibration database • Other server platforms: MacOSX • Other embedded hardware platforms: Eurotech Titan, gumstix, new ARM/Intel processors, pc104+ • Support and collaboration with outside users. http://www.eol.ucar.edu/data/software/nidas (under development) maclean@ucar..edu

  15. Questions/Answers

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