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The Site Survey Data Bank (SSDB) is a repository for site survey data submitted in support of Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) proposals and expeditions. Using tools
available in the SSDB, Proponents will submit digital files (data,
images or documents) for evaluation by Reviewers, who will make
recommendations to IODP through the Site Survey Panel advisory
system. Submission deadlines are posted on the main SSDB web
site, typically one month before each panel meeting.
The SSDB is now also a resource for research, education and
operational information, with open access for data not on proprietary
hold. In terms of information technology, the SSDB is a Digital
Library, maintaining persistent, searchable versions of your digital
files and metadata.
As a Proponent, you first need to request access to a
proposal. After that, much of your time will be spent with the
SSDBupload tool to submit your data files, along with the metadata
information to provide context for each file. If your proposal
needs a file already in the SSDB under another proposal, the SSDBcopy
tool is now available.
After you submit your files and metadata with SSDBupload (or
possibly SSDBcopy), the staff of the SSDB takes over to perform quality
control and to formally publish the results in the SSDB Digital
Library. Once published, two tools (SSDBquery and SSDBviewer) are
available to search for files. Security filters are in
place to make sure that any files you have placed on proprietary hold
are only available to you or to IODP-designated reviewers, via password
protection.
Further information is available About the
SSDB.
Obtain Access to Proposals or
Expeditions
IODP Management International (IODP-MI) may grant a Proponent access
to specific proposals and/or expeditions. This access enables you to
you to submit digital files and to access all files associated with
each allowed proposal or expedition. To request access to proposals or
expeditions, click "My Account" in the Proponent Menu to the left. You
can then "Request Change" to add a proposal or expedition.
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Submitting Digital Objects to the
SSDB
The primary submission tool is SSDBupload, which is used for
submitting new data to the SSDB. If data files already exist in
the SSDB, an alternative SSDBcopy tool is available. Both tools
allow proponents to submit data in authorized proposals only.
Proponents need to become familiar with data requirements and with the allowed file formats for the various
data types. To avoid confusion, great care needs to be taken to
insure that all the relevant proposed site names are associated with
each data file. All maps and profiles must be fully annotated,
including vertical and horizontal scales, latitude and longitude,
contour
interval, seismic CDP or shot points and line
names, as appropriate. The location and depth of proposed drill
sites need to be indicated in profiles. Site names and crossing
seismic lines need to be marked and labeled.
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SSDBupload
SSDBupload allows a Proponent to submit digital data in an
authorized proposal or expedition for publication in the Digital
Library. Using the SSDBupload tool, Proponents are guided through a six
step process whereby they submit descriptive metadata, and submit the
object-metadata pair to the SSDB for quality control and publication by
SSDB staff.
Figure 1. Flowchart of the six step SSDBupload process. In everyday usage the terms "upload, save, submit and
publish" may have ambiguous meanings, but within the SSDB they are used
to define the a sequence of specific steps. SSDBupload will guide
you through the process of selecting metadata and uploading a digital
file. It will then give you an opportunity to "save" your
metadata and data temporarily on your workspace on the server. At
that point you still have the ability to make changes in metadata or to
replace a file. When you are sure that everything is okay, you
may "submit" your file(s) and metadata. After that, control is
passed over to the SSDB staff who will perform quality control and
finally "publish" your contributions.
Note: Filenames can only contain alphanumeric
characters, underscore, dash or dot (a-z A-Z _ - .) and very
specifically NO spaces, commas, +, %, $, or &, which cause problems
with automatic processing schemes. Brief filenames are appreciated.
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SSDBcopy
SSDBcopy allows a Proponent to copy data from one from one proposal
to another, inside the data bank server. SSDBcopy can also
copy data to or from expeditions, since they are treated as collections
of content inside the SSDB, just like proposals. Using SSDBcopy,
Proponents can select items from a source proposal, and copy them into
a destination proposal.
The SSDBcopy tool will guide users through the selection of source
data, update and confirmation of metadata, and submission into the
destination proposal. The system automatically records the identity of
the original proposal, but you may need to indicate new drill site
names, for example. Once you submit the data, the metadata are no
longer available to be edited. The copied object-metadata pair are then
submitted to SSDB staff for quality control and publication in the
digital library.
Further information on "Using SSDBcopy" is also available.
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Expedition Packages
Within the SSDB, an Expedition Package is treated as a special case
of a
proposal. IODP-MI assigns a unique identifier, such as E313 for
Expedition 313. Anyone wishing to add content to an Expedition Package
must first register as a Proponent, request access to the Expedition,
and also request access to any proposals from which data may need to be
copied.
It is expected that most of the work in assembling Expedition
Packages inside the SSDB will be accomplished with the SSDBcopy tool. In addition the SSDBquery tool can be used to create a
list of data that could be incorporated into a Scientific Prospectus or other external stand-alone document with
persistent links to objects inside the SSDB. For example, the
user could select the Expedition identity
and constrain the search by appropriate criteria. Then the user
could select "Export Results" and choose from up to 10 different
attributes to export, such
as Data Type, File Name, Contributor, Access Control, URL, latitude and
longitude. The format can be CSV or tab delimited for
compatibility with spreadsheets, html, or plain text. The URL
links involve the standard SSDB security filter, which forces a
username and password login for any object on proprietary hold.
Alternatively, the results can also be exported to a kml file for use
with Google Earth.
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SSDBstatus
Once you have successfully submitted the digital object and metadata
pair to the SSDB using either SSDBupload or SSDBcopy, the digital
object undergoes quality control testing by SSDBstaff. Each
object-metadata pair will remain in in the staging area on the server,
accessible by the SSDBstatus tool, until it has passed all
tests, and been published in the digital library.
If a discrepancy is identified in the quality control review, SSDB
staff will notify you via email. The object and associated descriptive
metadata will be returned to the staging area where you can use
SSDBstatus to correct any
discrepancies in metadata, and resubmit the file(s).
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The importance of metadata
"Metadata" are used to describe the digital data
object. These include the type of data (bathymetry, multi-channel
seismic, location map, etc), type of object (map, document, digital
data, etc) and geographic location. In the SSDB, this information is
stored in a metadata file that is specifically associated with the data
object. Providing thorough and accurate metadata is important so the
object is properly described. The metadata will be used in the SSDB
search interfaces (SSDBquery and SSDBviewer) to find the digital
object. Every object in the SSDB is georeferenced by latitude and
longitude so that it can at least be discovered by proximity, even if
all other metadata category searches fail. SSDBupload will prompt
the proponent for the appropriate class of georeferencing, such as
"point" for a single site or drill hole, "line" for a pair of points
such as the beginning and end of a seismic line, "bounding box" the
most usual case, such as for maps or grids, and also a special case
"bounding box with start-end" such as for a survey track. Please
note that latitude and longitude need to be entered as decimal degrees,
not degrees and minutes.
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Find Digital Objects in the SSDB
The SSDB is equipped with two search tools: SSDBquery and
SSDBviewer.
Both search tools will return identical results for the same search.
SSDBquery
SSDBquery is a web-based search form. It is the most flexible and
quickest search tool. With SSDBquery, you can search for data based on
standard criterion, and access control. From the SSDBquery results
page, you can view your results in Google Earth or generate a custom
report. If you cannot view or download a file, it is because you do not
have access to the associated proposal. With SSDB query you can
download only one file at a time.
SSDBviewer
SSDBviewer is the Java-based graphical search and object retrieval
tool. Clicking on SSDBviewer on the sidebar will launch the
application.With SSDBviewer, you can use the "Search Pane" to search
for data based on standard criterion, and you can draw a geographic
search box on the map panel.
The results of a search will appear in two places in SSDBviewer: a
listing of objects in a new "Results" panel and object icons on the map
panel.To see a summary of information about the object, right click
(ctrl-click on a Mac) on the icon in the map panel to open up a small
window. With the new window, you can also view the file by clicking
on "Open File" (assuming you have an appropriate plug-in on your
computer for viewing the file).
The Digital Object Transfer System (DOTS) is a Java-based interface,
which is used to download objects from SSDBviewer to your computer.
DOTS will open when you click download now in the Download list pane.
Note: The Digital Object Transfer System has a maximum
capacity for file downloads. If you
experience extremely slow downloads, or if your download quits in the
middle of the process, we recommend you reduce the download size. You
can use the object selection within DOTS to control what documents to
save in a given download.
| Comparison of
Search Interfaces |
|
|
| Does the search interface
require Java? |
No |
Yes
Instructions
for installing Java |
| Common search criterion |
- Proposal Number
- Site Name
- Data Type
- Data Object Type
- Format
- Submission Date
- Georeference (geographical location)
|
| Unique search criterion |
Access Control |
Georeference in the map panel |
| How are the results
displayed? |
In a sortable table, with the following column headers:
Proposal, Site Names, Data Type, Object Type, Native Filename, Size,
Upload Date and View in INTViewer |
In a new tab called "Results". The
files are displayed in a list, according to proposal and data type. You
will also see icons that represent each file in the map panel. |
| How do I search by
georeference information? |
Numerically |
Numerically, or by drawing a
bounding box in the map panel |
| Can I generate a custom
report? |
Yes, using Export Results |
No |
| How do I identify the site
name for a particular file? |
Indicated in the results table |
Available in the metadata for an
file |
| How do I download? |
Right click (ctrl-click on a Mac)
and choose "Download linked file" |
Use the Download feature built into SSDBviewer |
| Can I download more than
one file at a time? |
No |
Yes |
| How do I view metadata? |
Click the data type link in the
results table and view metadata in web page form |
Right click (ctrl-click on a Mac)
and select "Open Metadata" to see the metadata displayed in a tabular
format. |
| How do I return to a
previous search? |
Return to SSDBquery and re-enter
the search criterion |
Click the appropriate "Results"
button |
| How do I view a segy file? |
Click the INTViewer icon in the
Native Filename column of SSDBquery results |
Download the segy file to your
computer, and view with personal software. |
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View SEGY Files Using
INTviewer
INTviewer is a commercial Java tool for viewing seismic segy
files. INTviewer runs on
the SSDB server with all the data files, so you can efficiently view
segy data without having to first download a 100 MB data file to your
own
computer. For classes of SSDB users with INTviewer rights, such
as Proponent, Reviewer or Staff, the SSDBquery results page will insert
an  icon next to the native segy
filename. Clicking on the icon will prompt you for a username and
password if needed and display a "Continue..." button to be clicked to
launch the application.
Adjusting Display Parameters
By default, INTViewer will display the complete segy file. A variety
of settings can be adjusted, to customize the data display to your
needs, including chosen range and increment. To access the display settings, use the menu at the top of the
screen to select Layer >Properties. This will prompt the options
palette to open up the "Data Range" section. At this screen, you can
change your chosen range, increments, etc. A conservative chosen range is 100 traces at a single increment. To see additional display
options, click on "Display Parameters."
Note: When opening large segy files on a Mac, INTViewer can
experience performance issues. To avoid these issues with large files,
specify particular sections (Chosen Range) and increments (i.e. every
other trace) in your display parameters.
Java Requirements for INTviewer
You must have Java J2SE 1.5 or higher installed to view segy files
using INTviewer
To determine your current Java configuration on a Mac, go to
Applications > Utilities > Java. If you do not see Java J2SE 1.5,
see java
downloads, J2SE
downloads.
Note: To see the Java Console, which can assist in
trouble-shooting, click on the Plugin Settings, choose General and
ensure "Use Java Console" is selected.
If you are experiencing difficulty opening files, you may need to
increase the cache for INTviewer This can also be done in Plugin
Settings. Please see technical support personnel for guidance on this
process.
INTViewer Help
For additional help in understanding INTViewer, use the Help Menu
available at the top of the screen.
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