Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 19
STFC Science Testbed
Background
For the STFC testbeds a methodology was developed in response to the challenge
of digital preservation. This challenge lies in the need to preserve not only the
dataset itself but also the ability it has to deliver knowledge to a future user
community. The preservation objective is defined by the knowledge that a data
set is capable of imparting to any future designated user community and has a
profound impact on the required preservation actions an archive must carry out.
We sought to incorporate a number of analysis techniques tools and methods
into an overall process capable of producing an actionable preservation plan for
scientific data archives. The Implementation Plans
19.1 Dataset Selection
Several datasets are used in four scenarios in order to illustrate a number of impor-
tant points. The datasets come from the archives located in STFC acquired from
instruments in other locations, illustrated in Fig.
19.1
, and for the study the MST
radar in Wales (Fig.
19.2
) and Ionosonde data from many stations around the
world.
19.2 Challenges Addressed
The challenges addressed are that the physical phenomena about which the data
is being collected are complex and specialist knowledge is needed to use the data.
Moreover the data is in specialised formats and needs specialised software in order
to access it. Therefore the risks to the preservation of this data include
