Data Management
Underway data collected using embedded instrument systems on R/V Falkor during the research cruises will be made available to the general public via Schmidt Ocean Institute’s partnership with the Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R) program. The data types curated by R2R can be found here.
Sensor-based marine geoscience data, such as robotic vehicle still images, metadata, and processed multibeam data will be made available via Schmidt Ocean Institute’s partnership with Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS). The data types curated by MGDS can be found here.
Schmidt Ocean Institute collaborates with the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (CCOM) at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) on the quality assurance of the multibeam mapping system operation onboard R/V Falkor and the collected data. Our collaborators from CCOM conduct annual testing and calibration of R/V Falkor’s multibeam echosounders to ensure the high quality of the collected multibeam data. As that may be necessary, SOI can coordinate with CCOM to organize post-processing of raw collected multibeam data, e.g. if it is not possible for the science party to process the data onboard Falkor during the cruise.
Additional partnerships with University of Hawaii Data Acquisition System (UHDAS) and Florida State University Shipboard Automated Meteorological and Oceanographic System (SAMOS) provide quality assurance for the data collected with the R/V Falkor’s Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) and meteorological instrumentation respectively. These data are continuously collected onboard Falkor, sent to UHDAS and SAMOS in near real-time for quality assurance, and archived in R2R post-cruise.
Schmidt Ocean Institute currently does not have established partnerships to archive data related to physical samples, such as e.g. biological specimens, outcomes of genetic analysis, or data collected with third-party specialized instruments brought on board. We encourage the proponents to carefully consider how all types of data sets collected during the proposed research cruises will be post-processed, managed, and shared with the public – particularly focusing on those types of data, for which SOI currently does not have a well-established management workflow.
General Outreach
For all cruises, one berth aboard Falkor is reserved for a Schmidt Ocean Institute multimedia journalist. This individual is responsible for managing blogs, website maintenance, press interaction, some photo and video capture, and facilitates ship-to-shore communications. Schmidt Ocean Institute encourages applications that provide innovative and unique outreach opportunities which go beyond what is already offered. Schmidt Ocean Institute currently does not provide assistance with the following projects, but welcomes applications that wish to include:
- Citizen science development and projects
- Technology development for outreach (e.g.) websites, 3-D modeling, image tagging, etc.
- Related curriculum or lesson plan development
- Collaborations with educators, education institutions, museums and aquariums
- Collaborations with artists, art installation projects, or related arts-based activities
- Featured stories or articles with magazines, papers, television programs
- Documentaries or broadcast programing
- Multidisciplinary outreach programs or projects
