LTER Site Byte

LTER Site: Jornada Basin

Contributor: Ken Ramsey (Aug 02, 2005)

Site Byte:

The information management team of the Jornada Basin LTER has been very busy in the last year responding to research needs, creating Geographic Information System (GIS) products, implementing Ecological Metadata Language (EML), application development and deployment, database population, effectively doubling server storage capacity, and participating in LTER Network planning activities. The information management team consists of Barbara Nolen (GIS/Remote Sensing), John Anderson (Site Manager), Ken Ramsey (Information Manager), and Justin Jensen (student programmer). The information management team receives network and desktop systems support from Jim Lenz of the USDA ARS Jornada Experimental Range (JER).

Barbara Nolen has had a productive year. Her products this year includes a broad scale map showing major JRN and JER research sites, a Schmidt’s delineation of the Chihuahuan Desert, digital elevation models of the Chihuahuan Desert and New Mexico, and LandSat images of the Chihuahuan Desert and New Mexico. Barbara is currently working on a tour book for the World Congress of Soil Science and mapping landforms of the Chihuahuan Desert and New Mexico.

The Jornada Basin LTER hired a student programmer, Justin Jensen, this year to develop PHP and Java applications for the Jornada Information Management System (JIMS) databases. With support from Central Arizona Phoenix LTER (CAP) and the LTER Network Office (LNO), Ken and Justin went to Tempe, AZ for assistance in implementing Xanthoria to generate EML from the JIMS database tables. Corinna Gries (CAP), Robin Schroeder (CAP), Ken, and Justin spent 3 days in Tempe developing the initial implementation of Xanthoria that generated most of the major elements of level 5 EML based on LTER Best Practices. Justin and Ken completed the XSL style sheets and Xanthoria configuration file following the trip to CAP.

Ken is currently completing the population of the JIMS databases with data, associated metadata, and personnel information needed to generate EML and develop and implement a new content management system for a new dynamically generated web site currently under development. This includes associating people with research projects and datasets within related database tables. JRN is set to deploy a searchable people directory, dynamic data catalog, and semi-automated LTER ClimDB harvest mechanism (68+ stations) following internal revue of the interfaces. As the JIMS databases are populated with a research project, EML instance documents will be generated, archived locally, harvested to the LNO Metacat node, and made available on the JRN web site.

JRN has developed a set of rules for generating EML based on the JRN IMS database schema and LTER EML Best Practices. John’s attendance of an EML workshop at LNO prior to this planning process was very helpful in allowing us to quickly determine JRN rules for EML content. The LTER Best Practices Document was crucial in guiding JRN during the process of developing and implementing EML.

Jim and Ken have made several improvements to the IMS servers and services in the last year. The total storage capacity for IMS servers was doubled by adding a 2 TB RAID enclosure and reallocating storage capacity among the file, database, and web servers. This brings the combined server capacity to just over 4 TB. The web server was moved to a newer server with SUSE Linux as the operating system and Apache web server. The operating system for the file server was upgraded to Netware 6.5 during the storage capacity reallocation. The Internet map server has been upgraded and is now performing at a significantly increased level of performance.

John has recently added 5 mini-flume hydrological research sites to the Jornada wireless system. John has installed the new LTER weather station and is currently finalizing its configuration and calibrations. The new weather station has also been added to the Jornada wireless system.

Web design by Wade Sheldon, Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER