Benoit Pirenne, Oceans Networks Canada Associate Director, visited SOCIB

Benoit Pirenne, Ocean Networks Canada Associate Director, visited SOCIB offices at Parc Bit and labs at IMEDEA The morning session was dedicated to the visit of glider and oceanographic equipment labs and to a seminar entitled “From the ocean depths to a computer near you: A look at the current status, plans and data management at Ocean Networks Canada”. The afternoon session took place at Parc Bit, where a detailed presentation of the Data Centre was given by SOCIB staff, followed by a discussion focused on technical aspects of Data Management. Different tools and applications developed by SOCIB Data Centre were presented and the common issues and solutions encountered by the two groups were identified. The visit finished with a discussion of possible collaborations.

 

image: Charles Troupin
  • Abstract:

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) manages and operates the NEPTUNE Canada, VENUS and Cambridge Bay observatories, with more to come. The talk reviewed the current status of the observatories and the projects under development to maintain and expand them, including new operational oceanography responsibilities that ONC has promised to deliver on. Some of the on-going collaborations with European Institutes will be covered. Special emphasis was put on Oceans 2.0, the data management system that supports data acquisition, storage and stewardship, as well as access and derived data products.

  • About Benoît:

Benoît Pirenne is Ocean Networks Canada Associate Director, Digital Infrastructure. He joined the University of Victoria on October 2004 to build the Data Management and Archiving System for the NEPTUNE Canada and VENUS observatories. The department he directs consists of three groups: software development and testing, systems administration and network operations and data stewardship, for a total of about 30 staff. Previously, Benoît spent 18 years at the European Southern Observatory (ESO, Munich, Germany), a leading Organization for astronomical research. At ESO Benoît assumed a number of scientific and technical positions. As Head of the Operations Technical Support Department in this Organization, he was responsible for running the data management and archiving system supporting both ESO's telescopes and NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope.