NEPTUNE Canada: The First Nine Months
Benoît Pirenne, Associate Director, Information Technology, NEPTUNE Canada
Session Abstract
NEPTUNE Canada went live on December 08, 2009, launching a new era of oceanic research for Canada and the world. NEPTUNE commenced in December with the transfer of real-time data from Vancouver Island's cabled underwater observatory to the world. The project is a culmination of 10 years of planning and development.
For the first time in history, data is transmitted via a high-speed fibre optic network from the seafloor off the West Coast of Vancouver Island to a data archive system at the University of Victoria. This unique system delivers free Internet access to a massive amount of live and archived data.
This presentation will review the unique characteristics of this oceanic research and reveal some of the scientific data collected to date. It will also highlight new science reports disclosed at the NEPTUNE Science and Data Workshop, as well as new scientific tools, and what we can expect in the months to come.
Speaker Information
Benoît Pirenne is the Associate Director, Information Technology, NEPTUNE Canada, and has been at the University of Victoria since October 2004. He is in charge of all data management and archiving aspects (from system development to operations) of both the VENUS and NEPTUNE Canada observatories. He directs a group of 20 computer professionals organized in three teams.
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.
Benoît has a BA in computer science from Liège, Belgium, and a Master in computer science from the University of Namur, Belgium.
