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About the Archive
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Archive Search
Related Links
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Archive Stats
(Aug 2008 to present)
- Web server uptime: 99.08%
- Number of queries: 101,157
- Number of files downloaded: 264,344
Monthly Traffic Totals (last 30 days) - Number of queries: 1,366
- Number of files downloaded: 3,118
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Data Access Policy
Starting on Thursday, September 17, 2009, The new access control method
for proprietary and open data access to the CARMA archive will be in effect.
The user experience of the new access control policy will be as follows:
- An obsblock trial will be deemed in the proprietary phase if either:
- The project is on a special limited list of protected CARMA projects
(e.g. thesis projects) set by the CARMA management;
- It comes from a project that has any obsblock that is less than 18 months old.
- If proprietary obsblocks have been selected for download, the user
will be prompted for a password for each project. This password is
obtained as follows:
- For proposals submitted during or after Spring 2009, this archive
password was assigned by the CARMA proposal system when the proposal was
submitted, and can be retrieved by the PI from the proposal system at
any later time (the PI is responsible for who he/she would like to have
the password for each project). To retrieve the archive password, the
PI should log into the proposal system
(carma-prop.ncsa.uiuc.edu).
The password for each project is listed on the proposal status page.
- or proposals submitted before Spring 2009, no password will be
listed on the proposal status page in the proposal system, and the
default CARMA archive password should be used (contact carma@ncsa.uiuc.edu
if you do not have the default password and need it). The same password
is also used for uploading observing scripts to the site.
- No password will be requested for non-proprietary obsblocks.
System Requirements
Common browsers (Firefox, Netscape) on Linux and Macintosh systems with Java 1.5 installed
can be used to download data from the archive. If your browser does not recognize
the .jnlp suffix and asks for an application to use to open it, select javaws from
your local Java installation bin directory.
Using the Archive
As of this writing, typical interactions with the archive include
three activities:
Searching for Data
You search for data in the archive through one of the Archive's search forms.
The Archive provides two types:
- Quick Searches -- these
simple forms handle the common types of queries used by
astronomers. Things you can search on include:
- Project ID (e.g. "c0001")
- Investigator name (e.g. your name)
- Observing block ID (e.g. "n604_coD")
- Observing date or date range
- Advanced Searches --
this form combines some available search parameters into a single form.
When you submit a search, the results are displayed in a hierarchical
format reflecting the organization of the archive. You can control how much
information is included before submitting the search through display options
in the search form.
Browsing Data
Datasets in the archive are organized into hierarchical collections, and every
collection has a Project ID associated with it. Collections are listed
as observing block IDs and corresponding data files.
Retrieving Data
On the search result page, data files can be downloaded one at a time by clicking
on the filename itself, or downloaded with DaRT by selecting multiple files then
launching DaRT through Java Web Start.
Providing Comments and Reporting Bugs
If you experience problems using the archive or have any comments,
questions, or suggestions about the archive, you can contact the
archivist by sending mail to
carma@ncsa.uiuc.edu.
Response time during weekdays is usually less than a day; a longer
delay should be expected on weekends, although the mail usually
checked daily.
Many problems users experience can be traced to network difficulties
happening anywhere between CARMA and NCSA or within NCSA itself.
High network traffic is one such source. Occasionally, you may be
unable to contact the archive server (with an error message like
"Connection refused"). Such a problem often corrects itself after the
traffic dies down. In this case, you should try your request
later.
Note that if you are unable to access the archive as described above,
sending us email is still helpful. It will alert the archivist to the
problem, allowing him or her to ensure that the problem gets fixed as
soon as possible. Note that problems in the network may also delay
our receiving your message, thus delaying our response.
The CARMA Data Archive is
a project of Radio Astronomy Imaging
Team
at the National Center for
Supercomputing Applications on the campus of the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Contact the Archivist:
carma@ncsa.illinois.edu
