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From YouTube: Rapid Processing of NASA Satellite Data Stored with Ceph - Kevin Hrpcek & Steve Dutcher

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Rapid Processing of NASA Satellite Data Stored with Ceph - Kevin Hrpcek & Steve Dutcher, University of Wisconsin Space Science and Engineering Center

The NASA VIIRS Atmosphere SIPS, located at the University of Wisconsin, is responsible for assisting the Science Team in algorithm development and production of VIIRS Level-2 Cloud and Aerosol products. To facilitate algorithm development, the SIPS requires access to multiple years of satellite data occupying petabytes of space. Being able to reprocess the entire mission and provide validation results back to the Science Team in a rapid fashion is critical for algorithm development. To accomplish this task the Atmosphere SIPS has deployed a six petabyte Ceph cluster employing numerous different components such as librados, EC-Pools, RBD, and CephFS. This talk will discuss choices we made to optimize the system allowing for rapid reprocessing of years of satellite data.

About Steve Dutcher
University of Wisconsin Space Science and Engineering Center
Data Scientist
Steve Dutcher is a Data Scientist working at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He graduated in 2000 with a B.S in computer science and began his career at University of Wisconsin, Space Science & Engineering Center. In the early years he worked on airborne instruments flying aboard NASA aircraft such as the DC-8, ER-2, WB-57 and the Global Hawk UAV. The field experiments would fly under satellite overpasses and use the data for validation. He then moved on to working with satellite ground processing systems which involved receiving level-0 data from polar orbiting satellites and processing through level-2. Finally he transitioned to his current role working on a NASA contract as part of the VIIRS Atmosphere SIPS. The Atmosphere SIPS receives global data from multiple satellites and is responsible for producing the operational VIIRS Atmosphere products. This work entails reprocessing petabytes of data, collocating measurements with other satellites and validating results. All of that needs to be done in a rapid fashion in order to provide feedback to the science team aiding them in their development. This has drawn him to constantly be in search for new advancements in the world of high throughput computing in order to help advance Atmospheric Science

About Kevin Hrpcek
UW-Madison Space Science & Engineering Center
Systems Administrator
Kevin is a technology and science enthusiast who is a Systems Administrator for the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He joined SSEC in 2015 at the beginning of the NASA Atmosphere SIPS contract. Working with a small team of developers he has helped design and build a high throughput computing system for satellite data with Ceph as a core component. This system specializes in the rapid reliable processing and storing petabytes of data for multiple satellites and sensors. The Atmosphere SIPS works closely with NASA funded science teams to aide in the development of algorithms that focus on cloud and aerosol properties. Kevin is also part of the data processing team for MIT Lincoln Laboratory's NASA funded TROPICS project which will consist of 6 cubesats. These projects have given Kevin the opportunity to play a small role in supporting the advancement of science and understanding of the world.