How Will Astronomy Archives Survive the Data Tsunami - Case Study Example

? How Will Astronomy Archives Survive the Data Tsunami Grade (16th, Jan. How Will Astronomy Archives Survive the Data Tsunami The volume of archived astronomical data is growing at an alarming rate. The increase of the volume of archived data by 0.5 petabyte every years indicates that there will be close to 60 petabyte of archived data by 2020 (Berriman & Groom, 2011). Such volumes of archived data are far too enormous; prompting a thought on how the archival data storage can be made more effective and efficient, through the adoption of the recent technologies to address the problem. Notwithstanding the need to make the access, storage and dissemination of astronomy data more effective and efficient, cost concerns also informs the need to seek for efficiency solutions. Archives operate within an environment where resources, mostly financial are limited (Chaisson & McMillan, 2011). When the response time for astronomy queries increases, so is the cost of obtaining data from the archives. This impresses on the need to search for further technological techniques, which are more efficient and cost effective. Various performance degradation issues associated with the growing trend are indicated by the archived astronomical data. First, there is growth in the usage of the archived data, increasing the access and queries associated with the archived data sets. This effectively reduces the efficiency of data access, while also increasing the response time involved in queries (Berriman & Groom, 2011). The decreased efficiency and increased response time has the effect of making the study into this field less efficient, thus discouraging the widening of the knowledge base in astronomy. Most significant is the fact that, the growth in archived astronomical data increases the demand for such data, encourages the creation of more sophisticated queries and analysis techniques, which in turn increases the storage, computation and database costs (Berriman & Groom, 2011). This serves to make the access to archived astronomical data more expensive for users. Additionally, the increased volume of archived astronomical data means that it is now more accessible, thus influencing the research undertaken in this field, since most researchers are now using the archived data to undertake their research, at the expense of newly acquired data (Chaisson & McMillan, 2011). This practice is detrimental to the growth of astronomy, since new research and enquiries are rarely made, thus making new discoveries and innovations in this field impractical. The effect of this is to limit the knowledge base of the astronomy field, while also enhancing the regurgitation of data and provision of redundant and irrelevant study findings (NRC, 2011). The essence of research is to promote new enquiries and discoveries in certain field, with a view to creating new knowledge, while also enhancing creativity and innovation in solving the problems associated with the field (Berriman & Groom, 2011). With a continued publication of more papers using the archived data sets, the hope of new discoveries and innovations in this field is extinguished. The increased volume of archived astronomy data has also caused performance degradation of various astronomical data institutions such as NASA’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) and Infrared Science Archive (IRSA), through affecting their reporting abilities (Berriman & Groom, 2011). Following these performance degradation issues, a need for alternative archival techniques has risen. One such alternative archival technique is graphical processing units (GPUs), which is a technique developed to enhance the output of an image that occurs on a display device (Berriman & Groom, 2011). Nevertheless, while this technique is meant to help in reducing the inefficiencies associated with large volumes of archived astronomical data, the technique has proved to be ineffective due to various reasons. First, the technique is only applicable in graphic-like applications, an aspect that limits its applicability in the general functionality of the astronomy archived data (NRC, 2011). Secondly, GPUs only support single-precision Calculations, as opposed to double-precision Calculations, which are the basic forms required in astronomy. This highly limits the applicability of this technique in reducing the performance degradation issues associated with large volumes of archived astronomy data sets. Cloud computing is yet another archival technique that has been developed to help resolve the issues associated with performance degradation. Cloud computing presents processing- and memory-intensive applications, which are viable alternatives to reduce the costs normally involved in the processing of large astronomical data. However, this alternative is not very economical, due to the high throughput networks as well as the parallel file system that is required in enhancing the performance of cloud computing (Chaisson & McMillan, 2011). This alternative increases the costs of data transfer and storage, since it requires that mass cloud storage space is rented. Additionally, the implementation and management of cloud computing technology involves business costs which are relatively higher, serving to increase the costs of data storage and processing (Berriman & Groom, 2011). Therefore, it emerges that cloud computing as an alternative to solving performance degradation issues in astronomy is not plausible, unless if it is applied for short time tasks. Nevertheless, despite the shortcomings associated with the cloud computing technology, it can prove useful as a performance degradation enhancement technique, when implemented for large institutions. To mitigate the disadvantages associated with cloud computing, it can be incorporated into a data center, thus reducing the implementation and maintenance costs. However, these are not the only challenges facing astronomy. The accessibility of astronomy data has also been hindered by other challenges, which include lack of an ample technological infrastructure that can be applied to store and disseminated the astronomy data sets. Thus, building of an infrastructural system that enhances the access and flow of information is vital to mitigate the challenges (NRC, 2011). Another hurdle is the fact that most of the astronomical data has not been complied into a single database, where the users can easily access it, rather being distributed all over the archival storage systems. While many other fields have developed single data access station for their users, the field of astronomy has lagged behind, only presenting scattered information in terms of online journals (Berriman & Groom, 2011). Owing to the enormous growth of the data generated and archived in the field of astronomy, collaboration between the astronomers and the computer engineers is a vital concept, which would help in seeing the development of ample techniques, technologies and infrastructure that can support the enormous growth of data in the field of astronomy. References Berriman, G. B. & Groom, L. S. (2011). How Will Astronomy Archives Survive The Data Tsunami? ACM Queue. Chaisson, E., & McMillan, S. (2011). Astronomy today. Boston: Addison-Wesley. National Research Council (U.S.). (2001). Panel reports. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press. Read More