M.A.R.I.N.

PACT SYSTEMS

COMMON DATA PROCESSING AND DISPLAY UNIT - M.A.R.I.N. ALPHA

The Common Data Processing and Display Unit (CDPDU) is a data display and processing architecture built to open hardware and software standards. The CDPDU will serve as one of the public faces of the M.A.R.I.N. and Arctic Perspective Initiative projects throughout their duration. In its next phase, multiple CDPDU’s will function as a networked computational cluster for the aggregation, processing and display the data and content produced within the M.A.R.I.N. and API frameworks. The network of thecollection units and the CDPDUs will serve as an interface to the public in addition to disseminating the data to be further studied by scientists, used by artists, or aggregated into larger research clusters. The hardware and software architectures of the CDPDU are open source. The datasets displayed are the first attempt to follow through on the NASA Common Data Format standard. The Common Data Format (CDF) is a self-describing data format for the storage and manipulation of scalar and multidimensional data in a platform- and discipline-independent fashion.

The datasets displayed on the CDPDU are the acquired, processed and displayed from the following sources:

M.A.R.I.N. sensors systems, API HTU sensor systems, Terra, Aqua and SeaStar satellites , (MODIS instrument, SeaWiFS instrument), the ARCTIC PERSPECTIVE INITIATIVE Hydroponic Test Units (API HTU) and the University of California Santa Barbara, STEM initiative Experimental Sensor System (UCSB STEM ESS), BLACKCLOUD.ORG project, headed by Greg Niemeyer, University of California Berkeley (www.blackcloud.org).

On the satellite data:

The SeaStar spacecraft, developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation, carries the SeaWiFS instrument and was launched to low Earth orbit on board an extended Pegasus launch vehicle on August 1, 1997. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer MODIS instrument is operating on both the Terra and Aqua spacecraft. It has a viewing swath width of 2,330 km and views the entire surface of the Earth every one to two days. Its detectors measure 36 spectral bands between 0.405 and 14.385 µm, and it acquires data at three spatial resolutions — 250m, 500m, and 1,000m. The first MODIS instrument was launched on board the Terra satellite on 18 December 1999, and the second was launched on board the Aqua satellite on 4 May 2002. The MODIS instruments provide calibrated, geolocated radiance data from individual bands, and a series of geophysical products from land, ocean, and atmosphere disciplines that can be used for studies of processes and trends on local to global scales. This data helps scientists understand the Earth as a system, facilitating their ability to predict global climate changes and to differentiate between the impact of human activities and natural activities on the environment.

The satellite data displayed in this first phase is processed by the NASA/Goddard OceanColor Group at the Goddard Space Flight Center Distributed Active Data Center and can be used for research and educational purposes only and are part of research into satellite data display that is being conducted at the University of California Santa Barbara Media Arts and Technology Program under the direction of Prof. Marko Peljhan.

The M.A.R.I.N. sensor systems were designed by the Montreal based team Marije Baalman, Chris Salter and Matthew Biederman, The API HTU systems was designed and developed by the Matthew Biederman for the purposes of the API funded development for polar art/science research, the UCSB STEM ESS is designed and developed by the students of UCSB MAT under the direction of Prof. Marko Peljhan.
The BLACKCLOUD project was designed and developed by the BLACKCLOUD team, headed by Prof. Greg Niemeyer at UC Berkeley.

Project team:

Concept: Marko Peljhan
Software framework: Wesley Smith (LuaAV)
Software and hardware frameworks: Matthew Biederman, UCSB MATP (Amichi Amar, Wesley Smith, Pablo Colapinto, Anil Camci, Andres Burbano), SeaDAS, NASA/Goddard Ocean Color Group, Marko Peljhan
Enclosure engineering: Nejc Trost, Samo Stopar, Andrej Bizjak
Renders: Nejc Trost
Workshop: C-ASTRAL Inc., Slovenia
Supported by: University of California Santa Barbara, Media Arts and
Technology Program.
Blackcloud was funded by the Digital Media Learning Grant from the MacArthur Foundation, as well as Swissnex, Pro Helvetia and the Mellon Foundation. Team Rhea Cortado (Costume Designer), Aida Eltorie (Arts Manager), Andy Garcia (Teacher, Manual Arts High School), Laura Greig (Artist/web designer), Farley Gwazda (Artist), Nik Hanselmann (Programmer/Artist), Eric Kaltman (Programmer), Geoff Koops (Artist), Reza Naima (Hardware Engineer), Greg Niemeyer (Principal Investigator) and Daye Rogers (Video Documentary).

Thanks to: UCSB MATP, C-ASTRAL Inc., Slovenia

The CDPDU development within M.A.R.I.N. is supported in part by a grant from the Ministry of Culture, Repbulic of Slovenia and City of Ljubljana Cultural department, the ARCTIC PERSPECTIVE – THIRD CULTURE project is supported by the European Commission Culture 2007-2013 grant and by the Ministry of Culture, Republic of Slovenia..

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the authors and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

PACT SYSTEMS is a loose global collective working on open source and tactical media technological development started Ljubljana, Slovenia and operating around the world since 1995. The first realized project by PACT systems was the Urban Colonisation and Orientation Gear 144 (UCOG-144) ,an urban satellite based mapping and reflection project.