ARCHIVED: What is the Dark Energy Survey data management system?

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The Dark Energy Survey data management system is an Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) Science Gateway project aimed at managing the Dark Energy Survey's very high data collection rate.

The Dark Energy Survey camera, based in Chile, takes about 400 images per night, and each image is 1 GB in size. The data are sent via a microwave link from the observatory to La Serena, Chile, and then forwarded via an optical link to the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA) for storage and reduction. Galaxies and stars in the images are identified, catalogued, and finally their properties measured and stored in a database. For more, see the Dark Energy Survey website.

For more about XSEDE Science Gateways, see the Science Gateways page on the XSEDE website.

This document was developed with support from National Science Foundation (NSF) grants 1053575 and 1548562. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.