The GulfTOPP data management system is comprised of a postgres database, geospatially enabled, with an automated tag data acquisition and processing front end, using a combination of in-house produced data processing tools and vendor provided tag decoding routines. Since we are mainly a linux-based, open source system, and the vendor tools are exclusively Windows-based, the vendor tools are generally run in a virtual Windows machine environment, (using the VirtualBox software package), and their operation is automated using the scripting tool AutoIt.

Our data flow starts with tag data input, automatic for satellite tag data and semi-automatic for archival tag data, where the tags must be manually downloaded. Once tag data are input to the system, they are passed through our QC processing system, geolocated where appropriate, and loaded into the database. Once the tag information is in the database we can provide track and profile data in combination with oceanographic parameters, such as SST, Chl-A, and sea surface height. For transmitting tags, this can all happen in near real-time.

Our data access portals consist of password-protected and public web pages with Google Maps and Google Earth-enabled graphical user interfaces via the LAS, as well as password protected and public direct file downloads available from our servers. We make nightly data backups, which are archived both locally and at offsite systems.