Stanford University Deploys SGI

SGI has announced that the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory Solar Observatories Group at Stanford University has selected SGI server and storage infrastructure to support the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) group’s critical research on the origin of solar variability. The SDO strives to understand the characteristics of the Sun’s interior and the components of its magnetic activity to help forecast space weather, and relies on SGI’s technology to receive, process and archive massive amounts of data.

Every day an SDO satellite transmits 1.4 terabytes (TB) of raw data back to Earth for processing into high-definition images for study. SDO has developed and deployed a hybrid Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) system, which selectively archives key data for future retrieval and use. This hybrid HSM greatly reduces the sets of tapes needed to mount and restore a specific event, like a solar flare, recorded as part of this project’s research.

"For the first time, scientists are able to comprehensively view the dynamic nature of storms on the Sun. The immense amount of data collected during our research requires a powerful HPC solution capable of ingesting and analysing data quickly and with precision," said Phil Scherrer, principal investigator, Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, Stanford University. "SGI provides us with the computing and storage infrastructure to seamlessly accomplish our research and help us predict solar events."

To manage this daily data influx, SDO’s hybrid HSM utilises SGI high performance computing (HPC) server and storage products, including: SGI Altix XE 340 server cluster, SGI InfiniteStorage NAS 4550, SGI InfiniteStorage 10000 and Spectra Logic T950 tape library. Together, these products provide three petabytes of total online and near-line storage, and are able to consolidate, process and quickly access satellite data to enable accurate predictions of space weather from solar activity.

"SGI is pleased to provide Stanford University and SDO with the tools required to productively handle such massive amounts of data. The goal of this data flow design is to remove impediments to scientific insight and discovery," said Dr. Eng Lim Goh, senior vice president and CTO at SGI. "HPC involves much more than just computing power, especially for such a data intensive program. With Stanford’s selection of SGI, we add a renowned scientific organisation to our list of customers on the cutting edge of exploration."

SDO provides a daily torrent of new information and spectacular images of the Sun for interpretation, and the SDO mission will operate for at least five years, resulting in approximately 1PB of data stored per year. Scientists are able to measure, characterise and process data based on solar variations using SGI technology solutions and powerful NASA instrumentation. Stanford’s Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) measures the Sun’s surface to allow study of activity under the surface. In tandem, the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument obtains eight high-resolution images every 10 seconds and transmits the data back to Earth.