WHOI Argo Database Development Blog: Solo II

In an effort to facilitate uploading of mission parameters to Solo II floats via Iridium satellite communication, an interactive web module will be integrated into the existing WHOI Argo Database. The primary goal of this module is to offer secure, remote web access to a graphical user interface (GUI) layer for the existing command-line oriented Iridium message uploading process. In addition, reported mission parameters will be browsable from from the web application.

Mission Parameter Data Flow

Iridium messages are processed upon receipt to produce readable flat text files. Theses files are parsed by a Java application to generate several Java objects corresponding to Solo II mission parameters. The Java object are mapped and saved to relational database tables.

Figure 1: Solo II - Mission Parameter Data Flow

An Apache Tomcat server is used as a Java Servlet container. Each Java Servlet is mapped to a particular URL path and is responsible for handling all HTTP POST and GET requests to that path. Upon receipt of a HTTP request, a Java Servlet will perform some work (e.g. processing request parameters, perform database queries), and generate an HTML document in response.

Features & Functionality

The Solo II Mission parameters pages are intended to have the following features/functionality:

Uploading Solo II mission parameters via Iridium satellite communication system
Automated mission parameter validation and error checking
Maintaining a record of all changes to Solo II mission parameters
Determining next surfacing of floats from the time of the last report & reported mission parameters (drift parameters & ascent/descent timing parameters)
Automated Iridium message queuing based on next anticipated surfacing (to avoid 5-day timeout)
User privilege levels: allow some users to browse data only, allow others to modify/upload
Ability to save mission parameters so that they may be easily sent to multiple floats