Scientific Data Archives
At RAL, the Data Services Group run Data Archives to store scientific data for a range of projects and facilities:
- Particle Physics data coming from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN as part of the GRIDPP project
- Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)
- Data for large-scale facilities, such as the Central Laser Facility and the Diamond Light Source
Our Scientific Data Archive service, called Antares, uses CERN’s CTA software to manage the archiving of data to our two Spectra TFinity tape libraries. These tape libraries provide a cost-effective way to store the vast amounts of data generated through scientific research over many years. These are active archives as our scientists need to retrieve data to run their analysis.
Related Programmes, Projects or Facilities
IRIS - A Community creating Digital Research Infrastructure to support STFC Science
For more information about the IRIS programme, please visit the IRIS website here.
Large Hadron Collider Tier-One
For more information about the Large Hadron Collider and it’s Tier-One facilities, please visit the GridPP website here.
Impact
combined storage space
data currently stored
Breakdown of Data on Tape
Team talks and videos about Antares and the Tape Libraries:
Antares at RAL, May 2024
Read our team presentation on ‘Antares – An Overview’ here.
EOS 2023 Workshop at CERN
Read our team presentation on ‘Antares – The First Year in Production’ here.
First Installation of Spectra Tfinity at RAL, 2019
Watch the installation of first Spectra Tfinity at RAL here.
Meet the team
Alison Packer
Theme Lead, Systems Infrastructure
Atefeh Sharif, Mrs
Storage System Administrator, Scientific Data Archives
Chris Prosser
Archive Service Manager
George Patargias
Storage System Administrator, Scientific Data Archives
Mahalakshmi Agilandamurthy
Storage System Administrator, Scientific Data Archives
Tim Folkes
Storage System Administrator, Scientific Data Archives
