SIRTA

Atmospheric Observatory

DATA AT SIRTA

One of the missions of the SIRTA Atmospheric observatory is to collect measurements of parameters useful for research and teaching in atmospheric sciences.

SIRTA has a wide variety of instruments representing more than one hundred sensors, installed in 4 measurement areas, on the plateau de Saclay (Ecole polytechnique and CEA campus). Each instrument is a source of data which for the oldest has fed the SIRTA database since 2002. These observations, carried out continuously 24/7, are supported by a set of computer tools that use the network infrastructure of Ecole Polytechnique and CEA and the computing and storage infrastructure of the IPSL mesocenter.

The archive of several terabytes built up over time since 2002, includes several million raw data files directly from the instrument acquisition systems. These files are processed daily in order to standardize the documentation and format of the data and thus facilitate their exploitation, to generate new geophysical products useful for research or to create real-time graphs, necessary to monitor the proper functioning of the instrumentation. Unique and irreplaceable data are secured thanks to daily backups on different media and sites of the observatory.

SIRTA is also one of the 7 instrumented sites listed in the ACTRIS-FR Research Infrastructure. It contributes to the national and international research effort by feeding the ACTRIS-FR database as well as international thematic databases: 

It relies on the national pole of data and services for the atmosphere AERIS which hosts the ACTRIS-FR database and redistributes some data to ACTRIS-EU.

Access to the observatory database

The SIRTA observation data are divided between two databases with different access rights:

  1. The private database which contains the raw data directly from the observation instruments and whose access is reserved to the instrumental managers
  2. The freely accessible public database which contains reformatted data and geophysical products derived from the raw data.
AccessPrivate databasePublic database
SIRTA User ID : assigned upon request on the application form
password : required		User ID : sirta_access

Password : none
SIRTANot accessibleSIRTA page
IPSL MesocentreRequest an account and specific rights on the mesocentre application form Structure: /bdd/SIRTA/priv/basesirta/…Have an account on the mesocenter (contact mesocenter)
Structure: /bdd/SIRTA/pub/basesirta/…

The Observatory website also offers a set of data-related tools:

Daily quicklooks

Graphical representations of a large part of the observed parameters. These graphs are updated in real time for the current day, which allows one to have an detailed overview of the atmospheric situation on the observatory and to check the functioning of the instruments.

Quicklooks Browser

Gives access to a tool for exploring graphical representations according to criteria related to the instruments or the observed parameters.

Download Tools

Tool for selecting and downloading public data or their graphical representations from the database of the observatory.

Data request

An application form to request datas from the private database

Software

Give access to the Sirta softwares

Data Policy

Charter for the use of downloaded data

Access to SIRTA data in the AERIS data centre

The SIRTA database at AERIS offers a large majority of the observation data present in the observatory database, often delivered in NetCDF format and documented according to the CF convention. It also offers a range of geophysical products derived from the observation parameters of the ACTRIS-FR processing systems implemented at AERIS.

AccessPrivate databasePublic database
AERISNot availableCatalog
Contact the centre in charge of the data to get them.

The use of data is subject to a few rules of good practice which are described in a data usage policy.

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