A management concept for ocean observatories based on Web services

The proliferation of ocean observatories without internationally agreed-upon standards for instrument/user interfaces and observatory control functions is inhibiting interoperability and utilization of disparate datasets. This is in turn limiting the scientific impact of ocean observatories and increasing their operating costs. Hardware-based standards are not feasible given the different internal architectures of existing and planned ocean observatories. This paper proposes that instrument, data, and observatory control processes be wrapped with Web services which will provide a global software standard for these observatory functions. In addition to facilitating interoperability, state-full Web services with workflow bindings for observatory instrument and data services will enable dynamic user control of the observatory configuration and the creation of multiple virtual instrument networks within one or more ocean observatories. These concepts are defined and illustrated through a number of use scenarios