The mission of the DIII-D Research Program is to establish the scientific basis for the optimization of the tokamak approach to fusion energy production. The DIII-D Program is a cornerstone element in the national fusion program strategy.

Overview:
Individuals who desire to become collaborators with full access to DIII-D’s data repositories must first agree to the “Data usage & publication agreement” (see https://diii-d.gat.com/ssl_form/cyberaccess//DIII-D_Data_Usage_Policy.pdf) and the cyber policies (see https://diii-d.gat.com/ssl_form/cyberaccess/). It is a policy that all calibrated and derived data generated at DIII-D is made available to all users who have a signed DIII-D Data usage agreement on file. Individuals who desire access to digital format data shown in individual figures of journal articles after March 2014 can search the external publications web site (see https://fusion.gat.com/pubs/).

I. Introduction

The DIII-D Program is a large international program, with more than 90 participating institutions and a research team of more than 500 users. GA operates DIII-D for the Department of Energy through the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences as a user facility.

As part of DIII-D's research mission, approximately 300TB (as of 1/2016) of data has been acquired and/or generated since its inception. Management and access to these data are described below.

II. Types of Data

Typically, data is obtained during plasma operations of the tokamak. These data originate from a suite of diagnostics (scientific instruments) and analysis codes. Three main types of data are stored: raw, calibrated and derived.

Raw

These data represent the first acquired elements during plasma discharges. Typically, they consist of measured voltages, current, amplitudes, and images acquired by digitizers, cameras and similar data acquisition units.

Calibrated

Raw data is normally analyzed through stand-alone diagnostic-specific software to yield physical characteristics or parameters of the plasma or associated system, usually referred to as calibrated data. Examples of such data would be magnetic geometry (shape and strength), current profile, density and temperature profiles, power injected, etc). These calibrated data are validated by individual Responsible Officers (ROs) for each system.

Derived

Many of the characteristics/parameters of the plasma are not directly measured and therefore are derived from state-of-the-art codes. Calibrated data are used as inputs to these codes. Derived data, along with calibrated data are used in research, shown in scientific conferences/presentations and published in journals.

III. Storage

All of DIII-D data is centrally archived at the facility under 3 main platforms. They are PTDATA, MDSplus and video camera data.

PTDATA Data acquisition and storage system used at DIII-D, mostly for raw data. It controls the shot cycle and initiates the analysis cycle (e.g. MDSplus).

MDSplus Set of software tools for data acquisition and storage and a methodology for management of complex scientific data.

Video cameras Multiple diagnostics are based on video imaging and data is stored in standard video formats.

All of these data are accessed from centrally located servers through the network. All data are backed up with onsite and offsite copies.

IV. Access

Data are generally accessible from a variety of computer platforms. Prior to granting access to the servers and network, potential users must agree to the “Data usage & publication agreement” (see https://diii-d.gat.com/ssl_form/cyberaccess//DIII-D_Data_Usage_Policy.pdf) and the cyber policies (see https://diii-d.gat.com/ssl_form/cyberaccess/). It is a policy that all calibrated and derived data generated at DIII-D is made available to all users who have a signed DIII-D Data usage agreement on file. Any DIII-D data management plan questions should be directed to David Schissel .

For journal articles published after March 2014, data shown in individual figures can be found in digital
format in the external publications web site (see https://fusion.gat.com/pubs/). Files are linked to the original manuscript and the database can be searched
by first author or title. These files are accessible without a password.

V. Tools and Resources

A variety of basic data extraction software tools are available to users and are written in common programming languages (FORTRAN, IDL, Python and others). Visualization tools are also available for more complex data sets. High-level analysis software tools are generally the responsibility of the users, although general support (licenses, compilers, libraries, job submission tools) is available. A set of computational nodes is available for most common analysis jobs. Users who plan to use significant computational resources (storage, access, computational power, etc) must contact DIII-D management prior to submitting proposals to any funding agency.

Additional information can be found below (some links are behind passwords)


General support:

https://diii-d.gat.com/diii-d/Home
Requirements for Access to Fusion Cyber Resources
https://diii-d.gat.com/diii-d/Data
https://diii-d.gat.com/diii-d/Computing

List of parameters:
MDSplus:

https://diii-d.gat.com/diii-d/ParamList
http://mdsplus.org/