Interoperable data management and instrument control experiences at OBSEA

In this article we describe our experiences with interoperable data management and instrument control standards in the Western Mediterranean Cabled Observatory, OBSEA (www.obsea.es) (Figure 1). The SARTI research group of the Technical University of Catalonia in Vilanova i la Geltrú is in charge of OBSEA observatory development. SARTI collaborated with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) to explore interoperability issues within the ESONET project. One of the strong demands of ESONET is that a real-time data web interface from online observatories is needed. In order to do so, online data are urgently needed, and some proposed standards must be applied to ensure interoperability between instruments and data of multiple European observatories.