Publications

For the CTBT Knowledge Base to be useful as a tool for improving U.S. monitoring capabilities, the contents of the Knowledge Base must be subjected to a well-defined set of procedures to ensure integrity and relevance of the con- stituent datasets. This paper proposes a possible set of procedures for datasets that are delivered to Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) for inclusion in the Knowledge Base. The proposed procedures include defining preliminary acceptance criteria, performing verification and validation activities, and subjecting the datasets to approvrd by domain experts. Preliminary acceptance criteria include receipt of the data, its metadata, and a proposal for its usability for U.S. National Data Center operations. Verification activi- ties establish the correctness and completeness of the data, while validation activities establish the relevance of the data to its proposed use. Results from these activities are presented to domain experts, such as analysts and peers for final approval of the datasets for release to the Knowledge Base. Formats and functionality will vary across datasets, so the procedures proposed herein define an overall plan for establishing integrity and relevance of the dataset. Specific procedures for verification, validation, and approval will be defined for each dataset, or for each type of dataset, as appropriate. Potential dataset sources including Los Alamos National Laboratories and Lawrence Livermore National Laborato- ries have contributed significantly to the development of thk process.

As part of the United States Department of Energy`s (DOE) Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) research and development effort, a Knowledge Base is being developed. This Knowledge Base will store the regional geophysical research results as well as geographic contexual information and make this information available to the Automated Data Processing (ADP routines) as well as human analysts involved in CTBT monitoring. This paper focuses on the initial development of a browser prototype to be used to interactively examine the contents of the CTBT Knowledge Base. The browser prototype is intended to be a research tool to experiment with different ways to display and integrate the datasets. An initial prototype version has been developed using Environmental Systems Research Incorporated`s (ESRI) ARC/INFO Geographic Information System (GIS) product. The conceptual requirements, design, initial implementation, current status, and future work plans are discussed. 4 refs., 2 figs.

This document examines a number of different software technologies in the rapidly changing field of database management systems, evaluates these systems in light of the expected needs of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) Knowledge Base, and makes some recommendations for the initial prototypes of the Knowledge Base. The Knowledge Base requirements are examined and then used as criteria for evaluation of the database management options. A mock-up of the data expected in the Knowledge Base is used as a basis for examining how four different database technologies deal with the problems of storing and retrieving the data. Based on these requirement and the results of the evaluation, the recommendation is that the Illustra database be considered for the initial prototype of the Knowledge Base. Illustra offers a unique blend of performance, flexibility, and features that will aid in the implementation of the prototype. At the same time, Illustra provides a high level of compatibility with the hardware and software environments present at the US NDC (National Data Center) and the PIDC (Prototype International Data Center).