- One of the data centers NASA uses got damaged by a burst pipe
- Experts are still assessing the extent of the damage
- Stanford has described the outage as “severe”
A number of NASA’s projects, such as its Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission, are facing major disruptions after the data center they rely on recently got damaged by water, leading to a serious outage.
Stanford’s Joint Science Operations Center (JSOC) confirmed that a burst water pipe severely damaged the data center’s servers, and a resolution could be a long way away.
JSOC explained that a four-inch chilled-water pipe broke on November 26, affecting the machines that process and distribute data from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) and Atmospheric Imaging Array (AIA) instruments as well as the IRIS spacecraft.
NASA’s data center is offline
JSOC said that its team is still working to assess the extent of the damage, however it has confirmed that the damage is “severe,” adding that data processing for the HMI, AIA and IRIS projects will be down for an “extended length of time.”
Although data processing is set to be unavailable for an uncertain amount of time, JSOC assured us that the data capture systems are still in place and functional, therefore new data will still be collected as usual. Instruments onboard the SDO and IRIS will continue to collect observation data, which is set to be stored at the DDS in New Mexico temporarily, until repairs are complete.
The SDO previously stated that it generates around 42 terabytes of solar observation data monthly, highlighting the scale of the challenge posed by the water-induced outage.
Although data up until November 26 remains accessible on the SDO website, solar scientists and space weather forecasters will need to turn to alternative data sources until the data center is back online.
JSOC stated: “We deeply regret any inconvenience and appreciate your patience as our team prioritizes the repair and recovery of the affected systems.”
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