DEVELOPING A PROCEDURE FOR SOFTWARE TESTING USING SYNTHETIC DATA

Shanna-Shaye Forbes

Academic Affiliation, Fall 2004: Junior, University of Texas at Austin

SOARS® Summer 4004

Science Research Mentors: David Rogers, Christopher Webster, Mike Daniels Writing and Communication Mentor: Wendy Abshire Community Mentor: Susan Cross Peer Mentor: Melissa Burt

ABSTRACT The Nimbus data processor was developed for the National Center for Atmospheric Research‘s Research Aviation Facility to process the raw data collected during research flights and to compute derived variables dependent on these measured parameters. Over its years of use scientists accepted on faith that the derived variables produced by Nimbus were accurate, however, they lacked an automated tool to test consistency and accuracy. This project's aim was to create a synthetic data injector (SDI) to test the consistency and accuracy of Nimbus' derived variables. This project resulted in the development of a SDI that allows scientists to use synthetic data. They can observe how Nimbus handles raw data anomalies, and evaluate the sensitivity of derived variables. Synthetic data injection was accomplished when newly written code modified Nimbus's existing code which opens an existing raw data file, decodes the information and stores the decoded information in memory before processing it. The newly written code replaced data in memory with synthetic data before processing, and scientists were then able to view the modified data. Modifications were made to a raw variable, and the changes in the raw variable became evident in the derived variables. The synthetic data injector demonstrated the consistency of Nimbus' derived variables and allows scientist to modify aircraft data.

This work was done under the auspices of the Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS®) program of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, with funding from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA