The MCS is the central storage place for your raw data with an automatic back-up of the data. After each leg data are taken home on tape were they will be made available to the MOSAiC consortium via web access.

The MCS is divided into two areas, the 'platforms' area and the 'workspace' area. Both areas are automatically connected to the virtuals machines (VM). Your own computers can be connected by mounting the areas as shares or using an ftp-client. For detailed information have a look at !Connect to MCS on board. 

Platforms area

• The MCS directory structure is closely connected to the SENSOR web and the DShip ActionLog. Directory structure follows the URN assigned to the devices in SENSOR.
  
• ONLY devices entered in SENSOR which are set to 'public'  and have the contact 'polarstern dship' with role 'dship connector' assigned will be imported into the MCS directory structure
• ONLY users entered as 'Editors' or 'Data Providers' of the specific device in SENSOR have the right to upload and modify data in their respective device directories. Please contact the data representative of your group or the data supporter if you have questions regarding the writing access to the MCS.
• The platforms area is READABLE by ALL participants.
  

If there are subdevices attached to your device they will appear under the folder of your parent device. Every device and subdevice will have a folder called 'exdata' were you are supposed to copy your raw data to. It is up to you and your data structure to decide whether raw data will all be stored under the parent device or individually under the folders of the subdevices.

The example here shows the MCS directory structure for the CTD with the shortname 'ctd_sbe9plus_485'. It is found under the platform folder 'vessel' and 'polarstern' (not shown in the example).

For every device operation you are logging in DShip (see DShip stepwise manual under DShip ActionLog manual) a folder with the device operation ID will be attached to the 'exdata' folder of your device / subdevice. Raw data obtained during the specific device operation must be uploaded (automatically or manually by Data PI) to the respective subdirectory.

Workspace area

All participants have READ access to the workspace area. There is a back-up of the workspace area too and it will be taken home and made available after each leg. This is the place to store documents, joined presentation etc. which you want to keep. The public folders under \\fs-polarstern.de\poldata$\public which you may also get access to via connect to Polarstern public servers ARE NOT back-up and will be deleted after each cruise.

• The workspace area has a tasks directory in which scientists on board can share data and cooperate inter-disciplinarily. Project leaders have the rights to create task directories and invite participants to upload and modify data. 
• Quicklooks: Data in folders named "Quicklooks" can be displayed in a web browser if annotated accordingly. See !Quicklooks for details.
• Further there is a Team-Folder in which all scientific teams have a directory in which they can work on data together.