Scientific formats for object-relational database systems: A study of suitability and performance

Commercial database management systems (DBMSs) have historically seen very limited use within the scientific computing community. One reason for this absence is that previous database systems lacked support for the extensible data structures and performance features required within a high-performance computing context. However, database vendors have recently enhanced the functionality of their systems by adding object extensions to the relational engine. In principle, these extensions allow for the representation of a rich collection of scientific data types and common statistical operations. Utilizing these new extensions, this paper presents a study of the suitability of incorporating two popular scientific formats, NetCDF and HDF, into an object-relational system. To assess the performance of the database approach, a series of solution variables from a regional weather forecast model are used to build representative small, medium and large databases. Common statistical operations and array element queries are then performed using the object-relational database, and the execution timings are compared against native NetCDF and HDF operations.