Providing analysis-ready campaign data via the InterPlanetary File System

During field campaigns, timely data sharing across distributed teams is essential, yet access to central repositories is often constrained by limited bandwidth. As a result, preliminary datasets are frequently exchanged offline, which commonly leads to confusion about dataset versions once post-campaign releases occur.

We present a proof-of-concept to campaign data dissemination based on content-addressable storage. During the ORCESTRA campaign, observations were converted into analysis-ready Zarr stores and published via the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). By accessing data through immutable content identifiers (CIDs), teams can use datasets offline in the field while ensuring that the exact same, verifiable data objects remain accessible after the campaign.

To improve discoverability and usability, we developed the ORCESTRA Data Browser, which dynamically generates dataset landing pages by fetching metadata client-side directly from IPFS. Together, these components demonstrate how decentralized, content-addressed data access can support version clarity, reproducibility, and robust data sharing for field campaigns and beyond.