A data conversion sub-system for an ionospheric forecast system

The data conversion subsystem of this thesis project is part of an Ionospheric Forecast System (IFS). The forecast system employs a number of asynchronously linked space-physics models that use and produce data in a variety of formats (usually simple ASCII formats), which are expected to change relatively often.; This report describes a GUI web application that allows a model maintainer to generate a definition for a changed ASCII file format very easily. This definition is then used to generate Java classes dynamically, which convert ASCII files to data objects (Java classes) or visa versa. The IFS stores the serialized data objects in a database to bridge timing differences resulting from the asynchronous execution.; The chosen solution allows for a fast adaptation to changes in ASCII file format. The dynamic loading of the conversion Java classes avoids a system restart in the case of a changed file format.