  The Dark Energy Survey (DES; operations 2009-2015) will address the nature of
dark energy using four independent and complementary techniques: (1) a galaxy
cluster survey over 4000 deg2 in collaboration with the South Pole Telescope
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect mapping experiment, (2) a cosmic shear measurement
over 5000 deg2, (3) a galaxy angular clustering measurement within redshift
shells to redshift=1.35, and (4) distance measurements to 1900 supernovae Ia.
The DES will produce 200 TB of raw data in four bands, These data will be
processed into science ready images and catalogs and co-added into deeper,
higher quality images and catalogs. In total, the DES dataset will exceed 1 PB,
including a 100 TB catalog database that will serve as a key science analysis
tool for the astronomy/cosmology community. The data rate, volume, and duration
of the survey require a new type of data management (DM) system that (1) offers
a high degree of automation and robustness and (2) leverages the existing high
performance computing infrastructure to meet the project's DM targets. The DES
DM system consists of (1) a grid-enabled, flexible and scalable middleware
developed at NCSA for the broader scientific community, (2) astronomy modules
that build upon community software, and (3) a DES archive to support automated
processing and to serve DES catalogs and images to the collaboration and the
public. In the recent DES Data Challenge 1 we deployed and tested the first
version of the DES DM system, successfully reducing 700 GB of raw simulated
images into 5 TB of reduced data products and cataloguing 50 million objects
with calibrated astrometry and photometry.
