Earth System Curator

Spanning the Gap Between Models and Datasets

                                                                                                             

Goal

The goal of the Earth System Curator project is provide a transparent interface to climate simulations and their dataTo do this, there must be a common description, expressed as metadataThe starting point are several existing efforts: ESMF, ESG and the GFDL Curator database

Current Efforts

Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF) NSF, NCAR, DoD, NASA, NOAA, DoE,

MIT, UCLA, University of Michigan

Earth System Grid (ESG) DoE SciDAC sponsored Labs: ANL, LBNL, LLNL, NCAR, ORNL

GFDL Curator database

Earth System Modeling Framework

Common modeling infrastructure for climate and weather modelsTools for turning models into components with standard interfacesAbility to couple climate model componentsCommon data structures and utilities: Data communications Regridding Time management Message logging

ESMF Goals

Increase scientific productivity by making model components easier to build, combine, and exchangeAllow modelers to take advantage of high-end computers (Grid computing)Promote new scientific opportunities and services through community building and increased interoperability of codes

ESMF Example Application

GEOS-5

surface fvcore gravi ty_wave_drag

history agcm

dynamics physics

chemistry moist_processes radiation turbulence

infrared solar lake land_ice data_ocean land

vegetation catchment

coupler

coupler coupler

coupler

coupler

coupler

coupler

ExampleEach box is an ESMF componentComponents have standard interfaces so that they can easily interoperateData into and out of components are packaged as state types with user-definable fieldsNew components can be easily added to the hierarchical systemSpecial couplers component support regridding and data sharing

ESMF Data Logical Model

Earth System Grid

Make output of high-resolution, long-duration climate simulations available to global-change impacts researchersEnable analysis and knowledge development from earth system modelsIncrease productivity by linking users with needed data

ESG Technologies

Grid computingPortal technologiesOPeNDAP – remote data accessGlobus Toolkit – authentication, resource discovery and access

Placeholder for ESG Logical Model

GFDL Curator

What is the Earth System Curator?

Future climate projections performed at many sitesKey goal of research is to reduce uncertainty of these projections by understanding differences in output from different modelsThis comparative study of climate simulations has spawned efforts to build uniform access to both output datasets and climate models

What is the Earth System Curator?

ESC begins with a crucial insight: the descriptors used for comprehensively specifying a model configuration are also needed for a scientifically useful description of the model output data

This leads to the convergence of models and dataThere is a need for a common metadata formalism to unify the treatment of models and data

Research Approach

Study metadata structures of Earth System Modeling Framework (models) and Earth System Grid (data)Create a common ontology that aligns the two metadata models, while also allowing for eventual inclusion of other metadata sourcesThe resulting metadata description will be the foundation of the Earth System Curator database

ESMF Ontology

GFDL Curator Ontolgy

Issues Raised and Outstanding

Vision (Prototype)

Balaji's scenarios

Curator Functions

Allow researchers to archive and query Earth system models, experiments, model components, and model output dataRun models locally or on computational GridAuto-generate component wrappers for model integration

Broader Impacts

Facilitate Model Intercomparison Projects (MIPs) by allowing fast setup and execution of experiments using different model componentsEncourage Curator-like activity in other domainsImprove climate prediction for policy makersPromote the use of Curator as a normative ontology

ESC Collaborators

NSF FundedNational Center for Atmospheric ResearchNOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics LaboratoryMITGeorgia Tech