This EAGER award focuses on exploring the feasibility of the implementation of a new paradigm in the development of an integrative and interoperable data and knowledge management system for the geosciences for a new NSF initiative called EarthCube. Led by a team of expert Earth system modelers, this project focuses on developing new approaches for integrating and coupling model components so that holistic geoscience scenarios that involve the interaction of large scale climate and atmospheric circulation models and smaller, more heterogeneous component models of surface earth processes can be explored and more effectively used by a broader range of users. The project engages participants from a number of major NSF-funded geoscience modeling investments (CSDMS, NCAR, CUHAUSI). A main goal of the of the work is to bridge the gaps between present modeling frameworks, data standards, and computational architectures. The approach includes collection of all relevant approaches and then comparing their pros and cons and linking existing different "plug and play" modeling components together and assessing the accuracy and robustness of model results. Major project goals are to see if more standard modeling protocols can be developed and to develop a general roadmap for improving the interoperability and meshing of model components that address phenomena at wildly different spatial and temporal scales. Broader impacts of the work include building new modeling infrastructure for science and leveraging prior NSF investments in cyberinfrastructure. It also improves the utility of, ease of use, and broader access of scientists and other potential users to more fully integrated and powerful earth systems models.
The outcome of our EAGER grant was an important step forward towards creating a community-based, computational infrastructure for water management applications. The team combined models and modules developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and at the Univeristy of California, Irvine, using software developed through the NSF-supported CSDMS project at the University of Colorado. We demonstrated that models could be effectively coupled, that mass and other conservative quantities were conserved. We also showed that such models could reach out to digital databases during simulations, to find updated input for model simulations. Although only a short, EAGER grant, we have developed (and submitted) a new proposal for future EarthCube funding. Important lessons were learned in the course of this collaboration. First, we recognize the need to fully couple models across the range of hydrological processess, both natural and man-made. Second, we now recognize the need for rich, digital databases that describe Earth's water environment, including the surface bathymetry of rivers and lakes, soil depth (depth to bedrock), and continental-scale hydrogeology. These database development activites may also be pursued in a future EartCube proposal. Finally, we recognized the need for an end-to-end workflow system that could serve as a front end to our modeling framework. All of the above will be pursued under future funding opportunities.
