Geoinformatics: GEON 2.0: A Data Integration Facility for the Earth Sciences

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides support to develop GEON 2.0 as a data integration facility for the Earth Sciences. The main scientific driver and intellectual merit of GEON 2.0 is facilitating integrated, multidimensional studies of the continents, starting at the surface with geologic and remote sensing data, and proceeding downward through the crust into the upper mantle, and extending back in time for 100?s of millions of years. Many major geoscientific efforts such as EarthScope, Continental Dynamics, IRIS, and GeoSwath have emphasized the need for well-resolved, 3Dmodels of the lithosphere and upper mantle to advance our understanding of the structure and evolution of the continents. Further, the community recognizes the critical need to add time into these models to make our analysis, modeling, and interpretation 4-D in nature. Understanding rates and histories is essential for developing models of lithospheric processes. Beyond gaining basic scientific knowledge about how our planet works, there are obvious motivations for studying the continents, including improved knowledge of natural hazards, natural resources, and environmental concerns. GEON 2.0 will consolidate and leverage the substantial gains and investments made by the Geosciences Network (GEON, www.geongrid.org) Information Technology Research (ITR) project in developing cyberinfrastructure for the Earth Sciences. GEON was funded in 2002 as a collaboration involving 16 institutions in response to ??the pressing need in the geosciences to interlink and share multidisciplinary data sets to understand the complex dynamics of Earth systems.? The project has developed significant online resources accessible via the GEON Portal (portal.geongrid.org). Building upon this foundation, GEON 2.0 will develop the Open Earth Framework (OEF) for multidimensional integration of Earth Science data. The OEF will be based on open standards and will encompass a set of services for dataset access, data modeling, and data interaction and visualization. The PIs will introduce a set of volume services to deal with the modeling and manipulation of multidimensional Earth Science data. The development of the OEF will be community-driven, responding to the needs and requirements of the community, and obtaining feedback and input from the community. Addressing the cyberinfrastructure needs for such an integrative information technology platform is a challenging undertaking and certainly beyond the capability of any one group. A facility such as GEON 2.0 is needed in order to bring together multidisciplinary teams and to make substantial progress. GEON 2.0 will develop its services and capabilities in collaboration with other Geoinformatics projects and PI efforts. Broader impacts: GEON 2.0 will have broad impact by providing cyberinfrastructure and geoinformatics services in support of the goal of multidimensional data integration. Core services will help the community access the Facility to register data and tools and use the system, and develop interoperability with the OEF. Limited-term Project-based activities will fund collaborations with specific groups with the goal of enhancing functionality or introducing new functionality into the system. Examples of such projects are : (i) serving airborne LiDAR and other remote sensing data sets, including ASTER, WinSAR, and LANDSAT imagery, (ii) serving high resolution topography data from ground-based laser scans obtained as part of the INTERFACE project, and (iii) development of the GEON Integrated Data Visualization (IDV) software to interoperate with the OpenEarth Framework. GEON will continue its significant outreach and education efforts via the Cyberinfrastructure Summer Institute for Geoscientists (CSIG), workshops and exhibitor booths at the national meetings of the AGU, GSA and the Society for the Advancement of Chicano and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), and project technical workshops, which will involve community members. The PIs have developed active and on-going collaborations with India, Japan, and New Zealand. They have made initial contact with potential collaborators in China and will develop this activity further.