EarthCube Domain End-User Workshop: Engaging the Critical Zone community to bridge long tail science with big data

Stroud Water Research Center, Avondale PA

Investigators

Abstract

Critical Zone (CZ) scientists take as their charge the effort to integrate theory, models and data from the multitude of disciplines studying processes on the Earth's surface - from the atmosphere at the vegetation's canopy to the lower boundary of actively cycling ground waters. As such, critical zone scientists and their data managers are at the front line of efforts to effectively compile and use the "dark data in the Long Tail" of earth science and integrate that data with the "Big Data" produced by hydrologists, atmospheric scientists, geospatial modelers and molecular biologists. The NSF EarthCube initiative recently solicited proposals for domain workshops "designed to listen to the needs of the end-user groups that make up the geosciences and to understand better how data-enabled science can help them achieve their scientific goals." The proponents will convene a workshop to bring together critical zone domain scientists with computer scientists active in EarthCube. This workshop would thus serve two objectives: (1) engage approximately 45 cyber-literate critical zone scientists in the EarthCube process; and (2) inform about 20 of EarthCube's cyberscientists of the diversity needs of CZ science. The overall goal of the workshop would be to develop a set of unifying requirements for the integration of "long tail" data and "big data" and to develop an interactive community of domain and cyber scientists to pursue solutions. There are many examples of how cyber-infrastructure developed for geoscientists have broader impacts to the public. The national weather service data and model forecasts are highlighted on television and other media outlets. Fishermen, rafters and canoeists rely on USGS gauging data for their recreational activities. The Model My Watershed platform is harnessing GIS and hydrological modeling for educational purposes in classrooms and informal settings and also by citizen scientists.