GEO OSE Track 2: Enhancing usability of the Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM) to accelerate innovative sea-level research

University Of Alaska Fairbanks Campus, Fairbanks AK

Investigators

Abstract

The Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM) allows researchers to answer questions about the past, present, and future of the Earth's glaciers and ice sheets. PISM has been developed in the open, with its code freely accessible to the public. Despite this, PISM is not as easy to use for all users. In addition, cutting edge research also requires access to and knowledge of supercomputers, which can either create a financial burden on researchers or result in time constraints, or both. The goal of this project is to accelerate innovative sea-level research by making PISM easier to install and use, thus giving researchers more time to focus on science. This project will benefit the growing community of PISM users as well as the broader sea-level research community. The proposed packaging of PISM and the easy-to-use cloud version of PISM are expected to attract new researchers to the field and reduce the time to science for existing users, resulting in more time available to develop novel creative and innovative sea-level science that is reproducible. The above goal of making PISM easier to use, and therefore facilitating glaciology and sea level rise research, will be achieved by: 1. packaging and distributing PISM releases through community preferred channels (e.g. Spack, Conda, Debian), 2. developing a cloud-native simulation platform for PISM, PISM-Cloud that can be set up within a few minutes and with a few mouse clicks and accessed through a Jupyter notebook interface, 3. generating a working example “PISM-Cloud7” built upon PISM-Cloud with which users will be able to participate in the next community effort to estimate future ice loss from Greenland ("Ice Sheet Modeling Intercomparison for CMIP7", ISMIP7 for short) 4. hosting a training workshop, and 5. providing select free access to cloud-computing resources to groups participating in ISMIP7. Project researchers will use PISM-Cloud7 to participate in the 7th Ice Sheet Modeling Intercomparison Project (ISMIP7). In addition, a training workshop will help new researchers getting started with PISM-Cloud7 and to contribute to the ISMIP7 community effort. PISM-Cloud will also make it easier for educators to include hands-on experience in ice sheet modeling and sea-level research in their curricula based on PISM-Cloud7 workshop materials and documentation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.