eGY Planning Meeting Boulder, 14-15 February 2005

1
The eGY Opportunity
Daniel.Baker_at_lasp.colorado.edu eGY_Team members
2
Vision of the eGY

• Geoscience in this century is given a forward
  impetus as IGY did 50 years ago

Use the geosciences to educate and to alert the
public to the excitement of the world around us
3
20th Century approach

1. Search data centers, institutions,
   observatories, colleagues

1. Process data using mostly proprietary codes, run
   models

1. Get data via post, air-mail, e-mail, Web

1. finally, do some science

1. Ingest data into a local database

4
21st century science drivers

• Complex System (Earth) science
• New cross-disciplinary science opportunities
• Higher resolution space and time
• Rapid response
• Data assimilation into models
• Challenges distributed data, cross-disciplinary
  data, large and complex data sets, open data
  access and sharing, data discovery, data
  preservation, data rescue, .. interoperability

5
Current Forms of Sharing Geoscience Data

• Centralized distribution schemes World Data
  Centers (WDC)
• Require continuous support for the data
  acquisition, storage, and distribution
• Submission of data remains voluntary
• Collected data are often not suitable for
  submission e.g., the WDCs only accept absolute
  geomagnetic measurements

Push Data Concept
6
Sharing Distributed Geoscience Data

• Publishing and sharing data through World Wide
  Web
• Avoids additional steps in data preparation for
  submission to WDC
• Achieves greater visibility amongst scientific
  and user communities
• A GRID (Fabric) of many interconnected data
  nodes is a new vision of distributed,
  self-populating data repositories and centers
• World Data Centers become an integral part of the
  worldwide data fabric, serving as clearing
  houses for the permanent data preservation

Pull Data Concept
7
VRBO - Architecture Unleashed
Data system that meets engineering, operational,
and scientific needs for
User Interface and Displays
Nowcast/ Forecast Models
CISM End-to-End Models Assimilation of
Extreme-Event Data
Climatology Models

• Climatology model for designing satellites
• Nowcasts/forecasts that provide situational
  awareness for satellite operators.
• Long term archives of simulated and observed data
  for testing scientific theory

8
International Geophysical Year 1957 - 1958

• Allowed scientists to participate in global
  observations of geoscientific phenomena using
  common instruments and data processing
• Gathered data on geoscientific phenomena from
  around the world
• Established the World Data Center system

9
IGY 50Planning for New International Programs
International Polar Year 2007 2008 IPY is
sponsored by ICSU and WMO expands understanding
of the polar regions in the globally-linked
environment
International Year of Planet Earth IUGS is
leading, sponsored by the UN and UNESCO will
interpret Earth history as a basis for
forecasting likely future events
International Heliophysical Year 2007 IHY
sponsored by ICSU will foster international
cooperation in the study of heliophysical
phenomena now and in the future
Electronic Geophysical Year 2007 2008
Sponsored by IUGG, endorsed by ICSU will promote
a revolution in geoscientific data availability
and access worldwide CAWSES, ILWS, .
10
Embrace and extend IGY principles

• International cooperation and sharing
• Free, universal, open access to data
• Timely and convenient access to data
• Global, cross-disciplinary scope
• Data preservation
• Outreach
• Capacity building, especially in developing
  countries

11
Attractions of eGY

• Timely Virtual Observatory software is becoming
  available e-Science initiatives are spreading
• Interdisciplinary - data sharing and data
  accessibility are common issues in all areas of
  the geosciences
• Affordable low budget needs technology
  development is funded elsewhere
• Inclusive opportunities for developed and
  developing countries
• Appealing to young scientists - fast, convenient,
  comprehensive data access
• Complements IY initiatives - IPY, IYPE, IHY, and
  CAWSES
• Outreach capability - informs decision makers and
  public (promotes environmental literacy)
• Capacity Building - can be used to reduce the
  digital divide

12
Summary

• The eGY is an international initiative which
  envisions data sharing and major deployments of
  Virtual Geoscience Observatories in cyberspace
• eGY has four major themes
• data access
• data release
• data preservation
• science discovery
• Capacity building and outreach are primary
  elements of eGY