EarthCubeTransforming the Geosciences

UCGIS Symposium - George Mason U: May 23, 2013

A Joint Venture of the NSF Directorate of Geosciences and Office of Cyberinfrastructure

Big Questions, Big Problems!!

geohazards

climate change

life as a geologic agent

formation & evolution of the atmosphere & oceansenvironmental

change & resilience

extreme events –

causes,

periodicity, & im

plications

future world

the origin of life

resource discovery &

abundance

human-earth interactions

continental evolution & changes thru time

deep – surface earthInteractions & feedbacks

YOU ARE HERE!

Community: Crazy, Complicated, Fascinating

Present Relative State of Cyber-Sophistication and Knowledge in the Geosciences

Atmospheric and Climate Science Communities

Seismology/Earthquake and Physical Oceanography Communities

Nearly all other Geoscience groups

Geospatial/Cyberinfrastructure CommunitiesAge of Enlightenment

Industrial Age

Modern Age

Bronze Age

I am here

the 15%

the 85%

The 85% spend about 80% of their time looking for, collecting, and getting the necessary data together in a format they can use and about 20% of their time actually thinking/doing science

Read It and Weep

The 15% spend an increasing amount of time having problems wrestling with unmanageably large data arrays and problems scaling from global to regional or local scales

Neither are well integrated with each other and both types of data and types of geoscience disciplines are required to solve the complex, inter-related, and pressing environmental problems we and the earth are facing

Two very different levels of investment HPC, big iron, federal archives, modeling centers, data repositories, dedicated personnel and facilities

Excel spreadsheets, hero code, dark data, cultural issues, no sustainability

Two very different relationships with data Array-based: No personal ownership, don’t care about any given data point, computationally intensive processing and modeling

Point-based: intense personal ownership, care deeply about each point, can interpret directly or simply

Two very different types of data sensor, bit-stream, real-time: GB/TB size (satellite, radar, seismic)

point-based, observations, images, multi informational, hard to describe

The Problem (the 15% vs the 85%)

Softw

are

Anal

ytics

Mod

elin

g

Com

mun

ities

Visu

aliza

tion

Inte

rope

rabi

lity

Sea of Data

CIF21

Grand Challenge

Multi-disciplinary & multi-scale integration

The Geosciences: Diverse Communities, Data Types, Cultures, and Levels of Cyber Sophistication

AcceleratingScientific Discovery

Our Biggest Present Problem

Dynamic Earth

Changing Climate

Earth & Life

Geosphere-Biospheric Connection

Water: Changing

Perspectives

• Transform the conduct of data-enabled geoscience-related research.

• Create effective community-driven cyberinfrastructure.

• Allow global data discovery and knowledge management.

• Achieve interoperability and data integration across disciplines.

What Is EarthCube?

Atmosphere Chemistry

Climate Dynamics

Paleo-climate

Meteor-ology

Aeronomy

Cyber Computer

Science

GeodeticsSpace

Physics

Solar Terrestial

Geo-chemistry

Tectonics Structure

EarthScience

Education

Polar Programs

NCAR

Geophysics

EarthScope

TectonicsStructure.

Geobiology

Biological Oceano-graphy

Geomorph-ology

HydrologySediment-

ology

Marine Geophysics

Physical Ocaeno-graphy

OceanDrilling

Chemical Oceano-graphy

Marine Geology

Ocean Education

HPC, super computing

Biology

Glaciology

Ecosystem

Geospatial

Data manage-

ment

Software Engineering

EarthCube CI

?

?

Who Is EarthCube? You Are!!!

An alternative approach to respond to daunting

science and CI challenges

EarthCube is an outcome

AND a process

EarthCube will require broad

community involvement; new ways of

doing

Path to the Vision

Unidata

IRISIEDA

NCAR

OOI

CUASHI

Important Features: • Builds off existing data/modeling systems/cyberinfrastructure investments • Provides tools/approaches that enhance data discovery, access, and integration • Addresses serious cyber needs in fields where individual data points and observations are important • Leverages investments across fields • Allows for more integrative and interdisciplinary science

Convergence Using Spiral Development

10 Years

Given: Technology improves and changes over time.

Result: EarthCube being designed in a step-wise, modular fashion to accommodate change and allow refreshing over time.

Timeline 2013 - 2014

Release of umbrellaSolicitation w/1st AmendmentNov 2012

May 2013

GEO End-User Workshops Phase 1

FY 2014-FY 2016 (cycle repeats)

Proto-Gov& EC-RCN Awards – 1st Amend

Deadline of 1st & release of 2nd Amendment

Feb 2013

Oct 2012-

Mar 2013

Jun 2013

Building Blocks & Concept Design

Architecture Awards – 2nd

Amend

Sept 2

013

Community Meeting

Release of 3rd Amendment

Nov 2013

End-User Workshops Phase 2

Feel Our Pain!

help me!

Seven Modes of FailureUnrealistic or misaligned expectations among people presently involved in EarthCube

“Build it and they will come” mindset – users don’t show up, data is not shared, etc.

Not valuing what presently exists – current cyber/geo science efforts and initiatives that represent parts of the EarthCube vision

Not advancing the frontier in transformative ways relative to what presently exists – only automating the current state

Not engaging the 120,000+ geoscience and cyber stakeholders not presently involved in EarthCube

Not anticipating the needs of the next generation of geoscience and cyber stakeholders (todays doctoral students and post docs, as well as the generation behind them)

“Unknown Unknowns” – additional unknown unknowns including transformational changes in the technology, catastrophic shifts in the policy arena, etc.

Barriers to ProgressLack of cyber-readiness for some; and lack of unawareness of tools and approaches that could speed discovery and analysis from those other than “the usual suspects”

Interoperability of disparate data types and formats; bringing dark data to light and allowing “power processing”

Need for automation and smart tools to create metadata and facilitate direct lab/lab notebook data delivery to data systems in the appropriate format for ingestion

Need for vastly improved handling of “big data” and ability to extract the needed information that may only be a tiny part of the whole dataset

Overcoming cultural and semantic barriers between cyber/computer scientists and geoscientists to allow acceleration of development and identification of user needs

Anticipating the needs of the next generation of geoscientists and questions/models focusing on more realistically simulating complex natural systems

“Unknown Unknowns” including extensibility into transformational changes in the technology, catastrophic shifts in the policy, etc.

Now:• Imagine a world with easy, unlimited access to scientific

data from any field.

• Imagine a world where anyone can easily plot data of interest and display it any way they want.

• Imagine a world with where people can easily model their results and explore any ideas they might have.

Blue-Skying the Future

What science could they do?

What discoveries could you help them make?