Reading e-Science Centre
Technical DirectorJon BlowerESSC
DirectorRachel HarrisonCS
DirectorKeith HainesESSC
Associated Personnel
ExternalCollaborations
e-Science for a digitised environmentEnvironmental Science ApplicationsAnalysis, modelling and assimilation of climate and real-time data
Reading University’sEnvironmental SystemsScience Centre ESSC
Meteorology Dept.Centre Global Atm. ModellingData Assimilation Res. CentreMet Office UnitsPlant Sciences Dept.
Existing projects
• GODIVA (NERC pilot project)– Grid for oceanographers to enable distributed analysis
and visualisation of ocean data
GODIVA Web Portal (http://www.nerc-essc.ac.uk/godiva)
• Allows users to interactively select data for download using a GUI
• Users can create movies on the fly
• cf. Live Access Server
• Useful as browse tool
Existing projects
• GODIVA (NERC pilot project)– Grid for oceanographers to enable distributed analysis and
visualisation of ocean data
• GADS (Grid Access Data Service)– Web Service for providing access to data (~1 TB at ESSC alone)
– Will be part of workflows (e.g. for use in GODIVA)• Workflows are groups of Web Services which work together to form
a distributed application
Example workflow
• First Web Service (GADS) extracts data from a server
• Second Web Service finds the depth of an isotherm in the dataset
(from myGrid project)
INPUTS
OUTPUT
Existing projects
• GODIVA (NERC pilot project)– Grid for oceanographers to enable distributed analysis and
visualisation of ocean data
• GADS (Grid Access Data Service)– Web Service for providing access to data
– Will be part of workflows (for use in GODIVA)
• Provision of live Met Office data to community– Thousands of users, hundreds of institutions, tens of countries
– Esp. for MERSEA (EU model intercomparison project)
– Also in future to BMT for oil spill / search and rescue systems
Real-time data access
• Met Office FOAM data
• Can easily create subsets of data
Intercomparison of model data
Compare results of different ocean models
e.g. EU MERSEA project
Existing projects (contd.)
• TRACK software for identifying weather systems– Computationally intensive but parallel, best run on a
distributed system
– Would like to do this on many different data sets (e.g. ECMWF)
Future projects
• Create more Web Services for benefit of community– Collate Web Services written by other people (create UDDI registry)
• Use satellite / in situ data in addition to model data
• SEEDA– Provision of Met Office data to BMT
SEEDA project
• Create prototype of system in which real-time Met Office data are used to predict path of oil spills
This is the OSIS software, which currently uses tidal data only: would be improved with real-time Met Office forecasts of ocean currents
Future projects
• Create more Web Services for benefit of community– Collate Web Services written by other people
• Use satellite / in situ data in addition to model data• SEEDA
– Provision of Met Office data to BMT
• EurOPA– European portal for real-time data for marine hazard analysis (EU)
• POPPIE– Environment Agency / Met Office pollution tracking software– Re-engineer software to improve architecture: use Web Services
• Bristol University: simulations of fragmentation in volcanic rocks– Monte Carlo simulations of “virtual” rocks
Technical expertise
• Strong focus on Web Services– Data access– Data analysis/processing– Data visualisation
• Creating distributed applications using workflow engines to orchestrate Web Services– Also web portals (cf. Live Access Server) – ESP community
• Future migration to Grid Services: would like help with OGSA!
• Question: How to transfer large data sets between Web Services?
• Use of Condor pool at ESSC
Summary
• ReSC is engaging with environmental scientists in many disciplines and sectors– Focus on atmosphere/ocean science
– Working with universities, govt agencies and commercial sector
– Would like to draw on experience of other e-scientists
• ReSC complements, but is distinct from, NIEeS