DemoGRAPE (Demonstrator for GRAPE)DemoGRAPE is a 2 years project started on last May.

It is funded by the Italian Ministry for University and Research in the frame of the Italian National Program for Antarctic Research.

Main Objective The project will realize a demonstrator, DemoGRAPE, to provide on selected case studies an empirical assessment of the delay and of the corruption induced by the ionosphere on satellite signals in the Antarctic regions. The scope is to develop a prototype of a service addressed to the scientific and technological communities that relies on GNSS for their investigations and applications. DemoGRAPE will experiment the use of Cloud computing to create an innovative technological tool.The initiative was born into GRAPE (GNSS Research and Application for Polar Environment), SCAR Expert Group.

ParticipantsINGV (Coordinator, Italy), Politecnico di Torino (Italy), ISMB (Italy)INPE-CRAAM (Brazil), SANSA (South Africa)

Scientific Rationale

Solar Wind-Magnetosphere coupling causes turbulences of the ionosphere

Gradients of the electron density

Large range of spatial and temporal scales

• to highlight the importance of data-driven scenarios to describe realistically the ionospheric conditions at high latitudes;

• to develop procedures for data validation and standardization;

• to develop and implement ad hoc processors on the base of the algorithms made available by different teams;

• to demonstrate the accessibility of the observations acquired at various polar sites by different teams;

• to demonstrate the accessibility of the outputs of processors owned by different teams;

• to propose the cloud computing as the best way to handle heterogeneous data and processors types;

• to propose the cloud configuration as the best method to make accessible data and algorithms keeping the intellectual property of the owners;

Specific objectives

UR1 Leader: Lucilla Alfonsi (INGV)UR2 Leader: Fabio Dovis (POLITO)UR3 Leader: Olivier Terzo (ISMB)UR4 Leader: Federica La Longa (INGV).

DemoGRAPE organization

UR1Scientific coordination and project management

INGV

UR2 Data/algorithms processing

POLITO

UR3Prototype realization

ISMB

UR4Dissemination

INGV

UR1

•This Research Unit will coordinate the project’s activities in synergy with the international partners that will provide data and algorithms and will host the new GNSS receivers in their polar sites.

•The Unit will have the task of selecting representative case studies also with the indications from the geomagnetic ground-based datasets and will critically discuss the type of data and processors to be implemented into DemoGRAPE jointly with UR2 and UR3. Part of the research task will be spent to plan the new installations in close collaboration with the hosting institutions and with the UR2.

•The Unit will also collaborate with UR4 to coordinate the project dissemination ensuring that the progress and the achievements of DemoGRAPE will be known to the reference communities, but also to undergraduates/PhD students and to open public.

•The Unit will supervise the whole work ensuring the realization of the proposed prototype.

UR2

This Research Unit will manage the historical observations and the data recorded during the project from instruments already deployed in the polar regions and from the new observing systems installed, in the framework of the distributed processing approach (federated cloud).

Jointly with UR1, the UR2 will also take care of the deployment and of the operation in the polar sites of new multi-constellations GNSS receivers and of the GNSS software receivers (developed by the same UR2) offered by the partners.

Raw and processed data will be accessible by the project partners in open formats and managed through a web interface. UR1 and UR2 will collect comments from all the partners in order to consolidate the method and to make the results available to UR3 for the prototype development.

UR3

In collaboration with UR2, this UR will build a demo of compatible data infrastructures based on Cloud computing platform, where the partners of the project will store and fetch data from various distributed sources.

UR3 will adopt a federated cloud computing infrastructure built on already existing resources, thus economically efficient, where each research group will provide their own computing resources while maintaining control and possession.

Also software implementation activities are planned, alongside the developers of "processors" to make them compatible and more efficient in the cloud.

Where possible, UR3 will try to integrate and adapt existing solutions and technologies, avoiding wasting of time and resources on issues with poor technical-scientific interest.

UR4

•UR4 will convey the project and its applications to students, scientific community, industrial stakeholders, general public.

•Dissemination activities will be addressed to:- undergraduates and PhD students, with the goal to stimulate their interest in the polar sciences;- scientific communities interested to the project outputs to support their activities in geodesy, space weather, radio glaciology, reflectometry, etc.;- end-users from SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) and industrial entities potentially interested to the project outputs to support their activities (offshore drilling, civil aviation, harbor traffic etc.);-to the large public to convey the project and its applications.

•Dissemination activities will be conducted through different tools:- international congress participations, meetings, scientific publications, workshops, for scientific community- demonstration, courses and consulting activities for SME and industrial entities,- web portal and paper materials for general public and with specific sections devoted to the different public.

Gantt chart

Foreseen Italian Personnel participating to the summer expedition 2015-2016

During the second year the new installations and related measurements campaigns planned into the polar sites agreed during the first year are foreseen. The Antarctic campaigns will last about 1 month and will be performed during summer to facilitate the logistics and reduce the costs. To be discussed tomorrow

UR4: Dissemination

Objectives

UR4 will promote the importance and the novelty of DemoGRAPE in the polar sciences, stimulating the interests of undergraduates/PhD students, scientific communities, private stakeholders and general public through different tools: leaflets, presentations to conferences and open events, web portal, etc.

Education and outreach programme

Realize a web portal dedicated to:

-general public to join the project and its applications;

- students, scientific community, industrial stakeholder by thematic sessions and scientific and technical insights.

Pick out scientific institutes and industrial stakeholders to national and international level to realize courses and seminaries on project applications and its development perspectives.

Thanks!