Data management for earth system science

ABSTRACT

Earth system science is a relatively recent scientific discipline that seeks a global-scale understanding of the components, interactions, and evolution of the entire Earth system. The data being collected in support of Earth system science are rapidly approaching petabytes per year. The intrinsic problems of archiving, searching, and distributing such a huge dataset are compounded by both the heterogeneity of the data, and the heterogeneous nature of Earth system science inquiry, which synthesizes models, observations, and knowledge bases from a several traditional scientific disciplines.A successful data management environment for Earth system science must provide seamless access to arbitrary subsets and combinations of both local and remote data, and must be compatible with the rich data analysis environments already deployed. We describe a prototype of such an environment, built at UCSB using database technology pioneered by the Sequoia 2000 Project. We specifically address its application to a problem that requires combining point observations with gridded satellite imagery.

REFERENCES

• 1: Jean T. Anderson , Michael Stonebraker, Sequoia 2000 metadata schema for satellite images, ACM SIGMOD Record, v.23 n.4, p.42-48, Dec. 1994 [doi>10.1145/190627.190642]
• 2: Asrar 1995 G. Asrar and R. Greenstone (eds.), 1995 MTPE EOS Reference Handbook, EOS Project Science Office, NASA / Goddard Spaceflight Center, Greenbelt, MD (1995). http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/eos_reference/ TOC.html
• 3: Benada 1993 R. Benada, PO.DAAC Merged GDR (TOPEX/POSEIDON) Users Handbook, Rep. JPL D-11007, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA (1993). http://podaac-www.jpl.nasa.gov:2031/ DATASET_DOCS/topex_mgdr.html
• 4: Paul Brown , Michael Stonebraker, BigSur: A System For the Management of Earth Science Data, Proceedings of the 21th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, p.720-728, September 11-15, 1995
• 5: Carter 1987 E. F. Carter and A. R. Robinson, "Analysis Methods for the Estimation of Oceanic Fields," Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 49-74 (1987). http://www.taygeta.com/objan.html
• 6: Dozier 1994 J. Dozier, M. Stonebraker, and J. Frew, "Sequoia 2000: a next-generation information system for the study of global change," in Proceedings of the Thirteenth IEEE Symposium on Mass Storage Systems, Annecy, France, June 12-16, 1994, IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, CA (1994).
• 7: W. E. Farrell , J. Gaffney , J. Given , R. D. Jenkins , N. Hall, A Hydrographic Database built on Montage and S-PLUS, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 1994
• 8: Kidwell 1991 K. Kidwell, NOAA Polar Orbiter Data User's Guide, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Washington, DC (1991).
• 9: Michaels 1996 A. Michaels and A. Knap, "Overview of the US JGOFS Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series Study and the Hydrostation S Program," Deep-Sea Research, vol. 43, pp. 157-198 (1996).
• 10: NRC 1995 National Research Council, A Review of the U.S. Global Change Research Program and NASA's Mission to Planet Earth/Earth Observing System, National Academy Press, Washington, DC (1995). http://www.gcrio.org/USGCRP/LaJolla/ cover.html

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.2 PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING
      Subjects: Earth and atmospheric sciences

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
      H.2.0 General

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING
      I.6.3 Applications

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Management, Performance, Theory