GeoChronos: Aplatform for EarthObservation Scientists

Grid Research CentreUniversity of Calgary

Roger Curry

GeoChronos Platform• Basic idea is to bring together:

– scientific applications– access to data– collaborative tools

• Leverage social networking and web 2.0technologies to create an environment thatfacilitates scientific research andcollaboration in the earth observationsciences

• CANARIE NEP proposal submitted

GeoChronos Conceptual Overview

Conceptual OverviewCybera Pilot Project:

Data Acquisition Systemprotoptye for MODIS

Conceptual OverviewCybera Pilot Project:

Data Acquisition Systemprotoptye for MODIS

•Accessing MODIS data is adifficult and time-consumingprocess for the scientist

–Access to data–Cloud cover (data quality assurance)–Mosaicing/Reprojection/Subsetting

Access to Data

Cloud cover (quality assurance)• Only want to keep/analyze cloud free data.• NASA provides cloud cover metadata BUT:

– Is it correct? Is it the right metadata?• gives a % coverage the entire image, not for a specific

geographic region within it.

• How to determine whether data is ‘good’?– Can visually inspect– Can we use a different source of data/metadata?

Using externally derived meta-data for QA

Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)

Mosaicing/Reprojection/Subsetting

NASAMRT

Challenges• Access to data

– Web form to request data– FTP access to retrieve data

• Cloud cover (data quality assurance)– Available Metadata does not meet needs of the

scientists• Mosaicing / Reprojection / Subsetting

– Scientists used to working with GUI based tools

• Want to automate these processes!

Goals of the MODIS DAS prototype

• Enable programmatic access to data• Provide subscription mechanisms to the

scientist• Provide a simple user interface• Incorporate use of metadata that could

be populated from different sources• Automate manual processing of data

MODIS DAS Prototype components

MODISDAS portal

DAS / DMS

QAmetadataannotation

NASA EOSDatagateway(s)

MODISSatellite Data

MosaicingReprojectionSubsetting

Meteorologicalground station

Othermechanisms

DataProcessingEngine

Future DAS architecture

NASA Cooperation• Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LPDAAC)

• Email communication and teleconference meeting conducted todiscuss possible options for accessing MODIS data

• Use of the subscription mechanism provided by NASA requiresa written request for the data; however these subscriptionrequests can be automatically. NASA reviews these requestsand decides whether to provide the data.

• Subscriptions for MODIS data have been initiated for all (9)TROPI-DRY sites; 15 different products are collected onvarious intervals.

• An email notification from NASA indicates the availability ofnew package of data; an FTP pull mechanism is then used toobtain the data

CI solution• Mashup

– Data from NASA LPDAAC– Google maps– Facebook– hdfviewer/imager– MODIS Reprojection Tool (MRT)

• Social networking portal– Facebook

• XSL for formatting metadata• Still investigating:

– Data Management Systems• Proactive Data Management System (PDMS)• Storage Resource Broker (SRB)

– Existing metadata standards• Federal Geographic Data Committee• FGDC-STD-001-1998• GML

• Demo

MODIS DAS Portal

MODIS DAS Portal

MODIS DAS Portal

MODIS DAS Portal

MODIS DAS Portal

Benefits of this pilot• Facilitates important research in the

Earth Observation Sciences– Let the scientists do their science

• Builds cyberinfrastructure– Hardens the existing relevant technologies

• Domain specific focus ensures adoption bydomain scientists

– Development of new reusable CI-middleware

Next steps for GeoChronos

Interactive ApplicationService (IAS) integrationwith MODIS data

Questions?

http://grid.ucalgary.ca