AGU 04
Advances in Computational and Cyber Infrastructure in the Earth Sciences
Over the next decade scientific investigations in the Earth Sciences will increasingly exploit opportunities provided by computational modeling of complex physical systems (e.g. crustal deformation, mantle convection, core dynamics, materials modeling, hydrological processes and landscape evolution, seismic wave propagation, space time behavior of earthquakes,` ocean circulation, climate evolution, biosphere modeling) by involving sophsticated Cyberinfrastructure tools. Rapid growth of computing resources makes this development inevitable. Current research in cyberinfrastructure for the geosciences encompasses storing distributed data sets, software, and tools, allowing users to make searches to discover data and information not only by name, but by also concepts and providing customizable analysis and research environment. Many of the emerging computational tools (and the resulting synthetic data sets) can so far only be employed by experts in the particular (sub-)field making their use by other scientists even in closely related fields difficult. However, this constraint will be softening up as grid technology, off-the-shelf clustered computing, powerful data-archives and new community modeling tools become available. We envision a powerful modeling infrastructure that that will effectively provide a virtual Earth laboratory. This session invites contributions on recent advances and new perspectives in computational Earth modeling. Contributions across disciplinary boundaries are particularly encouraged.