Metadata-Enhanced Earth System Grid Gateway

Participants

Sylvia Murphy/ESMF Core Team, Luca Cinquini/NCAR, Julien Chastang/NCAR, Rocky Dunlap/Georgia institute of Technology, Cecelia DeLuca/ESMF Core Team, Don Middleton/NCAR, Balaji/GFDL.

For questions on this project, please contact curator@list.woc.noaa.gov.

Motivation

The Earth System Grid (ESG) is a federated data service specializing in the archival of geoscience data. There is a trend for simple data services to evolve into more dynamic scientific gateways. These gateways contain tools to explore and compare datasets and the models that created them. The ability to discover, compare, and analyze model simulations and model components is key to understanding differences in model output datasets. This ability will be particularly important in the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment. Curator is collaborating with ESG to develop this much-needed functionality.

Approach

Development of a Community-wide Metadata Standard

Curator is working closely with the European Union's Metafor project to develop community-wide geoscience metadata standards. The metadata being developed includes such topics as simulation genealogy, component-level scientific and numerical properties, and basic institutional and contact level information. You can explore the content and structure of this metadata in the ontologies portion of this website.

User Interface to Model Component Metadata

Below is a screen shot of a metadata-rich web page describing an atmospheric dynamical core simulation. Whether displaying a model, model component, or simulation, the display and interface are the same. You can explore ESG's user interface through any of the three developmental gateways used by the Curator project.

References

For an up to date list of Curator presentations on this topic and others, please visit our presentations page.

Dunlap, R., et. al, (2008), Earth system curator: metadata infrastructure for climate modeling, Earth Science Informatics, 1, 131-149. View Abstract

Application of RDF-OWL in the ESG Ontology, Sylvia Murphy/NCAR, 2008 GO-ESSP Meeting, Seattle, WA, September 18, 2008. (Download PowerPoint file)

Metadata Support for Model Intercomparison Projects, Sylvia Murphy/NCAR, 13th Annual CCSM Workshop, Breckenridge, CO June 17-19, 2008. (Download PowerPoint file)

Documenting and comparing models using Earth System Curator, Sylvia Murphy/NCAR, 7th Annual ESMF Community Meeting, Ft. Lauderdale, FL May 28-30, 2008 (Download PowerPoint file)