The Cyberinfrastructure Strategic Initiative and the Community Data Portal

This image depicts the home page for the Community Data Portal (CDP), which provides shared cyberinfrastructure for data producers/creators, and a place for the broad community to locate and access data for their research. The CDP federates with other data systems such as the British Atmospheric Data Center (BADC), NASA's Global Change Master Directory (GCMD), and the emerging WMO Information System (WIS). The CDP also provides direct support for field projects, including data upload and portal-based metadata authoring.

The NCAR Cyberinfrastructure Strategic Initiative (CSI) was originally proposed as a collection of strategic activities that spanned data and knowledge management, collaboration environments, and advancing our web presence. Having accomplished our goals and realizing production capabilities in the latter two, our primary focus is now on advancing data and knowledge environments, and aggressively developing our opportunity space in this and related areas. The CSI effort currently funds our core, foundational thrust, the Community Data Portal (CDP) along with a collection of related strategic priorities and opportunity development. Our overarching goals are to build the cyberinfrastructure, integrate and extend the Information Technology, develop the critical relationships and projects with scientific and educational projects, and foster the development of human resources and culture such that we can effectively pursue our long-term strategic goals.

The NCAR Community Data Portal (CDP) is aimed at developing and delivering innovative cyberinfrastructure that provides a shared resource for data and knowledge management for diversified holdings across UCAR, NCAR, and UOP. The core goal is to provide a state-of-the-art data portal with a broad spectrum of functionality spanning data search and discovery, catalogs and metadata browsing, support for virtual organizations, data download and upload, publishing, analysis and visualization, and ultimately knowledge-based capabilities. The CSI thus plays an important role in supporting NCAR's strategic plan, including "Engaging a broader and more diverse community" in the atmospheric and geosciences, "Developing and providing advanced services and tools," and "Creating an Earth system knowledge environment."

In FY 2006, we worked with a large number of data-producing groups and projects over the course of the year, including the NCAR GIS Strategic Initiative, CCCEIR (Connecting Communities: Climate & Ecosystem Impact Research, CGD), Milagro (continued support for ACD-led field campaign, including new datasets), RACCOON (Regional Atmospheric Continuous CO₂ Network in the Rocky Mountains, CGD), CME (Carbon in the Mountains Experiment), T-REX (Terrain-induced Rotor Experiment, EOL), ERA-40 (CISL/DSS), WACCM, and integration of ACD models and software. We developed and deployed a new access control capability that allows PIs to manage and track access to their assets and be in touch with their user community. We also developed a new package for recording user activity and reporting metrics, and we expect this to be put into production in FY 2007. Of particular note, CDP staff developed a new data upload capability that was used to good effect during the Milagro field campaign. This further extends the CDP to be used as a remote resource that supports the workflow of complex field projects. Late in the year, we executed a major effort to refactor the CDP for migration to the Spring framework. The first phase of this was accomplished, and it now provides an excellent pathway to making our software system more modular, portable, testable and sharable across multiple projects. The new software base also delivers upgraded capabilities in the areas of security, persistent user data cart, data retrieval from the MSS, and easier user registration and login.

CSI also supported collaborative efforts to develop the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Information System (WIS), with several CISL staff serving on several WMO committees and expert teams, including the WIS metadata group (IPET-MI), the WIS data and codes group (ET-CTS), the WIS global federation group (ET-WISC), and the WMO Intercommission Coordination Group (ICG-WIS). We are providing technology, support, and federation in support of a major WMO WIS demonstrations in Seoul, Korea in November 2007. Support for CISL TIGGE development was also provided via the CSI, and CSI-supported staff have engaged in workshops for DLESE as well as the Global Organization for Earth System Science Portals (GO-ESSP). The CSI has provided support for the integration of ESG with the TeraGrid. The Initiative additionally supported the pursuit of a wide variety of strategic opportunities, including several proposals and projects: the NASA proposal NACP Data Center for Modeling and Synthesis (PI Robert Cook, ORNL, and Peter Thornton, CGD), the NSF proposal A Virtual Operations Center (VOC) for Field Experiments in Atmospheric Science, (PI Mike Daniels, EOL), the NSF proposal for a Cooperative Arctic Data and Information Service (CADIS) (PI Jim Moore, EOL, with Unidata, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center), the Chronopolis Consortium, (PI Fran Berman, SDSC, with UC Libraries, and Univ. of Maryland). Our CDP effort has a strong, ongoing interaction with the Earth System Grid (ESG) project and has provided key technology for it. We have also secured an NCAR Opportunity Fund grant to collaborate with ACD and CGD to integrate the CDP with Google Earth. Overall, the Initiative has impact ranging from local to global, with an extensive track record of building vital new collaborations.

In FY 2007, our primary focus with CDP will be to work with our community to refine the user interface, improve the user experience, deliver a common set of data services and some high-priority new functionality, and continue to improve the software base's reliability and testability. In addition to continuing our work with local and community projects, we will have a major emphasis on global federation with WMO, the British Atmospheric Data Center, Max-Planck, and other partners. The CSI will continue to develop and pursue key opportunities that bolster NCAR's strategic plan and the realization of the Earth System Knowledge Environment.

Here is the Community Data Portal web page.

This project is supported by NSF Core funds and NSF funds through the NCAR Cyberinfrastructure Strategic Initiative.