SIParCS 2025 - Shilin Chhabra

Enhancing Scientific Onboarding in CIRRUS Through Cloud-Native Infrastructure for Earth System Scientists

Recorded Talk

In today’s scientific landscape, harnessing cloud-native technologies is pivotal in enabling scalable, reproducible, and collaborative research. CIRRUS is front and center in this transformation, offering Earth system scientists with a cutting-edge platform sporting modern DevOps tools directly tailored to the special requirements of scientific workflows.

CIRRUS (Cloud Infrastructure for Research, Universities, and Scientists) is a novel cloud-native computing infrastructure developed at CISL to support Earth system science workflows using highly versatile and scalable infrastructure. CIRRUS gives scientists access to modern DevOps tools and services, including Kubernetes, containers, GitOps and CI/CD pipelines, and flexible storage options, enabling scientific computing that is portable as well as reproducible. Because cloud-native paradigms are still relatively new to many researchers, effective onboarding and documentation are critical.

This project prioritizes improving the user experience of CIRRUS designed to guide scientists through common workflows and platform capabilities by developing, revising, and expanding technical documentation. Key areas of focus included containerization, workflow management, and using CIRRUS-native storage systems. A live demonstration site was deployed on CIRRUS using automated workflows. Security measures were applied to the container, and secrets were managed securely during deployment. Documentation was improved through hands-on experimentation in the CIRRUS environment, and refined iteratively in response to feedback from users, mentors, and the CIRRUS team. The aim was not simply to explain how to employ the tools, but to place them in context in the larger workflows employed by Earth system scientists.

By closing the gap between cloud-native infrastructure and scientific workflows, this work contributes to make CIRRUS more approachable for new users across NCAR labs and university partners. Ultimately, it supports CIRRUS’s broader mission: reproducible and scalable science on modern infrastructure.

Mentors: Nick Cote, Kevin Hrpcek, Varsha Banda

Slides and poster