Feeding multisource Earth observation (EO) data into Earth science models (ESM) remains a daunting challenge. This paper presents a service-oriented approach as an alternative solution. It uses geospatial web services to process the EO data and geoprocessing workflow for automation. Different from existing approaches, it takes advantage of virtual data products (VDP) to release modelers from intensive data processing. It can directly connect ESMs to public EO sources via Cyberinfrastructure. A prototype called CyberConnector is implemented. CyberConnector supports intuitive building of VDP, automatic execution of workflows and effortless retrieval of model-ready input files. We used it to stream multiple datasets to several ESMs including finite-volume coastal ocean model (FVCOM) and cloud-resolving model (CRM). The results show that CyberConnector can truly benefit modelers on time saving and effort minimizing.
Sun, Z., Di, L., Hao, H., Wu, X., Tong, D.Q., Zhang, C., Virgei, C., Fang, H., Yu, E., Tan, X. and Yue, P.. "CyberConnector: a service-oriented system for automatically tailoring multisource Earth observation data to feed Earth science models," Earth Science Informatic, 2017, p. 1. doi:10.1007/s12145-017-0308-4
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1440294. Opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the NSF.