MRI: Acquisition of a National CyberGIS Facility for Computing and Data-Intensive Geospatial Research and Education

协作、交互和可扩展的知识发现，以处理和可视化海量复杂的地理空间数据并执行相关的分析和模拟的形式，已经成为履行CyberGIS这一新兴和充满活力的跨学科领域--基于先进的网络基础设施的地理信息科学和系统(GIS)--在实现具有重大社会影响的广泛学术学科的计算和数据密集型研究和教育方面的重要作用所必需的。该项目通过建立CyberGIS设施来支持这些活动，该设施是一种创新工具，配备了大容量磁盘存储的高性能数据访问、配置了高级图形处理单元的尖端计算、通过快速网络和动态配置的云计算资源支持可视化。数码地理信息系统设施是在先进的网络基础设施和地球空间科学和技术的广泛背景下取得的开创性进展。该设施使研究人员能够解决多学科、生物、工程、地球和社会科学中的各种重大和复杂的科学问题(例如，气候和天气预测、应急管理、环境和能源可持续性)，否则这些问题是不可能或难以解决的。在各种教育和培训工作(例如，新课程、跨学科课程和在线学习材料)方面的广泛进展有助于培养下一代劳动力，以促进基于网络地理信息系统的发现和创新。设备用户代表广泛的学科，并开展由不同机构和组织(例如，NSF、环境保护局、国家卫生研究院、国家航空航天局和美国地质调查局)赞助的前沿研究，这些研究突出了该项目在推动广泛和重大科学进步方面的影响。

Collaborative, interactive, and scalable knowledge discovery, in the form on processing and visualizing massive amounts of complex geospatial data and performing associated analysis and simulation, have become essential to fulfilling the important role of the emerging and vibrant interdisciplinary field of CyberGIS -- geographic information science and systems (GIS) based on advanced cyberinfrastructure -- in enabling computing- and data-intensive research and education across a broad swath of academic disciplines with significant societal impacts.This project supports these activities by establishing the CyberGIS Facility as an innovative instrument equipped with capabilities that include high-performance data access with large disk storage, cutting-edge computing configured with advanced graphics processing units, and visualization supported with fast network and dynamically provisioned cloud computing resources. The CyberGIS Facility represents a groundbreaking advance in the broad context of advanced cyberinfrastructure and geospatial sciences and technologies. The Facility enables researchers to solve a diverse set of major and complex scientific problems (e.g., climate and weather predictions, emergency management, and environmental and energy sustainability) in multidisciplinary, bio, engineering, geo, and social sciences that would otherwise be impossible or difficult to tackle. Extensive advances in various education and training efforts (e.g., new courses, cross-disciplinary curricula, and online learning materials) help to produce a next-generation workforce for fostering CyberGIS-enabled discoveries and innovations. Facility users represent a wide range of disciplines and conduct leading-edge research sponsored by various agencies and organizations (e.g., NSF, Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and U.S. Geological Survey), which highlight the impact that this project has in enabling broad and significant scientific advances.