Collaborative Research: Data Infrastructure for Open Science in Support of LIGO and IceCube

2015年，NSF资助的LIGO天文台首次从两个黑洞的碰撞中探测到引力波，这一发现得到了2017年诺贝尔物理学奖的认可。2017年，LIGO及其位于意大利的姊妹天文台处女座首次探测到宇宙中另一个极端事件--两颗中子星的碰撞所产生的引力波。NASA的费米太空望远镜也同时探测到了同一次中子星碰撞产生的伽马射线。与此同时，美国国家科学基金会资助的冰立方设施位于美国南极站，首次探测到来自我们银河系以外的高能中微子，让我们能够畅通无阻地看到宇宙中其他极端物体，如超大质量黑洞和超新星遗迹。从同一天体事件中观测引力波、中微子、光波和无线电波的革命性能力开启了“多信使天体物理学”时代，这是一个由美国国家科学基金会十大构想之一“宇宙之窗”支持的令人兴奋的新领域。多信使天体物理学的成功有赖于建立新的数据基础设施，以无缝共享、集成和分析来自许多大型观测仪器的数据。研究人员为大型仪器提出了一个具有凝聚力的、联合的、全国性的研究数据基础设施，最初侧重于LIGO和IceCube，以满足访问、共享和合并科学数据的需求，并使整个数据处理生命周期更加稳健。该项目的新工作模式是由LIGO和IceCube天文台、Internet2和平台集成专家组成的多机构合作。调查人员将进行为期两年的快速通道工作，主要利用NSF先前和同时在软件、计算和数据基础设施以及包括CERN在内的国际软件开发方面的投资。Internet2将在国家网络主干内建立数据缓存，以优化LIGO数据分析。其目标是实现一个数据基础设施平台，满足LIGO和IceCube的生产需求，同时成为整个多信使天体物理学和其他领域的典范。在这个过程中，研究人员正在重新定义学术互联网在支持科学中所扮演的角色。该项目得到了计算机和信息科学与工程总局高级网络基础设施办公室的支持。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In 2015, the NSF-funded LIGO Observatory made the first-ever detection of gravitational waves, from the collision of two black holes, a discovery that was recognized by the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 2017, LIGO and its sister observatory Virgo in Italy made the first detection of gravitational waves from another extreme event in the Universe - the collision of two neutron stars. Gamma rays from the same neutron star collision were also simultaneously detected by NASA's Fermi space telescope. Meanwhile, the NSF-funded IceCube facility, located at the U.S. South Pole Station, has made the first detection of high-energy neutrinos from beyond our galaxy, giving us unobstructed views of other extreme objects in Universe such as supermassive black holes and supernova remnants. The revolutionary ability to observe gravitational waves, neutrinos, and optical and radio waves from the same celestial events has launched the era of "Multi-Messenger Astrophysics," an exciting new field supported by one of NSF's ten Big Ideas, "Windows on the Universe".The success of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics depends on building new data infrastructure to seamlessly share, integrate, and analyze data from many large observing instruments. The investigators propose a cohesive, federated, national-scale research data infrastructure for large instruments, focused initially on LIGO and IceCube, to address the need to access, share, and combine science data, and make the entire data processing life cycle more robust. The novel working model of the project is a multi-institutional collaboration comprising the LIGO and IceCube observatories, Internet2, and platform integration experts. The investigators will conduct a fast-track two-year effort that draws heavily on prior and concurrent NSF investments in software, computing and data infrastructure, and international software developments including at CERN. Internet2 will establish data caches inside the national network backbone to optimize the LIGO data analysis. The goal is to achieve a data infrastructure platform that addresses the production needs of LIGO and IceCube while serving as an exemplar for the entire scope of Multi-messenger Astrophysics and beyond. In the process, the investigators are prototyping a redefinition of the role the academic internet plays in supporting science.This project is supported by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.