Collaborative Research: Frameworks: OpenEarthscape - Transformative Cyberinfrastructure for Modeling and Simulation in the Earth-Surface Science Communities

我们周围的风景在不断变化。有时变化是缓慢的：河弯迁移，土壤从田野中侵蚀，瀑布沿着河流逆流而上。有时变化发生得很快：山体滑坡、洪水、冬季风暴侵蚀海滩。为了理解、管理和预测这样的过程，科学家依靠计算机模拟模型。该项目开发的软件工具使仿真建模更容易、更方便、更高效。在这些产品中，有一个网站，研究人员和学生都可以通过这个网站了解和试验各种环境模拟模型，而不需要在自己的电脑上安装任何东西。该门户网站利用了一种将文本、图片和计算机代码组合到单个在线文档中的技术。该项目还开发了改进的计算机编程库，旨在使研究人员更容易、更高效地创建新的模拟模型。该项目为参加科罗拉多州暑期项目的大学生提供计算技能培训，这些项目服务于传统上代表人数较少的学生群体。该项目还通过创建在线动画模拟来促进公共地质学教育，展示地貌如何随着各种地质事件的变化而演变。随着探测地球表面变化的科学变得更加定量和以预测为导向，它们越来越依赖计算建模和模型数据集成。该项目开发了OpenEarthscape：一套由社区开发的集成网络资源，用于模拟和模型数据集成，重点关注九个高度优先的地球科学前沿。产品和活动包括Earthscape Hub：JupyterHub服务器，提供对模型、工具和库的轻松访问；创建和共享可重复分析的新能力；以及对当前编程库的重大增强，用于模型构建和耦合。OpenEarthscape通过构建提高性能的新技术和开发基本模型接口API标准的扩展版本来解决并行体系结构和耦合问题，从而提高了效率。OpenEarthscape通过改进用于数据I/O和可视化的库功能以及用于高效软件分发和跨平台兼容性的社区资源来提高研究效率。更广泛的影响包括与本科研究项目的合作，这些项目支持传统上代表性较低的学生群体，项目团队提供科学计算方面的入门培训。一个新颖的教育元素是OpenEarthscape模拟器：一个以网络为主机的微大陆随着各种地质事件而演变的可视化模拟。该模拟器为学生和公众提供了有趣的地球景观动态可视化，并为研究社区提供了一个模板，以确定我们当前理解中的缺陷。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The landscape around us changes constantly. Sometimes change is slow: a river bend migrates, soil erodes from a field, a waterfall carves its way upstream. Sometimes change happens fast: a landslide, a flood, a winter storm eroding beaches. To understand, manage, and forecast such processes, scientists rely on computer simulation models. This project develops software tools to make simulation modeling easier, more accessible, and more efficient. Among the products is a website through which researchers and students alike can learn about and experiment with a variety of environmental simulation models, without needing to install anything on their own computers. This web portal takes advantage of a technology that combines text, pictures, and computer code in a single online document. The project also develops improved computer-programming libraries designed to make it easier and more efficient for researchers to create new simulation models. The project contributes computing-skills training for college students enrolled in Colorado-based summer programs that serve traditionally underrepresented student populations. The project also promotes public education in geology, by creating an online animated simulation illustrating how landscapes evolve in response to various geologic events.As the sciences that probe Earth's changing surface become more quantitative and prediction-oriented, they increasingly rely on computational modeling and model-data integration. This project develops OpenEarthscape: an integrated suite of community-developed cyber resources for simulation and model-data integration, focusing on nine high-priority geoscience frontiers. Products and activities include EarthscapeHub: a JupyterHub server providing easy access to models, tools, and libraries; new capacity for creating and sharing reproducible analyses; and major enhancements to current programming libraries for model construction and coupling. OpenEarthscape catalyzes efficiency by building new technology to improve performance and developing an extended version of the Basic Model Interface API standard to address parallel architecture and coupling. OpenEarthscape fosters research productivity with improved library capabilities for data I/O and visualization, and with community resources for efficient software distribution and cross-platform compatibility. Broader impacts include partnership with undergraduate research programs that support traditionally underrepresented student populations, with the project team contributing introductory training in scientific computing. A novel educational element is the OpenEarthscape Simulator: a web-hosted visual simulation of a micro-continent evolving in response to various geologic events. The simulator provides students and the general public with an intriguing visualization of Earthscape dynamics and provides a template for the research community to identify defects in our current understanding.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.