CIF21 DIBBs: Collaborative Research: Cyberinfrastructure for Interpreting and Archiving U-series Geochronologic Data

铀系地质年代学在了解气候变化、海平面变化和火山活动的时间尺度和速率方面起着关键作用。对于原始同位素数据和简化结果，没有标准化的数据处理协议或基于社区的开放数据档案。u系列地质年代学社区希望改变这种状况，并受到NSF对21世纪网络基础设施的愿景的鼓舞。在这个试点示范项目中，软件工程师和地质年代学家合作构建开源网络基础设施，以标准化和促进u系列数据分析、报告、归档以及对大量遗留数据的分析和再处理。该项目使用了美国国家科学基金会资助的EarthChem-Geochron数据存储库，该存储库存档了许多测年方案的结果，促进了域间的共享和发现。这种网络基础设施支持各级教学和培训，并为非专家提供获取新知识的途径。这种协作努力应用现代软件工程实践来解决u系列地质年代学社区的网络基础设施问题，使u系列地质年代学的计算、存档、访问和解释活动尽可能严格、无缝和简单。目前，来自u系列数据的同位素日期是使用传统的、依赖于平台的软件来计算和分析的，而且数据很难合成，因为它们已经以不同的衰变常数和报告规范发布。该试点项目包括用于计算、可视化和解释来自新数据和遗留数据的u系列日期的新软件，以及用于在Geochron.org上进行数据归档的新模式。重要的是，该项目通过建立在已经为EARTHTIME旗下的U-Pb地质年代学社区开发的网络基础设施架构上，推进了NSF软件生态系统的可持续性。

Uranium-series geochronology plays a critical role in understanding the time-scales and rates of climate change, sea-level change, and volcanic activity. There are no standardized data-handling protocols or community-based open data archives for raw isotopic data and reduced results. The U-series geochronology community wants to change this and is encouraged by NSF's vision for 21st century cyberinfrastructure. In this pilot demonstration project, software engineers and geochronologists collaborate to build open-source cyberinfrastructure that standardizes and facilitates U-series data analysis, reporting, and archiving and analysis and re-processing of the vast amounts of legacy data. The project uses the NSF-funded EarthChem-Geochron data repository that archives results from many dating schemes, stimulating inter-domain sharing and discovery. This cyberinfrastructure supports teaching and training at all levels and provides non-experts access to new knowledge. This collaborative effort applies modern software engineering practices to solving the cyberinfrastructure problems of the U-series geochronology community, making the calculation, archiving, access, and interpretation activities of U-series geochronology as rigorous, seamless, and simple as possible. Currently, isotopic dates from U-series data are calculated and analyzed using legacy, platform-dependent software, and dates are difficult to synthesize because they have been published with disparate decay constants and reporting norms. This pilot project includes new software to calculate, visualize, and interpret U-series dates from new and legacy data, and new schema for data archiving at Geochron.org. Importantly, this project advances the sustainability of NSF's software ecosystem by building upon the cyberinfrastructure architecture already developed for the U-Pb geochronology community under the EARTHTIME umbrella.