Succession Planning Workshops for the Generic Mapping Tools computer code

数据分析和可视化包，通用地图工具（GMT），是开源计算机软件的一个重要组成部分，它非常灵活，能够生成具有数据覆盖的数据、地图和地图的出版质量图形表示。自成立以来，GMT一直在不断发展和更新，以保持与软件，软件工程和固体地球科学领域科学家的需求相关。它已经成为一个拥有25000多名注册用户的社区事实上的标准。《自然》（Nature）和《科学》（Science）等知名期刊，以及许多其他报道地球物理学和地质学（包括地震学、大地测量学和地球动力学）研究进展的期刊，都发表了GMT标准。最近涉及GMT的发展包括扩展它，使其能够分析和显示更多不同类型的数据，改进用于绘制矢量及其不确定性、地震震源机制和半球投影的代码。在增强GMT在高性能计算、时间序列分析、三元图和地质符号方面的能力方面也取得了成功。重要的是开发了一个应用编程接口和脚本，允许从Python开源编程语言和MatLab（一种广泛使用的数学分析软件包）直接调用GMT模块。随着主要开发人员和GMT主机即将退休，需要一个将其过渡到新的永久位置的计划，以便GMT可以保持可访问性，并根据科学界和公众的需要继续更新和扩展。这两个工作首脑会议提供了制定这种过渡计划和确定适当的新东道主所需的规划。这项工作的更广泛影响包括与葡萄牙和德国科学家的国际合作，他们是GMT的主要开发人员，并为科学建设基础设施，为地球科学家提供关键工具来分析、可视化和展示他们的数据和研究结果。通用测绘工具计算机代码是地球和海洋科学中许多科学工作流程的组成部分。它是一个非常灵活的数据分析和可视化工具，在过去的30年里，它已经成为地球科学基础设施的重要组成部分。这两个工作首脑会议将为即将到来的向新主机的过渡和该主机的识别定位代码。一个研讨会将在葡萄牙举行，其中一个核心GMT开发团队的成员居住在那里。这是为了使作为开发团队一部分的其他欧洲科学家能够加入进来，为如何继续改进GMT并使其在财务上可持续提供意见和建议。本次峰会/研讨会的部分内容还将致力于继续强化代码，改进代码文档和元文档，后者将描述代码开发过程、代码测试、构建用户文档、维护wiki和错误报告数据库等。第二次峰会将在美国举行，GMT指导委员会将参与其中。这次工作峰会将有助于制定一个强有力的、全面的格林尼治标准时间过渡计划。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The data analysis and visualization package, Generic Mapping Tools (GMT), is a workhorse piece of open source computer software that is extremely flexible and has the power to produce publication-quality graphic presentations of data, maps, and maps with data overlays. Since its initial inception, GMT has been continually developed and updated to remain relevant to both advances in software, software engineering, and the needs of scientists across the spectrum of the solid earth sciences. It has become the de facto standard for a community of over 25,000 registered users. GMT permeates work published in high profile journals such as Nature and Science, as well as many others that report research advances in geophysics and geology, including seismology, geodesy, and geodynamics. Recent developments involving GMT have included extending it to be able to analyze and display more diverse types of data and improving the code for plotting vectors and their uncertainties, earthquake focal mechanisms, and hemispherical projections. Efforts have also been successful in strengthening GMT's capabilities in terms of high performance computing, time-series analysis, ternary diagrams, and geologic symbols. Of importance has been the development of an Applied Programming Interface and scripts that allow GMT modules to be called directly from the Python open source programming language and MatLab, a widely used mathematical analysis software package. With the pending retirement of the primary developer and GMT host, a plan for its transition to a new and permanent location, where GMT can remain accessible and continue to be updated and extended as needed by the scientific community and public, is needed. These two working summits provide the planning necessary to devise such a transition plan and identify an appropriate new host. Broader impacts of the work include international collaboration with Portuguese and German scientists who are involved as key GMT developers and building infrastructure for science in terms of providing critical tools for geoscientists to analyze, visualize, and display their data and research results.The Generic Mapping Tools computer code is an integral part of many scientific workflows in the earth and ocean sciences. It is an extremely flexible data analytical and visualization tool that has, over the last 30 years, become an essential part of geoscience infrastructure. These two working summits are to position the code for its upcoming transition to a new host and the identification of that host. One workshop will be held in Portugal where one of the members of the core GMT development teams resides. This is to enable other European scientists who are part of the development team to join and provide input and suggestions for how to continue to improve GMT and make it financially sustainable. This summit/workshop will be devoted, in part, also to the continued hardening of the code and improving code documentation and meta-documentation, the latter of which will describe the code development process, code testing, building user documentation, maintaining the wiki and error reporting database, etc. A second summit will be held in the US and will involve participation from the GMT steering committee. This working summit will help develop a robust and comprehensive plan for GMT transition.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.