09/14/2009
Climate Data Analysis Tools Facilitating Scientific Investigations
Summary
The volume of observational and model simulation data analyzed by climate scientists has grown enormously driven by a growing number of world-class modeling centers, finer resolution models, an increase in simulation ensemble sizes, and an escalating number of experiments performed. The recent success and visibility of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report 4 (IPCC AR4) continues to boost internationally-coordinated model output archives to unprecedented levels. However, software to facilitate access to and analysis of the data has not kept up. One software framework has proven to be flexible enough to keep ahead of the escalating demand: the Climate Data Analysis Tools (CDAT) from the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Comparison (PCMDI) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. PCMDI provides the cutting edge technology necessary to distribute the IPCC AR4 data via the Earth System Grid and continues to improve CDAT with the addition of an increasingly comprehensive diagnostic capability and new abilities to handle more complex and higher resolution grids. Soon, in time for the IPCC fifth assessment, PCMDI will provide the climate community with a new version of CDAT that will be capable of state-of-the-art remote data analysis in a grid-computing environment.
References
Charles Doutriaux, Robert Drach, Renata McCoy, Velimir Mlaker, and Dean N. Williams, 2009: Climate Data Analysis Tools: Facilitating Scientific Investigations, September 1, 2009.