 November 1998 |
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George Mason Leads Project Studying Short- and Long-Range Climate PatternsOn August 24, tropical storm Charley dropped nearly 18 inches of rain in 24 hours on Del Rio, Texas, according to a report by National Public Radio. In addition to causing severe flooding, the storm killed six people and destroyed nearly 400 homes. The ability to control weather and altogether prevent such disasters may remain science fiction for many years, but scientists are continuing to improve the ability to predict weather and climate conditions. If the residents of Del Rio had been able to foresee exactly how much rain was going to fall and how hard the storm was going to hit them, they might have been better prepared for it. To improve the ability of scientists to predict global climate conditions and to perform other kinds of related research, a NASA-sponsored consortium led by George Mason University is designing a distributed information system that makes climate data and information products more accessible to scientists worldwide. The data will not only be useful in predicting seasonal to interannual climate patterns but also may assist in our understanding of long-range patterns. Having easy access to voluminous amounts of data will enable scientists to improve their understanding of such climate phenomena as El Niño. Since the system provides access to data on ozone levels from year to year, it will be of use to scientists studying global warming as well. The initiative is based on the premise that two heads are better than one. In the past, data critical to the study of climate have been available to a limited number of researchers. The information system being developed, however, essentially enables anyone who can log on to the World Wide Web to access the data and information products that are necessary for understanding long-and short-range climate patterns and their variability. Heading the consortium is Menas Kafatos, director of George Mason's Center for Earth Observing and Space Research and a faculty member in the Institute for Computational Sciences and Informatics (CSI) and the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The $2.9 million award was announced in December, says Kafatos, and researchers began working on it in March. The consortium comprises George Mason, the Goddard DAAC (Distributed Active Archive Center), the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA), and the University of Delaware. Altogether, there are about 30 researchers involved. Each member of the consortium has different responsibilities. "The goal is to create an integrated whole," says Kafatos. In addition to leading the consortium, George Mason has the responsibility for developing the Internet site and query engines and for mining data. The Internet site provides links to the many sites providing relevant data. Although the site is still under development, it is already up and running at www.siesip.gmu.edu. Much of the data, which will be accessible via the site, comes from satellites, explains Kafatos, but there are thousands of land stations worldwide that provide such data as rainfall amounts from various parts of the world and climate analysis data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The members of the consortium responsible for collecting NASA satellite and rain gauge data are Goddard DAAC and the University of Delaware. COLA, the director of which is Jagadish Shukla, a faculty member in CSI, has the responsibility of developing several earth science tools. Already, COLA has enhanced a software system typically used for the analysis of climate data, so that it may be used in the analysis of satellite data. According to Jim Kinter, who directs COLA's involvement in this consortium, the amount of data that satellites provide is far too huge for climate researchers to manage, so COLA uses the GrADS system (Grid Analysis and Display System) to prioritize and break down the data into more manageable subsets. Not only does the tool enable scientists to extract specific data from mountains of data, but it also enables them to analyze the data more effectively. An advisory board, consisting of scientists from such places as Washington state, Texas, and even Japan, helps direct the efforts of consortium participants by indicating the kinds of information and information products that are needed by researchers studying climate. "We want to make tailored products that are useful to scientists," says Kafatos. He expects the information system to be complete within the next couple of years.
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