Organization:
Research Title: Information Systems
Funding Level (millions of dollars):
| FY94 | 11.2 |
|---|---|
| FY95 | 9.7 |
| FY96 | 9.6 |
Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR) Component:
(a) Subcommittee: Global Change Research Committee (100%)
(b) Environmental Issue: Climate Change (100%)
(c) Research Activity: Data Management (100%)
Organizational Components:
Operations, Data and Information
Systems Division
Office of Mission To Planet Earth
Washington, DC
Point of Contact:
James L. Harris
Phone: 202-358-0757
Research Goals:
The Information System program within the Office of Mission to Planet Earth
(OMTPE)
provides scientific computing infrastructure in support of the OMTPE research
mission.
Particular emphasis is placed on providing a balanced system of supercomputers,
mass
storage, mainframes, workstations and appropriate network connectivity between
researchers and components of this system.
Research Description:
A principal mission of the information system program is to provide computational
support
to the global earth system modeling efforts of the multidisciplinary audience
encompassed
by NASA's participants in the Global Change Research Program (GCRP). One of the
principal challenges facing this community is the development of improved
modeling
and
predictive capability. These future models will provide a more precise basis for
determining the impact of environmental change on the world's socio-economic
activities.
The availability of greatly increased computer resources, with speeds and capacities
up to
1,000 times those of present-generation systems, will be essential for further
significant
progress in global climate/Earth system modeling. Hopes are focused on massively
parallel
supercomputer systems, but they will require complex software code development.
Program Interfaces:
The OMTPE Information System program currently provides support through the
NASA
Center for Computational Science (NCCS) at the Goddard Space Flight Center
(GSFC)
and the Supercomputing Project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The NCCS
is a
full service state of the art supercomputing center serving more than 1300 NASA
supported
researchers with a six processor Cray C98 computer and an associated mass storage
system
with more than 19 terabytes of online and nearline storage capacity. The JPL
supercomputing project serves as an early access testbed and outreach facility for
the Earth
and space science research communities. Both GSFC and JPL have significant roles
in
NASA's High Performance and Communications Program (HPCC), having
assumed lead
roles in the development of software environments and algorithms for advanced
parallel
platforms. These efforts will accelerate the development and application of high
performance parallel computing technologies to meet the computational needs of
the
Earth
and space science community.
Program Milestones:
The program has developed a strategy which will assure the continual evolution of
this
computing environment in consonance with emerging trends in science
methodology and
technology.
Policy Payoffs:
A better understanding of the extent, causes, and regional consequences of global
change.