4.3 Online Access to CCSM data
Web technologies allow for the efficient discovery and access of CCSM data.
The CCSM groups have been very active in establishing experimental web
portals to CCSM data subsets, both within NCAR and through DOE
collaborations. The two current systems for doing this are the Community
Data Portal (CDP) and the Earth System Grid (ESG).
Community Data Portal
NCAR's Community Data Portal was developed as an NCAR Initiative project
to... [complete this section]
Earth System Grid
The DOE SciDAC funded proposal - Earth System Grid II: Turning Climate
Datasets into Community Resources (http://www.earthsystemgrid.org). Work
has been in progress for approximately two years. Members of NCAR/SCD and
the Climate Change Working Group are actively involved in this project.
Progress reports from ESG are available from its website.
As promising as the ESG sounds, it is not yet at the level of maturity
necessary for large-scale use by CCSM. In the meantime, however, CCSM must
maintain a close collaborative relationship with ESG such that system
prototyping and development is performed with CCSM data.
Recommendation:
Online distribution of CCSM data will occur through the ESG and CDP
projects.
Recommendation:
An ESG investigator be requested to serve as a liaison to the CCSM data
management group in order to maintain a close collaboration coupled link
between CCSM and ESG development.
Possible Supporting Policy:
NCAR will serve as much CCSM data online as possible. Other center
archiving and serving CCSM data are encouraged to do so as well. All
sites are expected to coordinate their data services via the proposed
CCSM data management working group.
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