Climate Data Access: Re-thinking our Data Analysis Workflows

Users of Climate Data are facing challenge to analyze all the data they need. Data volumes are sharply increasing, and the ability to download all needed data is most of the time not a possibility anymore. A platform scientific gateway called climate4impact (C4I) has been designed and developed to enhance the use of research data. This platform supports researchers in getting access to data and in doing data processing. It is currently under development within the European Project IS-ENES3 and builds on previous developments from previous IS-ENES projects, CLIPC and C3S-Magic. C4I offers a front-end with guidance and documentation along with standard services (APIs) on top of the climate data infrastructure, but also using available European e-infrastructure services. It can be visited at https://climate4impact.eu/.The current version provides processing services that also include climate indicator calculations, country based statistics and polygon extraction. C4I makes use of the DKRZ Birdhouse framework, which is an extendable and modular processing framework based on PyWPS. Data is obtained from various climate infrastructure data nodes using secure communications. C4I provides a personal basket where users can upload their own data and do research with the provided tools. The software is open, reusable, modular and packaged. Components are available via docker containers to enable easy re-use. In the current C4I architecture, on-demand calculations are taking place on the front-end server. This is not scalable and can lead to performance problems as well as front-end disruptions. Within the DARE project, delegation of the calculations on the DARE Platform using the DARE API has been implemented and tested in a prototype, using EUDAT CDI B2DROP as an intermediate storage service. Via the DARE API, the platform allows users to register and retrieve processing elements and workflows, and to execute them exploiting the elasticity of the cloud. It is worth mentioning that the DARE Platform as well as the EUDAT B2 Services are interoperable with EOSC. This prototype service delegation will be made operational during the upcoming year. In the IS-ENES3 project, the web portal will be redesigned with a completely new architecture using a micro-services and containerized approach, building on experience gained during the previous projects. The next version of the portal will be built using the React framework, which allows for creating large web applications which can change data, without reloading the page. We are actively seeking input from current as well as potential users at this time, to make the next version of C4I useful to as many people as possible. The IS-ENES3 project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N°824084, and the DARE project under N°777413.