SlideRule Software as a model for Open Source Science for Earth System Observatory Mission Science Data Processing
Authors/Creators
- 1. NASA Goddard
- 2. University of Washington eScience Institute
- 3. University of New Hampshire
- 4. University of Washington
Description
SlideRule is a software framework for on demand science data processing on Cloud computing
infrastructure that involves several innovative open-source software packages working in concert.
SlideRule development has been guided by a fundamental change in the way Earth science data is
distributed by institutions and interacted with by data users. Historically, institutions pre-generate
datasets which are archived and made available via data centers. Data users download parts of those
datasets from the data centers and perform local processing and analysis. SlideRule models an alternative
approach that is centered around services. Institutions make science data available via web services, and
data users integrate those web services directly into their existing data analysis systems. This new
approach is enabled by co-locating low-level instrument data with scalable compute resources, and
permits efficient generation of both global standard products and custom user-defined derived datasets.