The Challenge:
To provide customized collaboration tools for the management of environmental monitoring data and to enable geographically dispersed researchers to access and share information.
Cybera’s Solution:
GeoChronos is a set of collaboration and management tools, hosted in an online portal, that enables researchers from the earth observation community to integrate, analyze, visualize and share data and scientific applications. The portal combines integration tools, earth observation data and various computing resources into a single point of access. Using satellite technology, pictures of Earth are collected continuously and stored as data in the portal. GeoChronos then provides scientists with Facebook-like social networking tools to discuss, analyze and make effective use of this data.
In addition to improving the overall accessibility to earth observation data, GeoChronos will support the automation of scientific workflows. Raw data sets will be automatically transformed into usable data sets ready for analysis by scientists, resulting in increases research efficiency.
Cyberinfrastructure at Work:
The GeoChronos project is demonstrating the following cyberinfrastructure technologies:
- Web 2.0 and social networking tools for online collaboration among earth observation researchers
- Remote data management of earth observation findings
- Single point access to collaboration and visualization tools
- Advanced networks to connect earth observation researchers around the world
How this Project Affects You:
The GeoChronos project is helping address a number of important environmental concerns that exist throughout the world. The research and analysis the portal supports is helping earth observation scientists develop a better understanding of the impacts of climate change, biodiversity, and environmental disturbances. While still under development, about 50 scientists and students from around the globe are currently using the analytic and collaboration capabilities of the portal, which will be made available to the broader research community when the project nears completion in 2010. This project has also attracted the interest of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change with several Latin American governments on developing sophisticated tools for environmental monitoring in the Americas.
Investment:
The jointly funded project by Cybera and CANARIE, worth over $1 million, was initiated in April 2008 as part of the first round of CANARIE NEP funding.
Partners:
- CANARIE
- Center for Earth Observation Sciences, University of Alberta
- Cybera
- Grid Research Centre, University of Calgary
- Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Visit the Portal:
Publications:
GeoChronos One Sheet (Update October 2009)
