Common modeling infrastructure refers to software libraries that can be shared across multiple institutions in order to increase software reuse and interoperability in complex modeling systems. Early initiatives were in the
climate and
weather domain, where
software components representing distinct physical domains (for example,
ocean or
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...
) tended to be developed by domain specialists, often at different organizations. In order to create complete applications, these needed to be combined, using for instance a
general circulation model, that transfers data between different components. An additional challenge is that these models generally require
supercomputers to run, to account for the collected data and for data analyses. Thus, it was important to provide an efficient massively parallel computer system, and the processing hardware and software, to account for all the different workloads and communication channels.
General
Common modeling infrastructure projects include the Network Common Data Form (
NetCDF) library, the Spherical Coordinate Remapping and Interpolation Package (SCRIP), the Flexible Modeling System (FMS), the OASIS coupler developed at CERFACS, and the multi-agency Earth System Modeling Framework (
ESMF
The Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF) is open-source software for building climate, numerical weather prediction, data assimilation, and other Earth science software applications. These applications are computationally demanding and usuall ...
).
The
Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF) is considered a technical layer, integrated into a common modeling infrastructure. Other aspects of interoperability and shared infrastructure include: common experimental protocols, common analytic methods, common documentation standards for data and data
provenance
Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...
, shared workflow, and shared model components.
History
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a series of journal papers and government reports described common modeling infrastructure as necessary to the competitiveness and evolution of the U.S. Earth science modeling community. These reports resulted in a number of new community projects. Th
Earth System Modeling Framework(
ESMF
The Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF) is open-source software for building climate, numerical weather prediction, data assimilation, and other Earth science software applications. These applications are computationally demanding and usuall ...
) and th
Earth System Modeling(ESM) are two of the largest modeling approaches. Similar projects were initiated in related domains, including th
Space Weather Modeling Framework(SWMF/CESM), to study conditions including the Sun, solar wind, magnetosphere, ionosphere, and thermosphere that potentially can influence performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems or can endanger human life or health.
See also
*
Climate model
*
Earth System Modeling Framework
References
{{Computer modeling
Computer libraries
Numerical climate and weather models