Land Information System:
Complimentary CEOP
Satellite Data Integration Activities
Christa D. Peters-Lidard, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
Hydrological Sciences Branch, Code 974
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD
cpeters@hsb.gsfc.nasa.gov

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

Land Information System
Global Land Modeling & Data Assimilation
http://lis.gsfc.nasa.gov
Co-PIs: P. Houser1, C. Peters-Lidard1
1Hydrological Sciences Branch, Code 974
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC),Greenbelt, MD
Co-Is: P. Dirmeyer2, B. Doty2, K. Mitchell3,E. Wood4, S. Denning5
2Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies(COLA), Calverton, MD
3National Centers for Environmental
Prediction (NCEP), Camp Springs, MD
4Princeton University, Department of Civiland Environmental Engineering,
Princeton, NJ
5Colorado State University (CSU),
Department of Atmospheric Science,
Fort Collins, COLand Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

When complete, LIS will…
••

•
•
•

Operate in near-real-time at a high spatial (1km)
and temporal (15 min) resolution;
Predict and assimilate global fluxes/stores of:– Water,– Energy, and– Carbon
Build on 4DDA framework from the Land Data
Assimilation System (LDAS);
Exploit HPCC technology to obtain highresolutions and maximize interoperability; andDemonstrate the developing Earth System
Modeling Framework (ESMF) for future coupling
to climate and/or weather models
Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

Resolution
Land Grid Points
Disk Space/Day (Gb)Memory (Gb)Land Information System (LIS)

1/4 deg
2.43E+05
135 km
5.73E+06
2862

1 km
1.44E+08
694
1561

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

LIS Design

Raw data on the Internet

LIS users

Webbaseduserinterface

To atmospheric models

ALMA
ALMA standardESMFstandard
ESMF
Data
retrieving

Input
data

GrADSDODS
server

Input

Outputdata

Output

ESMF-compliant
Land Surface Modeling
Parallelization scheme

GrADSDODS
serverParallel
ParallelcomputÕg
computingcontrol
control
Systemmanagement
interface
SystemmonitorParallel computing hardware platform(SGI Origin 3000 or Linux cluster)Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

LIS Beowulf Cluster

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

Grid Analysis and Display
System (GrADS)+
Distributed Oceanographic Data
System (DODS)=GrADS-DODS Server (GDS)
http://grads.iges.org/grads/gds/
Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

GrADS and DODS
Data Interoperability
Distributed Data
Distributed Analysis

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

Distributed Oceanographic Data System(DODS)• Conceived in 1993 at a workshop held at U. Rhode
Island, USA.
• Objective was to facilitate access to network-based
oceanographic data by making it easier to:− serve distributed data, and− analyze distributed data.

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

DODS = OPeNDAP + NVODS• To isolate the discipline independent part of thesystem from the discipline specific part, two entities
have been formed– Open Source Project for a Network Data AccessProtocol (OPeNDAP). This the discipline independent
core infrastructure for data distribution, and– National Virtual Ocean Data System (NVODS) This is
the discipline specific portion related to data – data
population, data location, specialized clients, etc.
Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

DODS and Data Organization
Example: Consider the different ways of organizing a
multi-year data set consisting of one global sea
surface temperature (SST) field per day:¾ one 2-d file per day sst(lat,lon) - URI¾ one 3-d file sst(lon,lat,time) - PMEL
¾ one file per year with one variable per day Ö365
variables per file, n files for n year - GSFC
Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

GrADS-DODS Server (GDS)
http://grads.iges.org/grads/gds/
Joe Wielgosz, Brian Doty,
James Gallagher, Daniel Halloway

GrADS
Jennifer Adams, Reinhard Budich, Luigi Calori, Brian Doty,
Wesley Ebisuzaki, Mike Fiorino, Tom Holt, Don Hooper, Jim Kinter,
Steve Lord, Gary Love, Karin Meier, Matt Munnich,
Uwe Schulzweida, Arlindo da Silva, Michael Timlin,
Pedro Tsai, Brian Wilkinson, Katja Winger

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

Visualizing
Maps, Charts, Animations
Interactive

Quantitative

INTEGRATEDUSER INTERFACE

Analyzing
Expressions, Functionsof Original Variables
User Definable,
Extensible

Land Information System (LIS)

Accessing, Subsetting
Generalslices of{

4D Grids
In Situ Obs
ImagesArbitrary Domains
Optimized for Typical Queries

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

GrADS Usage• “Natural” user interface for scientificcomputations, and graphical production– Used at over 100 laboratories worldwide– Used by over 1000 scientists worldwide– E.g., J. Climate - Over ½ of all figures (andcomputations?) produced using GrADS• Handles GRIB, binary (model output) formats
in “native” mode
– Widely used for analysis and display of data fromthe National Weather Service, other WMO sources

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

GrADS Analysis Model
ENABLES VERY SOPHISTICATED ANALYSIS TASKSIN A HIGHLY ENCAPSULATED WAY
Scientists only need to specify:• dimension constraint• list of data sets
• GrADS expression
This unique, innovative approach to geophysical data
analysis is the major reason for GrADS’ popularity.

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

GrADS-DODS Analysis Server
Serverdatasets in any format
supported by GrADS

GrADS data
GRIB data
NetCDF dataetc..

performs
analysis
operations

manages sessions,translates dataset
names

GrADS
batch modeinterfacecode

Resultcacheholds temporary data
(uploaded, generated bya previous operation, ortransferred directlyfrom another server) for
use in remote analysis

supports extended request types foranalysis, upload

DODS serverlibraries

Javaservlet

internet
DODS data and requests

ClientGrADS

Encapsulated Analysis Requests
Matlab

DODS client libraries
data appears to client as local file, in astandard format (i.e, NetCDF, etc.)

Joe Wielgosz: 5/25/00

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

IDLetc..

Data Access/Interoperability/Analysis• Level 0: FTP & basic Web capability.
• Level 1: DODS server concept: general data subsetting;metadata. Client can support data interoperability.
• Level 2: Analysis server. Uses GrADS uniqueencapsulated analysis capability.
Example:Calculate – at the server! – sea level pressure anomaly
over N. America when tropical Pacific SSTA > 1.0. Returnthe result – as data ! – to the desktop.
Size of data sets: 3GB (Level 0)
Data processed at server: 5 MB (Level 1)
Returned to client: 10KB (Level 2)
Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

DODS Client and Server Status

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

Special Servers

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

Example:
Analysis atthe Server
sdfopen
http://cola8.iges.org:9090/dods/_expr_{ssta,z5a}{tmave(maskout(aave(... }{-180:0,0:90,500:500,jan1950,dec1990}
set gxout shaded
display result
Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

Data Interoperability
Example:Data from two Servers
sdfopen http://cola8...
set gxout shaded
set time jul1980
d p
sdfopen http://cdc...
set gxout contourd prate.2*86400*31

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

Summary: GrADS-DODS Server• Share data: Enterprise-wide; Internet-wide --data-format independent• Data interoperability: Consistent metadata for many
data types• Distributed analysis: Reduces network load;
improves interactivity• Automation of analysis techniques: Analysis
techniques can be captured in the form of scripts andprovided on server and/or client

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

DODS Status

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

Some DODS Servers¾ ARCAS (ACACIA Regional Climate Data Access System)¾http://dataserver.ucar.edu/cgi-bin/dods/nph-nc/dods/acacia/¾ VEMAP (The Vegetation/Ecosystem Modeling andAnalysis Project)¾http://dataserver.ucar.edu/cgi-bin/dods/nph-nc/dods/vemap/¾ TIME-GCM (Thermosphere/Ionosphere/MesosphereElectrodynamic General Circulation Model)¾http://dataserver.ucar.edu/cgi-bin/dods/nph-nc/dods/time-gcm/

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

Some DODS Servers¾ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC)¾http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/dods/¾ NOMADS (NOAA Operational Model Archive andDistribution System)¾http://nomads.gfdl.noaa.gov

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

NOMADS¾ NOMADS (NOAA Operational Model Archive andDistribution System)¾http://nomads.gfdl.noaa.gov¾ NOMADS Software Infrastructure¾Distributed Oceanographic Data System (DODS)
package from Unidata/ UCAR
¾Grid Analysis and Display System - DODS Server (GDS)
package from COLA/ IGES
¾Live Access Server (LAS) package from PMEL/ NOAALand Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard

DODS and NOMADS Demo
¾ NASA LIS GrADS/DODS Server¾http://lis.gsfc.nasa.gov¾ NASA LIS GrADS/DODS Server Interface¾http://lshp.gsfc.nasa.gov/lis/test_runs/demo/test.html¾ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC)¾http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/dods/¾http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/las/¾ NOMADS (NOAA Operational Model Archive andDistribution System)¾http://nomads.gfdl.noaa.gov

Land Information System (LIS)

Dr. Christa D. Peters-Lidard