Slides given as part of GeoChronos demonstration at the CANARIE NEP Showcase in Montreal on Oct. 21st, 2010.

1. An On-line Collaborative Platform for
Earth Observation Scientists

2.  An on-line platform
 For:
 Earth Observation Scientists
 Facilitating:
 Collaboration between scientists
 Data access, management and sharing
 Application access, management and sharing
 Leveraging:
 Web 2.0 and social networking technologies
 Cloud computing technologies
 Funded by:
 CANARIE - Network Enabled Platform (NEP-1) program
 Cybera
(http://geochronos.org/)
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3.  Solutions
 Portal rich with social networking features
 Tags, bookmarks, profiles, blogs, wikis, friends/contacts, groups
 Media/document sharing, publications, presentations
 Discussions, message boards, calendars
 Status, activity feeds
 Technology
 Portal built on top of a social networking platform
 Initial prototype built in Facebook (http://www.facebook.com)
 Secondary prototype built on white label social networking platform Ning
(http://www.ning.com)
 Current portal built on open source white label social networking platform Elgg
(http://www.elgg.org)
 Next Steps
 Plan to keep using Elgg platform and upgrade as new versions released
 Develop new Elgg plugins as needed
Collaboration
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4. Dashboard
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5. Groups
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6.  Solutions
 Spectral Libraries
 Store, share and browse spectral data
 View spectral plots, metadata, ancillary data and maps
 Manage and generate metadata for spectra
 Create and share metadata schemas
 Spectral Library solution also being used to manage MODIS
satellite data
 Technology
 iRODS (http://www.irods.org/) for data storage/management
 Next Steps
 Further generalization of spectral library solution
 Acquire, store, manage, browse and share other types of data
 Flux tower and phenology tower data
 Meteorological data
 Other data
Data
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7. Spectral Library - Browse
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8. Spectral Library - Metadata
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9.  Solutions
 Interactive Application Service (IAS)
 On-line, on-demand access to scientific applications
 Share application sessions and data with other users
 Batch Processing Service (BPS)
 Background batch processing of longer running tasks and simulations
 Automation of data workflows – mosaic, reproject and subset MODIS data
 Technology
 IAS and BPS are hosted on top of a cloud computing platform
 Use ASPEN (http://grid.ucalgary.ca/projects/DataCentre/) which can
dynamically provision virtual machines to host applications based on user
demand
 Next Steps
 Better integration between different data and application services
 Application of batch processing/workflow service to other problems
Applications/Processing
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10. Application Catalogue
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11. Interactive Application Service
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12. MODIS Workflow Service
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13.  Apr 21, 2009 - CANARIE NEP-1 Synergy Workshop
(Winnipeg)
 Jun 22, 2009 - SpecNet Workshop (Lethbridge)
 Jun 24-26, 2009 – Meeting of the Collaborative Research
Network II (CRN2) and Small Grant Program for the Human
Dimensions (SGP-HD) Principal Investigators (Montevideo,
Uruguay)
 Jul 6-18, 2009 - IAI International Wireless Sensor Networking
Summer School (Edmonton)
 Aug 15, 2009 – Elgg Camp (Boston)
 Oct 14, 2009 – Summit 09 (Banff)
 Nov 17,18, 2009 – SC 2009 (Portland)
 Nov 20, 2009 – GCE 2009 (Portland)
Presentations/Demonstrations
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14.  Dec 9, 2009 – e-Science 2009 (Oxford, UK)
 Dec 14, 2009 – AGU Fall Meeting (San Francisco)
 Mar 4, 2010 – Earth Observation Science Day
(Edmonton)
 Mar 15, 2010 – OGF 28 (Munich)
 Apr 29, 2010 – European Cooperation in Science and
Technology (COST) Meeting (Italy)
 May 5, 2010 – BCNET/CANARIE Conference 2010
(Vancouver)
 Aug 14, 2010 – IAI Collaborative Research Network
Meeting (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
 Sep 22, 2010 – Cybera Summit 2010 (Banff)
Presentations/Demonstrations - II
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15.  R. Curry, C. Kiddle and R. Simmonds. Social Networking and
Scientific Gateways. In Proceedings of the Grid Computing
Environments Workshop, Portland, OR, November 20, 2009.
 N. Markatchev, R. Curry, C. Kiddle, A. Mirtchovski, R. Simmonds
and T. Tan. A Cloud-based Interactive Application Service. In
Proceedings of the 5th IEEE International Conference on e-
Science, Oxford, UK, December 9-11, 2009.
 J. A. Gamon, C. Kiddle, R. Curry, N. Markatchev, G. Pastorello Jr.,
B. Rivard, G. A. Sanchez-Azofeifa, R. Simmonds and T. Tan.
GeoChronos: An On-line Collaborative Platform for Earth
Observation Scientists. In Proceedings of the AGU Fall Meeting,
San Francisco, CA, December 14-18, 2009. (Abstract)
Publications
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16.  J. Gamon, C. Coburn, L.B. Flanagan, K.F. Huemmrich, C. Kiddle,
G.A. Sanchez-Azofeifa, D.R. Thayer, L. Vescovo, D. Gianelle, D.A.
Sims, A.F. Rahman and G.Z. Pastorello. SpecNet Revisited:
Bridging Flux and Remote Sensing Communities. To appear in
the Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, 2010.
 R. Curry, C. Kiddle, R. Simmonds and G. Z. Pastorello Jr. An On-
line Collaborative Data Management System. To appear in
Proceedings of the Gateway Computing Environments Workshop,
New Orleans, LA, November 14, 2010.
Publications - II
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17. Project Team
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Dr. Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa
University of Alberta
Dr. John Gamon
University of Alberta
Dr. Benoit Rivard
University of Alberta
Dr. Rob Simmonds
University of Calgary
Prinicipal Investigators
Project Coordination Platform Development Domain Scientists

18. Virtual Organization
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19. Contact Information
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http://geochronos.org/
info@geochronos.org
http://grid.ucalgary.ca/ http://ceos.ualberta.ca/ http://www.cybera.ca/