Geoinformatics: Cyberinfrastructure for the Solid Earth Sciences

Description

Advanced information technology infrastructure is increasingly being employed in the Earth sciences to provide researchers with efficient access to massive central databases and to integrate diversely formatted information from a variety of sources. These geoinformatics initiatives enable manipulation, modeling and visualization of data in a consistent way, and are helping to develop integrated Earth models at various scales, and from the near surface to the deep interior. This book uses a series of case studies to demonstrate computer and database use across the geosciences. Chapters are thematically grouped into sections that cover data collection and management; modeling and community computational codes; visualization and data representation; knowledge management and data integration; and web services and scientific workflows. Geoinformatics is a fascinating and accessible introduction to this emerging field for readers across the solid Earth sciences and an invaluable reference for researchers interested in initiating new cyberinfrastructure projects of their own.

G. Randy Keller is a Professor of Geophysics and McCollough Chair at the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy, University of Oklahoma. He has collaborated with Chaitanya Baru since the emergence of geoinformatics as an organized scientific initiative in the USA in the late 1990s, helping to lead and organize the US Geoinformatics initiative and communicate its potential to colleagues around the world both informally and through many appointments to advisory committees. He is also a Principal Investigator on the GEON (Geoscience Network) project that is a major effort funded by the National Science Foundation. Professor Keller's research has focused on applications specific to the geosciences. Chaitanya Baru is a Distinguished Scientist at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego. He has collaborated with G. Randy Keller since the emergence of geoinformatics as an organized scientific initiative in the USA in the late 1990s, helping to lead and organize the US Geoinformatics initiative and communicate its potential to colleagues around the world both informally and through many appointments to advisory committees. He is also a Principal Investigator on the GEON (Geoscience Network) project that is a major effort funded by the National Science Foundation. Dr Baru's work at the San Diego Supercomputer Center has involved cyberinfrastructure activities across a range of scientific subject areas.

"This advanced compilation provides an overview of geoinformatics....[It] may serve the reader by giving examples or strategies that they might employ in their own research." -I.D. Sasowsky, CHOICE "This volume has a place in a number of libraries: for university libraries, this is an excellent addition. For scientists wanting to rethink their use of computational resources..this is a good resource..." - Rob Harrap, Geomatica