'Surfing' for real-time earth resources data

Earth and environmental scientists will be able to access data and build realistic models and simulations of earth processes across Australia without leaving their offices, say researchers organising an Australian workshop about a new paradigm in Internet technologies and computing.

Speaking on the topic of "e-Science: A frontier technology for achieving the National Research Priorities", Chief Scientist, Robin Batterham, opened the Workshop on Building the Solid Earth and Environmental Sciences GRID at the CSIRO Discovery Centre in Canberra on Tuesday 29 July.

The Grid is a powerful frontier technology that will enhance management of our natural and mineral resources. A new infrastructure built on the existing Internet and World Wide Web technologies, it has the capacity to vastly simplify access to distributed solid earth and environmental science databases.

"Grid technologies offer a new tool set to geoscientists," says CSIRO's Dr Joan Esterle. "If there's a new type of ore deposit, geoscientists anywhere in the world could simply use the Internet to get the most recent available data they need, and after analysing this information, they could develop realistic maps or 3D models from their office.

"The Grid offers much more cost effective and accurate ways to integrate, in real time, geographically distributed data sets and hence achieve greater precision for locating and testing potential ore deposits."

Dr Lesley Wyborn of Geoscience Australia says, "The Grid doesn't just benefit the geosciences. Many of the Grid technologies developed for geoscience research are also required by other scientific disciplines. The only difference lies in the data types that each discipline will want to access. In fact, national and international grids are already operating in the environmental domains such as climate and oceanographic research and astronomy."

Dr Esterle further claims, "For the resource industry, this means that environmental data sets will be readily accessible, allowing more accurate assessment of the impacts of mining developments on the environment."

Item provided courtesy of The CSIRO