AuScope: Australian Earth Science e-Infrastructure

The major earth science challenges of today involve complex system interactions and require collaboration between multiple disciplines and organisations to gather, share, exchange and analyse information, often at a national and global scale. Such collaborations are hampered by the use of different vocabularies and data formats, as well as different regimes for access to appropriate analysis software and equipment hosted by other organisations specialised in their operations. These interactions present a significant operational challenge for researchers and service providers.

The AuScope Grid
AuScope (www.auscope.org.au) is addressing this challenge by establishing an e-Infrastructure for Australian earth science. AuScope consists of several components – Earth Imaging, Composition and Age, Virtual Core Library and Geospatial – which are principally about new data acquisition to enable an increasingly clear and rich picture of the subsurface to be created. They will result in the acquisition and publication of seismic, magneto-telluric, geochemical and hyperspectral core logging data and products. All of this data will be underpinned by an enhanced geospatial reference system from the Geospatial component. To draw together information from this new national infrastructure and from other existing sources in academia, industry and government, AuScope has developed a world-leading geoscience network: the AuScope Grid (www.auscope.org.au/category.php?id=10). This e-Infrastructure provides access to independently managed data and computing facilities across Australia. The network uses open geospatial consortium standards and GeosciML (www.geosciml.org) to allow real time access to data, information and knowledge stored in distributed repositories hosted by different organisations. All of this information, and the associated services, are accessible via the AuScope Discovery Portal (portal.auscope.org). An open source Spatial Information Services Stack is also available to allow organisations to add data holdings and computational services to the network.

Accessibility through open standards
The use of open standards means researchers are able to build their own client access tools to pull together information, perform analysis and publish their results – scientific workflow “mash-ups”. As more researchers and organisations do this the amount of accessible information and tools will increase, allowing for service chains to be built with simplified interactions between collaborating parties. Computationally demanding geoscience programs, ranging from earthquake and tsunami simulation through to ore formation and block caving, can be used to process observational information created by one party and as a basis for policy or hazard management business decisions at the far end of the service chain. A key to success will be achieving sufficient participation and open access to enable a thriving community to develop and use the infrastructure, and more importantly, to contribute to our understanding of the structure and evolution of the Australian continent.

Further information on AuScope can be found at www.auscope.org.au or by contacting Robert.Woodcock@csiro.au. AuScope Ltd is funded under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), an Australian Commonwealth Government Programme.