ESS Project FY95 Annual Report: Introduction

Introduction to the Earth and Space Sciences (ESS) Project

Project Goal and Objectives: The goal of the ESS Project is to demonstrate the potential afforded by teraFLOPS systems' performance to further our understanding and ability to predict the dynamic interaction of physical, chemical, and biological processes affecting the solar-terrestrial environment and the universe.

Project activities are focused on selected NASA Grand Challenge science applications. Many of the Grand Challenges address the integration and execution of multiple advanced disciplinary models into single multidisciplinary applications. Examples of these include coupled oceanic-atmospheric-biospheric interactions, 3D simulations of the chemically perturbed atmosphere, solid earth modeling, solar flare modeling, and 3D compressible magnetohydrodynamics. Others are concerned with analysis and assimilation into models of massive data sets taken by orbiting sensors. These problems are significant in that they have both social and political implications in our society. The science requirements inherent in the NASA Grand Challenge applications necessitate computing performance into the teraFLOPS range.

The project is driven by five specific objectives:

1) Support the development of massively parallel, scalable, multidisciplinary models, and data processing algorithms;
2) Make available prototype, scalable, parallel architectures, and massive data storage systems to ESS researchers;
3) Prepare the software environments to facilitate scientific exploration and the sharing of information and tools;
4) Develop data management tools for high-speed access management and visualization of data with teraFLOPS computers; and
5) Demonstrate the scientific and computational impact for Earth and space science applications.

Strategy and Approach: The ESS strategy is to invest the first four years of the project (FY92-95) in formulation of specifications for complete and balanced teraFLOPS computing systems to support Earth and space science applications and the next two years (FY96-97) in acquisition and augmentation of such a Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)-resident system into a stable and operational capability, suitable for migration into Code Y/S computing facilities. The ESS approach involves three principal components:

1) Use a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) to select Grand Challenge Applications and Principal Investigator Teams that require teraFLOPS computing for NASA science problems. Eight collaborative multidisciplinary Principal Investigator Teams including physical and computational scientists, software and systems engineers, and algorithm designers are addressing the Grand Challenges. In addition, 21 Guest Computational Investigators are developing specific scalable algorithmic techniques.

The Investigators provide a means to rapidly evaluate and guide the maturation process for scalable massively parallel algorithms and system software and to thereby reduce the risks assumed by later ESS Grand Challenge researchers when adopting massively parallel computing technologies.

2) Provide successive generations of scalable computing systems as Testbeds for the Grand Challenge Applications;
Interconnect the Investigators and the Testbeds through high-speed network links (Coordinated through the National Research and Education Network); and

Provide a software development environment and computational techniques support to the Investigators.

3) In collaboration with the Investigator Teams, conduct evaluations of the testbeds across applications and architectures leading to down select to the next generation scalable teraFLOPS testbed.

Organization: GSFC serves as the lead center for the ESS Project and collaborates with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The HPCC/ESS Inter-center Technical Committee, chaired by the ESS Project Manager, coordinates the GSFC/JPL roles. The ESS Applications Steering Group, composed of representatives from each science discipline office at NASA Headquarters and from the High Performance Computing Office in Code R, as well as representatives from GSFC and JPL, provides ongoing oversight and guidance to the project.

The Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology, jointly with the Office of Space Science and Applications, selected the ESS Investigators through the peer reviewed NASA Research Announcement process. The ESS Science Team, composed of the Principal Investigators chosen through the ESS NRA, and chaired by the ESS Project Scientist, organizes and carries out periodic workshops for the Investigator Teams and coordinates the computational experiments of the Investigations. The ESS Evaluation Director leads development of ESS computational and throughput benchmarks that are representative of the ESS computational workload. A staff of Inhouse Computational Scientists develops scalable computational techniques that address the Computational Challenges of the ESS Investigators.

The ESS Project Manager serves as a member of the NASA-wide High Performance Computing Working Group, and representatives from each Center serve on the NASA-wide Technical Coordinating Committees for Applications, Testbeds, and System Software Research.

Management Plan: The Project is managed in accordance with the formally approved ESS Project Plan. The ESS Project Manager at GSFC and the JPL Task Leader together oversee coordinated development of Grand Challenge applications, high-performance computing testbeds, and advanced system software for the benefit of the ESS Investigators. Monthly, quarterly, and annual reports are provided to the High Performance Computing Office in Code R. ESS and its Investigators contribute annual software submissions to the High Performance Computing Software Exchange.

Points of Contact:

Jim Fischer
Goddard Space Flight Center
fischer@jacks.gsfc.nasa.gov
301-286-3465

Robert Ferraro
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
ferraro@zion.jpl.nasa.gov
818-354-1340

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