ESM Data Exploration with the Model Data Explorer

<p>Making Earth-System-Model (ESM) Data accessible is challenging due to the large amount of data that we are facing in this realm. The upload is time-consuming, expensive, technically complex, and every institution has their own procedures.</p><p>Non-ESM experts face a lot of problems and pure data portals are hardly usable for inter- and trans-disciplinary communication of ESM data and findings, as this level of accessibility often requires specialized web or computing services.&#160;</p><p>With the Model Data Explorer, we want to simplify the generation of web services from ESM data, and we provide a framework that allows us to make the raw model data accessible to non-ESM experts.</p><p>Our decentralized framework implements the possibility for an efficient remote processing of distributed ESM data. Users interface with an intuitive map-based front-end to compute spatial or temporal aggregations, or select regions to download the data. The data generators (i.e. the scientist with access to the raw data) use a light-weight and secure python library based on the Data Analytics Software Framework (DASF, https://digital-earth.pages.geomar.de/dasf/dasf-messaging-python) to create a back-end module. This back-end module runs close to the data, e.g. on the HPC-resource where the data is stored. Upon request, the module generates and provides the required data for the users in the web front-end.</p><p>Our approach is intended for scientists and scientific usage! We aim for a framework where web-based communication of model-driven data science can be maintained by the scientific community. The Model Data Explorer ensures fair reward for the scientific work and adherence to the FAIR principles&#160;without too much overhead and loss in scientific accuracy.&#160;</p><p>The Model Data Explorer is in the progress of development at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon,&#160;together with multiple scientific and data management partners in other German research centers. The full list of contributors is constantly updated and can be accessed at https://model-data-explorer.readthedocs.io.</p>