Intelligent archives
A data analysis and visualisation tool for paleoclimatic research
We are building a web-based analysis tool that allows the community to integrate and correlate newly digitized instrumental data, model reanalyses and reconstructions, and high-resolution proxy data. We will use this tool to investigate changes in the major modes of climate and their teleconnections, such as ENSO and the NAO. This will also validate long-term climate data sets and models that aim to simulate past climate variability. To efficiently extract valuable information from the large amounts of available data, a broad set of complex statistical methods (empirical orthogonal function and canonical correlation analysis, composite maps, regressions and correlations) are applied to identify the spatial structures associated with the modes of climate variability. One innovative approach is to construct a user-friendly integrated graphical interface for such like routines. The Internet based platform for statistical analyses would be available for use from any location equipped with an online Internet connection. The flexibility of the system is especially important for future applications where interference with model data is necessary on many interfaces. The Internet based platform will be also used for courses and seminars at the Universities and research institutes.
The systems's architecture should support easy integration of future analysis services and distributed data sources of different formats. A multitier architecture is suitable for achieving these requirements. For reasons of maintainability, scalability and expandability, the systems runtime environment will be a component based infrastructure which offers transparent administrative, communicative and security-related services to it's client processes.
Another climate data archive PANGAEA provides a platform for paleoclimatic data. The PANGAEA archive is installed at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. One project is based on the concept of using the data archive as an interpretative tool for paleoclimatic records as well. The calculation of spectra, cross correlations, and spatial correlations with instrumental data sets would provide an additional value to the archive. This would have a large impact for both educational and scientific purposes.
Example:
Design and Implementation of a data analysis and visualisation tool for paleoclimatic research: Poster (472 KB)
