Cloudy Oceanography using Analysis Ready Datasets

Abstract:

How will science change in the next decade and what role will Analysis Ready Datasets (ARDs) play in enabling breakthrough science? During the past few years there has been an explosive growth in computational power, data availability, data volume and the open source software movement. In combination, these factors have resulted in the democratization of advanced computational tools and platforms for diverse commercial and scientific applications. There is now a rich ecosystem of easily-accessible, open source software. These tools, coupled withARDs, will enable Earth system science at a scale and ease unimaginable only a few years ago. Practically, for scientists, the effect of these changes are to vastly shrink the amount of time spent data wrangling, freeing up more time for science. This shift in paradigm has lowered the threshold for entry, expanded the user pool, and increased opportunity for collaboration, while promoting scientific innovation, transparency, and reproducibility. The efficiency of open source software, ARDs, and greater computational power enables new approaches for answering oceanographic research questions, conducting instrument calibration and algorithm validation, and streamlining data access, use, and availability.