Authors
Raymond Williams (University of Tasmania), Pauline Mak (Australian Research Collaboration Service), Peter Blain (Tasmanian Partnership for Advanced Computing, University Of Tasmania), and Nathan Bindoff (TPAC, University of Tasmania; Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC; IASOS, University of Tasmania; CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research; CAWCR)
Abstract
MACDDAP is an eResearch project, funded by the National eResearch Architecture Taskforce (NeAT) under the NCRIS program. Its objective is to integrate the large marine and climate data sets currently distributed across Australian research institutions, using web services technology. It will create a "virtual database" enabling researchers to collect, combine and analyse relevant data across scientific disciplines to facilitate knowledge discovery for marine- and climate-related applications.
MACDDAP encompasses a number of sub-projects that are in the process of developing (1) data discovery web services, to enhance current specialised web harvester and search tools so they can search for large spatio temporal datasets; and (2) data access web services, to enable seamless access to such datasets, based on open geospatial and scientific data standards, via appropriate web portals.
To provide the functionality required to support these services, MACDDAP is developing an aggregator for combining geospatial data from distributed sources and a translator for translating data sets into a single standard vocabulary widely used in meteorology and oceanography.
Initially, MACDDAP will enhance the availability of a number of Australian marine and climate datasets, including remote sensing and oceanographic data streams from the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), ocean climate and weather data from the Bureau of Meteorology, earth system science modelling data from TPAC and marine data sets from the Australian Oceanographic Data Network (AODN). It is anticipated that other data sets will be made available, via MACDDAP services, in the future.
The ultimate desired outcome for the MACDDAP project is to ensure that marine and climate data throughout Australia become discoverable, searchable and conformable with standard vocabularies, enabling researchers to collect and aggregate data across disciplines for knowledge discovery.
About the speaker
Peter Blain works for the Tasmanian Partnership for Advanced Computing (TPAC) at the University of Tasmania. He is the interim project manager for the Marine and Climate Data Discovery and Access Project (MACDDAP).
Dr Blain received his PhD from the School of Computing and Information Technology at Griffith University in 2007, and a Bachelor of Engineering in computer systems from the University of Queensland in 1992. He also has a Masters degree in accounting. Prior to joining TPAC, he worked as a freelance IT contractor for companies such as the Bank of Tokyo, HSBC, Westpac, CBA and the NAB - both in Australia and in Europe.