Virtual Earthquake and seismology Research Community e-science environment in Europe
Project number 283543
Call (part) identifier  FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2011-2
Funding scheme Combination of CP & CSA
Start date 01/10/2011
Duration 48 months

Keywords

Data intensive e-science environment, service-oriented architecture, Grid and HPC computing, data infrastructure, earthquake, seismology.

Summary

The earthquake and seismology research, an intrinsically Global undertaking, addresses both fundamental problems in understanding Earth's internal wave sources and structures, and augment applications to societal concerns about natural hazards, energy resources, environmental change, and national security.

This community is central in the European Plate Observing System , the ESFRI initiative in solid Earth Sciences.

Global and regional seismology monitoring systems are continuously operated and transmitting a growing wealth of data from around the world. The multi-use nature of these data puts a great premium on open-access data infrastructures integrated globally. Most of the effort is in Europe, USA and Japan.

The European Integrated Data Archives infrastructure provides strong horizontal data services. Enabling advanced analysis of these data by utilising a data-aware distributed computing environment is instrumental to exploit fully the cornucopia of data, and to guarantee optimal operation and design of the high-cost monitoring facilities. The strategy of VERCE, driven by the needs of data-intensive applications in data mining and modelling, aims to provide a comprehensive architecture and framework adapted to the scale and the diversity of these applications, and integrating the community Data infrastructure with Grid and HPC infrastructures.

A first novel aspect of VERCE consists of integrating a service-oriented architecture with an efficient communication layer between the Data and the Grid infrastructures, and HPC. A second novel aspect is the coupling between HTC data analysis and HPC data modelling applications through workflow and data sharing mechanisms. VERCE will strengthen the European earthquake and seismology research competitiveness, and enhance the data exploitation and the modelling capabilities of this community. In turn, it will contribute to the European and National e-infrastructures.

Partners

  1. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS-INSU, FR)
    • Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP)
    • Université Joseph Fourier de Grenoble (UJF)
  2. The University of Edinburgh (UEDIN, UK)
  3. Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut (KNMI-ORFEUS, NL)
  4. Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC, FR)
  5. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV, IT)
  6. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen (LMU, DE)
  7. The University of Liverpool (ULIV, UK)
  8. Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften (BADW-LRZ, DE)
  9. Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung E.V. (SCAI, DE)
  10. Consorzio Interuniversitario Cineca (CINECA, IT)

Activities

Network Activities
NA1 (WP1): Management
NA2 (WP2): Pilot applications and use cases
NA3 (WP3): Training and user documentation
NA4 (WP4): Dissemination and public outreach
Service Activities
SA1 (WP5): Management and operation of the research platform
SA2 (WP6): Integration and evaluation of the platform services
SA3 (WP7): Scientific gateway, user interfaces and knowledge and method sharing
Joint Research Activities
JRA1 (WP8): Harnessing data-intensive applications
JRA2 (WP9): VERCE architecture and tools for data analysis and data modelling applications