Dana Freeborn

Evaluating cloud computing in the NASA DESDynI ground data system

The proposed NASA Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice (DESDynI) mission would be a first-of-breed endeavor that would fundamentally change the paradigm by which Earth Science data systems at NASA are built. DESDynI is evaluating a distributed architecture where expert science nodes around the country all engage in some form of mission processing and data archiving. This is compared to the traditional NASA Earth Science missions where the science processing is typically centralized. Whats more, DESDynI is poised to profoundly increase the amount of data collection and processing well into the 5 terabyte/day and tens of thousands of job range, both of which comprise a tremendous challenge to DESDynIs proposed distributed data system architecture. In this paper, we report on a set of architectural trade studies and benchmarks meant to inform the DESDynI mission and the broader community of the impacts of these unprecedented requirements. In particular, we evaluate the benefits of cloud computing and its integration with our existing NASA ground data system software called Apache Object Oriented Data Technology (OODT). The preliminary conclusions of our study suggest that the use of the cloud and OODT together synergistically form an effective, efficient and extensible combination that could meet the challenges of NASA science missions requiring DESDynI-like data collection and processing volumes at reduced costs.

Enabling earth science through cloud computing

Cloud Computing holds tremendous potential for missions across the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Several flight missions are already benefiting from an investment in cloud computing for mission critical pipelines and services through faster processing time, higher availability, and drastically lower costs available on cloud systems. However, these processes do not currently extend to general scientific algorithms relevant to earth science missions. The members of the Airborne Cloud Computing Environment task at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have worked closely with the Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE) mission to integrate cloud computing into their science data processing pipeline. This paper details the efforts involved in deploying a science data system for the CARVE mission, evaluating and integrating cloud computing solutions with the system and porting their science algorithms for execution in a cloud environment.

A Science Data System approach for the DESDynI mission

Amongst the many key challenges to the Science Data System (SDS) for the DESDynI (Deformation, Eco-system Structure, and Dynamics of Ice) mission is the exceptionally large data volume (on the order of 5 tera-byte per day) acquired by the radar and the consequent huge volume of data products produced (on the order of 16 peta-bytes per year). This paper presents an SDS conceptual approach to effectively and efficiently support the mission. The features of this SDS approach include: 1) A modular functional architecture that is based on the proven Object Oriented Data Technology (OODT) based framework, 2) the application of a Testbed Concept that facilitates the morphing of scientific algorithms to operational codes, and 3) innovative data staging, storage and backup strategies. This SDS approach is expected to form a strong basis for helping DESDynI achieve its many science goals and objectives.