Earth information exchange: sharing earth science information through interoperable approach and cyber infrastructure

Earth science data and information are generated, collected, and archived at geographically dispersed locations and computers by different organizations including government agencies, companies, and others. To leverage the legacy resources for discovering earth science information and knowledge, we need a convenient access to the resources in an integral and timely fashion. This paper presents a joint effort in developing the Earth Information Exchange, an earth science portal, to support this need by approaches based on interoperability and cyberinfrastructure. ESG, an interoperable portal, is used to provide interoperability support to accessing heterogeneous resources. GMU Grid, as part of the cyberinfrastructure, is utilized to support time-consuming preprocessing, modeling, decision support tools operation. Semantic search is utilized in bridging different domains for sharing cross domain information and knowledge and refining research results. The functions are integrated into the Earth Information Exchange developed by the partnership of National Aeronautics and Space Administration, The Federation of Earth Science Information Partnership, and George Mason University to support the objective for integral and timely exchange of earth science information. The on-going effort will also provide a spatial web portal to access and improve earth science information holdings at different government agencies, educational and research institutions, and Non Government Organizations (NGO).