PNNL

Abstract

Computational scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are designing a collaborative problem-solving environment (CPSE) to support regional climate modeling and assessment of climate impacts. Where most climate computational science research and development projects focus at the level of the scientific codes, file systems, data archives, and networked computers, our analysis and design efforts are aimed at designing enabling technologies that are directly meaningful and relevant to climate researchers at the level of the practice and the science. We seek to characterize the nature of scientific problem-solving and look for innovative ways to improve it. Moreover, we aim to glimpse beyond current systems and technical limitations to derive a design that expresses the regional climate or impact assessment modeler?s own perspective on research activities, processes, and resources. The product of our analysis and design work is a conceptual regional climate and impact assessment CPSE prototype that specifies a complete simulation and modeling user environment and a suite of high-level problem-solving tools.