Introduction
The Institute for Computational Earth System Science (ICESS) is an organized research unit (ORU) carrying out cutting-edge research in Earth System Science, the study of the Earth as an integrated and interactive system along with its physical, biogeochemical, and human components. ICESS research includes ocean, atmospheric, land surface, cryospheric, and polar sciences on regional and global scales. Remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems, and numerical modeling are the primary tools used at ICESS to address quantitatively Earth System Science issues.
Research within ICESS revolves around a unique computational environment. This shared community resource permits the flourishing of interdisciplinary collaborative research and training that is unimpeded by barriers that often exist between different academic departments. ICESS is a Center of Excellence that aids in the attraction of top faculty and students to UCSB, affords visibility to UCSB in the area of Earth system science, and provides an efficiently-run business operation and administration in support of research.
During the 97/98 fiscal year, ICESS completed the 15-year review process. The external review committee commented that ICESS is "an extremely strong ORU whose mission is particularly critical in light of the importance of interdisciplinary Earth system science." The 15-year review process and the ICESS PI retreat, held at the recommendation of the review committee, provided the opportunity to explore research activities in which ICESS is currently successful, and develop plans for new areas of research which will further strengthen the participation of the ICESS PIs, namely Earth System Modeling and data assimilation at the regional scale.
Research and Instruction
Humankind is increasingly faced with profound and critical environmental problems that require a much-improved understanding of the Earth and the processes that drive its various components. Environmental policy makers at the state and federal level are asking for carefully reviewed scientific evidence to help them make sound policy decisions. Research within ICESS is vital in increasing understanding of the environment, and ICESS participants are called upon to provide significant input with respect to these issues. As our understanding of the complexity of natural systems increases, the need for interdisciplinary approaches describing our physical environment, modeling physical and biogeochemical processes, and predicting the consequences of environmental variation becomes ever more crucial. Although interdisciplinary science is a lofty and well-understood goal, there are few locations on campus or indeed in the general scientific community where interdisciplinary research can be undertaken smoothly, if at all. ICESS is a unit where interdisciplinary scientific research not only occurs on a daily basis, but is actively promoted through shared resources, scientific collaboration, and graduate student education.
ICESS provides excellent opportunities for student research which is supported by extramural grants. Our field of research spans the globe and provides unique research opportunities to both undergraduate and graduate students. The strongest student training offered at ICESS, however, is in computational Earth Science with emphasis on remote sensing and radiative transfer numerical modeling. The extraordinary array of available tools from the Sea Space Satellite Data receiving station to the extraordinary analysis software programs (IPW, IDL, Terascan, SeaDAS, GIS) allows the training of students who are ready to perform highly quantitative tasks when they graduate from UCSB. Radiative transfer models developed by individual groups are made available to all ICESS PIs and their students, speeding up the learning curve. This jumpstarts students in the development of new and more powerful tools as part of their personal research and thus allows them to contribute to their rapidly growing field almost immediately. Unencumbered by computer limitations, they can explore computational areas usually unavailable at this stage of their career.
There is considerable opportunity for sharing of experience and expertise among the different levels of participants, where members often work as an integrated team -- from undergraduates through post-doctoral fellows and faculty. ICESS recently expanded the support of undergraduate research through the NASA funded "UCSB Earth System Science Undergraduate Summer Research Program." This program involved all ICESS faculty and researchers.
Since 1990 ICESS has grown in personnel, projects, proposals submitted and received, total funding, and overall productivity. The number of principal investigators/academics has increased by a factor of six, while graduate support has more than quadrupled. Extramural grants have increased from $1,288,516 in 1990 to $5,202,036 in 97/98, with an average of $4,560,866 for the past five years. A further measure of the unusual strength, stature, and productivity of ICESS is the fact that virtually all principal investigators are involved in one or more long-term research projects.
Facilities
The ICESS computational facility is a unique, shared, community resource, allowing interdisciplinary and collaborative research and training to flourish. The open nature of the shared computational resources is unprecedented in U.S. research groups. Most importantly, the community computer resource enables students and faculty researchers to share not only hardware and software resources but also the data sets and specialized computer programs that are the core of the individual research projects. This sharing of intellectual achievements enables ICESS researchers to make new and important Earth system science and integrated assessment discoveries, in turn to share their results quickly with the wider community, and provides a truly interdisciplinary environment to train students.
ICESS facilities consist of state-of-the-art computing resources, an optical calibration laboratory, an electronics laboratory, a satellite receiver dish, Seaspace TeraScan data acquisition and image processing system, Bausch & Lomb UV Radiometer with access to nationwide UV data, comprehensive climate radiation data, and a variety of unique field equipment. The satellite receiver is used for the real time acquisition of satellite data. This capability, in concert with advanced networking facilities, makes current and historical satellite imagery electronically accessible at UCSB for both research and instruction.
The volume and diversity of information consumed and generated by Earth system science profoundly stress all aspects of the information life cycle: collection, archiving, discovery, retrieval, analysis, presentation, and dissemination. Artificial barriers to information sharing and integration, whether discipline- or source-specific, are no longer tolerated. ICESS is, and will remain, at the forefront of a growing trend that treats "environmental information management" as discipline unto itself, one charged with bringing an information lifecycle perspective to Earth system science. ICESS's unique computing infrastructure, and its critical mass of scientists committed to environmental information management, are key resources in the development of this field. Through the NASA funded Centers of Excellence award, we are currently completing significant infrastructure upgrades that will continue to allow collaborative research to take place unencumbered by technological limitations.
Concluding Remarks
The study of Earth is inherently multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary. To obtain a thorough understanding of its complexities, the traditional Earth-Science disciplines cannot be studied strictly independently. Rather, how they relate to one another and how they relate to the Earth's human dimension must be understood. Significant research trends are occurring in each major discipline covered by ICESS PIs. Researchers at ICESS are leaders in the development of remote sensing techniques and state-of-the-art simulation modeling of environmental processes, including radiative transfer, terrestrial ecophysiology and biogeochemistry, groundwater hydrology and contaminant transport, land-surface water balance and hydraulic routing, riverine flooding, sediment transport, regional meteorology, atmospheric transport, global Earth surface radiation, and climate processes. This synergy of richly diverse scientists has created a unique interdisciplinary environment and brought special recognition to UCSB in the area of Earth system science.
Our primary objective is to provide a supportive environment for research and research education where scholarship can flourish, an environment where the latest technical and intellectual advances in computer science may be used to address some of the most pressing and complex problems in the Earth sciences.
Catherine Gautier
Director,
Institute for Computational Earth System Science