Principle Investigator : Eric Guilyardi IPSL/Reading Lois Steenman-Clark NCAS, University of Reading Leader of METAFOR Work Package 2 GO-ESSP Seattle 2008

Facts and Figures METAFOR Common Metadata for Climate Modelling Digital Repositories EU FP7 e-infrastructures project 11 partners Total budget of 2.2M€ Starting in March 2008, duration 3 years The principle aim of METAFOR is to develop a Common Information Model (CIM) to describe in a standard way the climate data as well as the numerical models that produce this data.

Partners NCAS, University of Reading, UK (Coordinator) BADC, Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK CERFACS, France Models and Data, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Germany Institute Pierre-Simon Laplace, CNRS, France University of Manchester, UK Met Office, UK Administratia Nationala de Meterologie, Romania Météo France, CNRM, France CLIMPACT, France CICS, Princeton University, USA

Vision of An Information Model that is common for all stages of both production and the use of climate model data. Tools that populate, create, manipulate, convert and exploit this Common Information Model to allow climate models and climate model data to be inter- comparable and sharable. CIM Common Information Model based on current, emerging and new metadata standards (CIM - Common or Climate Information Model ?)

has 286 person months of effort CIM Common Information Model WP 2 WP 6 CIM creation tools WP 4 Data Portals WP 3 Verification WP 5 CIM exploitation tools WP 1AdminEric Guilyardi, NCAS 14 WP2CIMLois Steenman- Clark, NCAS 101 WP 3VerificationLaurent Fairhead, IPSL 47 WP 4PortalsBryan Lawrence, BADC 32 WP 5Exploitation tools Allyn Treshansky, UKMO 41 WP6CIM creation tools Michael Lautenschlager, MPI 39 WP7DisseminationEric Guilyardi, NCAS 12

metafor is not just about the metadata but also about - being able to gather or create the metadata - building diverse repositories - enabling and designing tools to exploit the metadata Common Metadata for Climate Modelling Digital Repositories GO-ESSP Seattle 2008

Common Metadata for Climate Modelling Digital Repositories GO-ESSP Seattle 2008 Conceptual Model Climate Modelling An activity using software and data creating data to be housed in a repository. UML Application Model Application Model XSD RDF BADC IPSL PCMDI XML An essential aim of metafor is that the conceptual model is not changed by the manor in which it is used or applied.

Common Metadata for Climate Modelling Digital Repositories GO-ESSP Seattle 2008 The information modelling of the climate modelling process requires a degree of commonality with community agreement to achieve this governance mechanisms to develop and maintain this extensions for local use or translations to other systems The ‘fried egg’ implementation of the information model common community

UML package diagram ActivitySoftwareData grid quality Re-usable entities With a clear understanding of package descriptions An Activity is an abstract package of project, ensemble, campaign, investigation. Data in all its guises and usage within the climate modelling process. Software which includes all parts of the activity that takes place on a computer. Grid ie gridspec Quality measures that could be applied to activities, software or data. Re-usable entities for example responsible person, defined within ISO. and the aim to achieve a separation of concerns encouragement of interested parties to participate in discussion ensuring a degree of governance a mechanism for separate development UML class diagram + dictionary GO-ESSP Seattle 2008

Why is separate development necessary? GO-ESSP Seattle 2008 Vn 1 Vn 2 Vn 3 Vn 1 Vn 2 Vn 3 Package A For climate modelling - the UML associations are complex - it is a diverse community - requirements evolve - tools exploiting the CIM take time and effort to develop - metafor, Curator, AR5 need systems soon

Oct 2007Oct 2008 Oct 2009Oct 2010 Curator AR5 for AR5 CIM based data portals design and implementation CIM to encompass AR5 metadata requirements  Access to CIM tools and services CIM verification  part of AR5 quality control CIM tools for ingestion  tools made available to modellers CIM exploitation tools GO-ESSP Seattle 2008 metafor

Common Metadata for Climate Modelling Digital Repositories Issues for discussion metafor timelines are tight, it is a 3 year project that wants to provide a community CIM and tools that survive and evolve beyond this project governance is slow and difficult there is the challenge of achieving generic community acceptance GO-ESSP Seattle 2008