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High-performance Earth system modeling with NASA/GSFC’s Land Information System

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Abstract

The Land Information System software (LIS; http://lis.gsfc.nasa.gov/, 2006) has been developed to support high-performance land surface modeling and data assimilation. LIS integrates parallel and distributed computing technologies with modern land surface modeling capabilities, and establishes a framework for easy interchange of subcomponents, such as land surface physics, input/output conventions, and data assimilation routines. The software includes multiple land surface models that can be run as a multi-model ensemble on global or regional domains with horizontal resolutions ranging from 2.5° to 1 km. The software may execute serially or in parallel on various high-performance computing platforms. In addition, the software has well-defined, standard-conforming interfaces and data structures to interface and interoperate with other Earth system models. Developed with the support of an Earth science technology office (ESTO) computational technologies project round~3 cooperative agreement, LIS has helped advance NASA’s Earth–Sun division’s software engineering principles and practices, while promoting portability, interoperability, and scalability for Earth system modeling. LIS was selected as a co-winner of NASA’s 2005 software of the year award.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Goddard Space Flight Center, Hydrological Sciences Branch, NASA, Code 614.3, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA

    C. D. Peters-Lidard, Y. Tian & S. V. Kumar

  2. George Mason University and Center for Research in Environment and Water, Calverton, MD, USA

    P. R. Houser

  3. Goddard Earth Sciences Technology Center, University of Maryland at Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Y. Tian & S. V. Kumar

  4. Goddard Space Flight Center, Information Systems Division, NASA, Code 580, Greenbelt, MD, USA

    J. Geiger, S. Olden & L. Lighty

  5. Center for Ocean–Land–Atmosphere Studies, Calverton, MD, USA

    B. Doty, P. Dirmeyer & J. Adams

  6. NCEP Environmental Modeling Center, NOAA/NWS, Camp Springs, MD, USA

    K. Mitchell

  7. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    E. F. Wood & J. Sheffield

Authors
  1. C. D. Peters-Lidard
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  2. P. R. Houser
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  3. Y. Tian
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  4. S. V. Kumar
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  5. J. Geiger
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  6. S. Olden
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  7. L. Lighty
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  8. B. Doty
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  9. P. Dirmeyer
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  10. J. Adams
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  11. K. Mitchell
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  12. E. F. Wood
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  13. J. Sheffield
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. D. Peters-Lidard.

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Peters-Lidard, C.D., Houser, P.R., Tian, Y. et al. High-performance Earth system modeling with NASA/GSFC’s Land Information System. Innovations Syst Softw Eng 3, 157–165 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-007-0028-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-007-0028-x

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