Environment

[ Up ] [ EE ] [ Mechanical ] [ ChemE ] [ Simulations ] [ OR ] [ Environment ]

The Environmental Computing Laboratory

Environmental issues will form the basis of one of the great scientific challenges of the coming century, with concerns about understanding and managing atmospheric and land surface environments being of paramount importance. Climate modeling research and geographic information systems (GIS) and environmental information systems development at Cornell are directed at advancing our ability to understand land surface/atmospheric processes and interactions.

We propose an Intel-based Environmental Computing Laboratory to provide researchers with access to the computing power needed to apply sophisticated analysis methods to large amounts of data using a variety of tools. It will also allow access to the climate models that are our best tools for predicting and understanding future changes in the environment. In addition, the Laboratory would house a high-end digital map server that would deliver, via the Internet, dynamic, customized 2D and 3D soil survey and land resource information. Land owners, engineers, resource managers, and farmers, not to mention students and researchers, are just a few groups who can use such information. By building a dynamic spatial data delivery system on the Internet, Cornell would provide to anyone in the world with a web browser the opportunity to access and use the vast wealth of digitized land resource information available. Example projects include:

	Climate System Modeling – 3D general circulation modeling to understand the relationship between land and sea surface conditions and features of atmospheric dynamics and precipitation.
	Spatial Modeling and Visualization of Diffusely Distributed Pollutants – Modeling of hydrology and nitrogen transport within watersheds is being conducted to better understand the movement of pollutants over time. These GIS models are computationally intensive and consist of large spatial arrays of multiple grid-cell layers.

Spatial Modeling of Regional-scale Biodiversity – Integration of digital imagery, field observations and measurements to map biological diversity throughout New York State. This long-term GIS project requires massive processing power to run image classification, statistical, and real-time grid reclassification programs using multiple high resolution grids.

Participants

	Ray Bryant, Associate Professor, Department of Soil, Crop and Atmospheric Sciences
	Kerry H. Cook, Associate Professor, Department of Soil, Crop and Atmospheric Sciences
	Stephen DeGloria, Associate Professor, Department of Soil, Crop and Atmospheric Sciences

Web Links

	Soil, Crop and Atmospheric Sciences (SCAS)
	Center for the Environment (CfE)

Last modified on: 07/30/99