AuScope Modelling Atlas - Interactive atlas of the Earth’s evolution

The digital Model Atlas app helped distribute, share, and curate numerical simulations created with cutting-edge software. This digital infrastructure is currently hosted on GitHub, the world’s largest source code repository, providing a browsable, machine-searchable, and user-friendly interface to the underlying repository and data store.

Overview

The "Interactive atlas of the Earth's evolution" project implemented a digital Model Atlas designed to curate, share, and distribute numerical simulations created with cutting-edge software. This project established a new digital infrastructure hosted on GitHub, serving as a user-friendly and searchable front end for complex geological repositories. 

Led by Dr Sara Palenko, this project expanded the prototype Basin Genesis Hub Atlas and connected it to the SAM cloud infrastructure and computing resources of the AuScope-NCI Partnership. It also migrated the existing Underworld Community to the new Atlas and supported other nascent software communities in making this transition.

The Challenge

Before this project, the geoscience community faced significant hurdles in discovering and reusing numerical model results. A major barrier was the lack of standardised community methods for storing and describing simulation outputs with rich metadata. Furthermore, reusability was often impossible without manually recreating the original software and data environments. 

This project was designed to overcome these technical obstacles and put numerical models on equal footing with other primary geophysical and climatic datasets. AuScope is addressing this need by creating a comprehensive infrastructure to support the FAIR principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) in numerical geoscience modelling.

Expected Outcomes

  • Established GitHub Infrastructure: The team successfully launched the project's GitHub organisation and automated architecture. This has helped facilitate community-driven development and peer-reviewed model submissions in a centralised, accessible platform.

  • Model Migration: Existing simulations from the Underworld and Basin Genesis Hub repositories were successfully migrated to the new centralised Atlas. This helped consolidate research, improve simulation discoverability, and connect substantial data models.

  • Web-Interface Launch: A public-facing, human-browsable web interface was created to allow users to easily explore model parameters. This has allowed a wide audience - industry, educators, and earth scientists - to browse and understand complex earth processes and model parameters without requiring expertise in coding or in accessing repositories.

  • DOI Integration: Models were assigned stable Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) via the Zenodo community. This ensured that research outputs are permanent, searchable and citable, which is critical for the chain of reproducibility.

  • Training & Tutorials: The project delivered a suite of tutorials and documentation to improve the numerical literacy of the broader geoscience community, making it easier to integrate cutting-edge earth evolution modelling into teaching environments.

  • FAIR Principles Adoption: All codes and data were managed in accordance with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles.

Who will benefit

This project benefited several stakeholders across research and industry. Scientists in geomorphology, tectonics, and geodynamics gained a platform for sharing and modifying research models. Industry gained an appreciation for enhanced numerical models and results through a user-friendly interface. And finally, educators gained a new resource to make earth processes more accessible to support teaching.

Software, Datasets and Tools

  • GitHub Repositories: All codes and numerical models are made available as open-access repositories within the project’s GitHub organisation.

  • Web Interface: The model Atlas and its associated parameters were made publicly available via an automatically updated website.

  • Zenodo & Data Stores: Public datasets and model releases were archived via NCI data portal with associated DOIs to ensure stable, long-term access for all users.

 
 

Project Name
AuScope Modelling Atlas - Interactive atlas of the Earth’s evolution

Project Lead

Timeframe
2023 to 2023

Status
Completed

Funding
RIIP22

Host
The University of Sydney (USyd)

NCRIS Collaborators
ARDC
NCI

NCRIS Collaborators
CSIRO
Monash University
The University of Western Australia (UWA)

AuScope Programs

Acknowledging AuScope

This project was made possible by support from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) through AuScope. Acknowledging AuScope and NCRIS helps us demonstrate the value of shared research infrastructure, ensuring continued support and resources for the research community.

If you helped deliver this project or have benefited from its outputs, please credit AuScope so we can include your work in our impact reporting. For examples of acknowledgment, please visit our ‘How to Acknowledge AuScope’ page.

We’d love to see your work—please tag us on social media using:

@auscope | #AuScopeImpact | #NCRISimpact

RDSGuest UserRIIP22, Completed, Earth Evolution Atlas, Geological Numerical Simulations, Interactive model atlas, Geodynamic modelling, GitHub model Repository, Underworld Software