[Go-essp-tech] Searching on forcings in the ESG Gateway

[charlotte.pascoe at stfc.ac.uk]

Hi Syliva,

Here is my response to Gavin's queries.

1) are input variable names part of a controlled vocabulary?
No, not in the questionnaire, the user defines the names of input variables.  

2) forcings: The questionnaire has "coded up" the CMIP5 experiment design document.  
Every forcing described in the CMIP5 experiment design document is associated with a unique numerical requirement.
Numerical requirements have a name, an id, and a description. Each name is unique but where the same requirement appears in more than one experiment the id and description will be identical (and the name will be very similar). Here is an example of the same requirement in two different experiments, piControl and sstClimAerosol

experiment:			3.1 piControl
numerical requirement
	name: 		3.1.bc.wmg_conc
	id: 			bc.001
	description:	Prescribed atmospheric concentrations of pre-industrial well mixed gases: excluding CO2

experiment:			6.4a sstClimAerosol
numerical requirement
	name:			6.4a.bc.wmg_conc
	id:			bc.001
	description:	Prescribed atmospheric concentrations of pre-industrial well mixed gases: excluding CO2 

So the rule of thumb is if the forcing you want to know about is part of the CMIP5 experiment design then we have captured it in the questionnaire and it should be possible to search for it.  If the forcing is something that the user may have applied unilaterally then we don't have any control over whether/how that information is recorded but it is possible for users to describe it.  When users tell us about how their model conformed to a requirement they describe how they did it using free text.

3) forcings that differ within the same experiment.
The historicalMisc experiment has a controlled vocabulary for the individual forcing agents and we capture that in the questionnaire as a drop-down list.  The user sees a list with the description field of each forcing agent but the questionnarie output also contains the name and id.

id:			bc.058
name:			7.3.bc.SD
description:	SD anthropogenic sulfate aerosol, accounting only for direct effects

id:			bc.059
name:			7.3.bc.SI
description:	SI anthropogenic sulfate aerosol, accounting only for indirect effects

5) Forcings button
The forcing information in the NetCDF files is also captured in a controlled way by the CMIP5 questionnaire.


Charlotte
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Charlotte Pascoe 
+44 (0)1235 445869
BADC - CEDA - RAL - STFC
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-----Original Message-----
From: Sylvia Murphy [mailto:Sylvia.Murphy at noaa.gov] 
Sent: 13 July 2011 20:35
To: Schmidt, Gavin A. (GISS-6110)
Cc: Metafor List; go-essp-tech at ucar.edu; Pascoe, Charlotte (STFC,RAL,RALSP)
Subject: Re: Searching on forcings in the ESG Gateway

Hi Gavin,
You pose some interesting questions here.  Alas, some of the people who are best suited to answer them are unavailable this week.  I  just did not want you to think we were ignoring you.  You'll hear from me again once I can get you a coordinated response.
Cheers,
Sylvia
On Jul 8, 2011, at 3:04 PM, Schmidt, Gavin A. (GISS-6110) wrote:

> Hi Sylvia, a couple of thoughts. 
> 
> 1) are the input variable names part of the controlled vocabulary? If not, there may be some confusion - though this might be mitigated if the search was over the full text and was case-insenstive etc.
> 
> 2) The reason to search on the forcings is to a) establish whether any specific forcing was used in a specific experiment across the groups. Which 'historical' simulations used ozone depletion? Which RCPs had continuations of solar cycle variability?  and b) what experiments can be usefully compared to each other - ie different models' 'historicalMisc' runs with similar forcing sets, or same models' experiments that differ in some small detail in the forcings (i.e. identifying runs with and without indirect aerosol effects). 
> 
> 3) Forcings can differ within the same experiment even with the same model ('historicalMisc' is the obvious case, but may also occur with other simulations - i.e. we have one set of model runs that include an irrigation component but are otherwise identical). GIven the current set up the only indication of this is through the metafor name of the simulation and the 'forcings' attribute in the netcdf file - neither of which are visible via ESG. This is the biggest issue. 
> 
> 4) I'm not really sure how well your proposed solution would work in practice though. Perhaps you could work though the cases in points 2 + 3 and demonstrate that it would be clear?
> 
> 5) Can we name the button 'Forcings' ? (and make the direct link to the 'forcings' attribute in the netcdf files.
> 
> Regards, 
> 
> gavin
> 
> 
> 
> On Jul 8, 2011, at 2:49 PM, Sylvia Murphy wrote:
> 
>> Hi Gavin,
>> It was a pleasure meeting you at the CCSM workshop a few weeks ago and getting your feedback on the model metadata display within the ESG Gateway.  Cecelia and I have been thinking about your comment on being able to search on forcings and would like to bounce off the following with you to ensure we correctly understand your requirement.    To do so, I have attached two screen shots.   The first screen shot shows the current search interface and the "facets" on the left-hand side that allow the user to narrow a search.  The second screen shot shows the current inputs (initial conditions, boundary conditions etc) for a sample CMIP5 simulation.  
>> 
>> Would your requirement be met if we added a facet to the search (see figure 1) called Input or Input Condition (let us know if you have a preference) and then listed all of the variables names you see in screen shot 2 as the options to select from in the search itself?
>> 
>> Thanks again for your feedback.  It is invaluable to us.  
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Sylvia
>> 
>> <search.tiff>
>> <inputs.tiff>
>> ***********************************
>> Sylvia Murphy
>> NESII/CIRES/NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
>> 325 Broadway, Boulder CO 80305
>> Email: sylvia.murphy at noaa.gov
>> Phone: 303-497-7753
>> Fax: 303-497-7649
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> ==========
> 
> Gavin Schmidt
> NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
> 2880 Broadway
> New York, NY 10025
> Tel: 212 678 5627
> Email: Gavin.A.Schmidt at nasa.gov
> URL: http://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/gschmidt.html
> 

***********************************
Sylvia Murphy
NESII/CIRES/NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
325 Broadway, Boulder CO 80305
Email: sylvia.murphy at noaa.gov
Phone: 303-497-7753
Fax: 303-497-7649







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