) NASA Technical Memorandum 4392 Functional Requirements Document for the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Scientific Computing Facilities (SCF) of the NASA/MSFC Earth Science and Applications Division, 1992 Michael E. Botts and Ron J. Phillips The University of Alabama in Huntsville Huntsville, Alabama John V. Parker George C. Marshall Space Flight Center Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama Patrick D. Wright Universities Space Research Association Huntsville, Alabama National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Management Scientific and Technical information Program 1992 Acknowledgements The completion of this study and document would not have been possible without the hard work and persistence of a number of people. Initial thanks should go to Ron Koczor for having the insight to initiate this task and for his assistance and patience during the process. Much praise is reserved for the members of the SCF Working Group who dedicated much time and effort to the numerous, and sometimes demanding, MSFC EOS/SCF Working Group meetings. In particular, the outside efforts of Bill Lide, Karen Butler, Matt Smith, and Mike Goodman are highly appreciated. The time, effort, and cooperation provided to the Working Group by the individual SCF scientists, including Drs. Pete Robertson, Roy Spencer, Hugh Christian, Tim Miller, and Dan Fitzjarrald, were extremely important and greatly appreciated. iii PRECEDING PAGE BLANK NOT F|LM1ED Glossary of Acronyms 2D - Two Dimensional 3D - Three Dimensional 4D - Four Dimensional (3D space plus time) ACE - Advanced Computing Environment ANDF - Architecture Neytral Distribution Format ARC - Advanced RISC Computing ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange AT&T - American Telephone and Telegraph ATTSV - AT&T System V Unix AVS - Advanced Visualization System BSD - Berkley System Development CAD - Computer Aided Design CaPE - Convection and Precipitation/Electrification Experiment CASE - Computer-Aided Software Engineering CCM - Community Climate Model CD - Compact Disc CFD - Computational Fluid Dynamics CISC - Complex Instruction Set Computer COHMEX COoperative Hunstville Meteorological EXperiment CPU - Central Processing Unit DAAC - Distributed Active Archive Center DEC - Digital Equipment Corporation DOS - Disk Operating System DPS - Display PostScript EADS - Engineering Analysis and Data System (MSFC Institutional System) ESA - European Space Agency ESSC - Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University EOS - Earth Observing System EOSDIS - Earth Observing System Data and Information System ESACF - Earth Science and Applications Computing Facility ESAD - Earth Science and Applications Division (MSFC) FDDI - Fiber Distributed Data Interface GB - Gigabytes ( 10 9) GCM - General Circulation Model GE - SGI Geometry Engine GIS - Geographical Information Systems GL- Graphics Library GUI - Graphical User Interface HIPPI - High-Performance Parallel Interface HP - Hewlett-Packard Computer Corp. IL - SGI ImageVision Library IMSL - International Math and Statistics Library I/O - Input/Output IRIS GL - SGI Open Graphics Library ISO - International Standards Organization kb - Kilobits (10 3) kB - Kilobytes (10 3) LAMPS - Limited Area Mesoscale Prediction System LAWS - Laser Atmospheric Wind Sounder LIS - Lightning Imaging Sensor LOS - Line of Sight V PRECEDING P/_G_ BLANK t_tOf FILMEP Glossary of Acronyms (concluded) MB - Megabytes (10 6) MclDAS - Man-computer Interactive Data Access System MFLOPS - Millions of Floating-point Operations (10 6) Per Second MIMR - Multichannel Imaging Microwave Radar MIPS - Millions of Instructions per Second MPP - Massively Parallel Processing MSFC - Marshall Space Flight Center MSU - Microwave Sounding Unit MVUPS - MicroVAX II Units of Performance NFS - Network File System NQS - Network Queing System NTI - New Technology, Inc. OSF - Open Software Foundation Unix OSI - Open Systems Interconnection PC - Personal Computer PDL - Page Description Language PEM - Pacific Exploratory Mission PEX - Protocol Extension to X PHIGS - Programmers' Hierachical Interactive Graphics System POSIX - Portable Operating System Interface for Computer Environments PS - PostScript PVS - IBM's Personal Visualizer System RAM - Random Access Memory RAMS - Regional Atmospheric Modeling Systems RISC - Reduced Instruction Set Computer RSS - Remote Sensing Systems in Santa Rosa, CA SCF - Scientific Computing Facility SCO - Santa Cruz Operation SGI - Silicon Graphics, Inc. SNA - System Network Architecture SPARC - Scalar Processor Architecture SSEC - Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin TB - Terabytes ( 1012) TCP/IP - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol TIGA - Texas Instruments Graphics Architecture TL - Team Leader TM - Team Member TRMM - Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission UAH - University of Alabama in Huntsville UI- Unix International USRA - Universities Space Research Association VAR - Value Added Reseller VMS - Virtual Memory System WYSIWYG -"What You See Is What You Get" XGL - Sun's X Graphics Library vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Io INTRODUCTION 1.1 A. PURPOSE 1.3 B. BACKGROUND 1.3 C. SCOPE 1.3 D. DOCUMENT ORGANIZATION 1.4 II. SCF COMPUTING REQUIREMENTS II. 1 A* INTRODUCTION II.3 B. COMPUTING REQUIREMENTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL SCFS II.4 It HUGH CHRISTIAN - LIGHTNING IMAGING SENSOR (LIS) 11.4 o PETE ROBERTSON - INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE: GLOBAL WATER CYCLE STUDIES 11.6 o ROY SPENCER- MULTICHANNEL IMAGING MICROWAVE RADAR (MIMR) II.7 . TIM MILLER - LASER ATMOSPHERIC WIND SOUNDER (LAWS) I1.9 . DAN FITZJARRALD - LASER ATMOSPHERIC WIND SOUNDER (LAWS) II.10 C. CONCLUSIONS II.11 III. CONSIDERATIONS III.1 A* INTRODUCTION Ili.3 B. REQUIREMENTS OF THE EOSDIS II1.3 C. INDUSTRY DIRECTIONS 111.3 . GENERAL DIRECTIONS 111.3 2. INDUSTRY STANDARDS III.9 3. INDUSTRY ALLIANCES II1.14 vii D. MARKET SURVEY III.16 1. COMPANY PROFILES III. 16 2. SPECIFICATIONS III. 18 IV. RECOMMENDED GENERAL OPTIONS IV.1 A. RECOMMENDED STANDARDS IV.3 . OPERATING SYSTEMS IV.3 2. GRAPHICS, WINDOWS, & VIDEO DISPLAY IV.3 3. CONNECTIVITY IV.4 B° GENERAL OPTIONS IV.4 1, COMPUTATIONAL REQUIREMENTS OVERVIEW IV.4 2. HIERARCHICAL COMPUTE ENVIRONMENT IV.5 3. SOFTWARE IV.7 4. PERIPHERALS IV. IO 5. DATA STORAGE IV. IO 6. CONNECTIVITY IV. I1 V* SPECIFIC SHORT-TERM OPTIONS V. 1 A. HIGH-COST ALTERNATIVES V.3 1. MINISUPERCOMPUTER OPTIONS V.3 2. IBM'S POWER VISUALIZATION SYSTEM (PVS) V.4 B. COST-EFFECTIVE OPTIONS V.4 1. TYPE A V.4 2. TYPE B V.4 3. TYPE C V.5 4. TYPE D V.6 5. TYPE E V.8 VI. CONCLUSIONS VI. 1 VII. REFERENCES VII. 1 VIII A.1 APPENDIX A. DATA LEVELS OF EOSDIS B.1 APPENDIX B. REQUIREMENTS OF THE EOS DAAC-SCF INTERFACE C.1 APPENDIX C. AVAILABLE VISUALIZATION SOFTWARE ix Functional Requirements Document for the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Scientific Computing Facilities (SCF) of the NASA/MSFC Earth Science and Applications Division 1992 Deputy Approval Approval: Ronaid Koczor Deputy, Earth Science & Applications Division NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center Functional Requirements Document for the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Scientific Computing Facilities (SCF) of the NASA/MSFC Earth Science and Applications Division SCF Working Group Approval Main Group: ,C_(,, c__ [ f" '-_ f--" Dr. Michael E. Botts (Chairman - UAH) Karen A. Butler (NTI) H. Michael Goodman (NASA) Wilton C. Lide (NTI) Dr. Jeffrey C. Luvall (NASA) // , . I- _ //7 Dr. Franklin R. Robertson (NASA) Matthew R. Smith (NTI) Dr. J. Briscoe Stephens (NASA) Technical Group: Danny M. Hardin (UAH) f John V. Parker (NASA) Ron J. Phillips (UAH) Patrick D. Wright (USRA) xi PART I. INTRODUCTION 1,1 A. PURPOSE The purpose of this document is three-fold: (1) to define the requirements for the five EOS Scientific Computing Facilities (SCF) which will be in the Earth Science and Applications Division (ESAD) at the NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), (2) to recommend general options for the SCF computing environment at MSFC, and (3) to recommend specific short-term options for meeting the computing requirements of these facilities. The intent of this working group is to investigate the potential for development of a "common" SCF at MSFC. B. BACKGROUND The ESAD is involved in both NASA-wide and international research activities, involving the government and the scientific research community. The ESAD supports Earth system science and global change research in support of Mission to Planet Earth. The key component of this mission is the Earth Observing System (EOS). The EOS has three major components: EOS Scientific Research Program, EOS Data & Information System (EOSDIS), and the EOS Observatories. The EOS Scientific Research Program is the foundation of EOS - the international scientific effort guiding future development of the EOSDIS and the EOS Observatories. The EOSDIS is functionally the "Researcher" portion of the system. Its goal is to enhance the use of EOS data by the world-wide research community. The EOS Observatories are the actual scientific instruments which will remotely sense many environmental variables. There are three types of EOS investigations: Those utilizing data from Facility Instruments, those utilizing data from Instrument Investigations, and those in support of Interdisciplinary Investigations. Each EOS investigation will have an associated SCF. A primary role of the Facility Instrument and Instrument Investigation SCFs is to investigate or develop algorithms to process raw instrument data to derived product