CBEO Project Summary

An interdisciplinary team of computer scientists, ecologists, oceanographers and environmental engineers have developed and are deploying a Chesapeake Bay Environmental Observatory (CBEO) to demonstrate the transformative power of cyberinfrastucture (CI). In a region with a rich history of both management directives and research intitiatives that has fostered an existing sensory network, archived data, and intensive modeling efforts, the project team aims to resolve some serious remaining issues of cross-disciplinary semantics, syntax, and inter-operability in addition to developing and demonstrating new shared CI tools for the assimilation and interpolation of both observational data and model outputs.

The project is organized into four concurrent interacting elements:

CBEO:T -- Test Bed & Prototype

CBEO:T integrates a subset of currently available large data sets characterized by multiple variables and widely disparate time and space scales - grab and continuous sampling at fixed stations, undulating towed sensors, and satellite and aircraft remote sensing. A novel and exciting feature of the CBEO is the inclusion of the fifteen year (1986- 2000) simulated data from the Bay-wide fine spatial (1-10 km) and temporal (0.02-1 hr) scale hydrodynamic and water quality model. This test bed serves as the platform for the development of data integration, interpolation, and visualization functionalities.

CBEO:N -- National Network of Environmental Observatories

The CBEO:N group incorporates the test bed CI into the national network of environmental observatories via a GEON node for the CBEO and resolving complex cross-disciplinary issues of semantics, syntax and interoperability.

CBEO:S -- Environmental Science

The CBEO:T and CBEO:N is used by the environmental science element (CBEO:S) to demonstrate its utility by addressing the unresolved questions of anthropogenic and climatic factors controlling hypoxia in Chesapeake Bay, a problem it shares with many other estuaries and whose consequences are severe and long lasting. The CBEO:T team is testing the CBEO capabilities, suggesting modifications and additions, and providing timely user feedback.

CBEO:E -- Education

To expand the user community, the CBEO is being used by the education element (CBEO:E) to translate science and technology for public consumption. Direct participation of multicultural students and a K-12 teacher is occurring.