NSF Workshop on High­Performance Distributed Computing and Polar Sciences

Climate change in the 20th and 21st century is dramatically changing the polar regions. This is documented by numerous studies, for example as thawing permafrost, retreating Arctic sea ice and accelerating mass loss from glaciers and ice sheets. These changes may have widespread consequences for many aspects of the earth systems, e.g. carbon budget, food and water security, sea levels, and freshwater input to oceans. To understand the changing polar regions and their global impacts, scientists are increasingly using very large datasets derived from high­resolution satellite imagery, airborne missions, and computer modeling. However, advanced cyberinfrastructure, and in particular, high­performance distributed computing (HPDC) remains an underutilized resource within the polar science community. To explore the opportunities for addressing this gap and increasing the collaboration between the polar science and HPDC communities, the workshop “High­-Performance & Distributed Computing for Polar Sciences: Applications, Cyberinfrastructure and Opportunities” brought together polar scientists, HPDC experts, and data practitioners at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey on December 4 and 5, 2014. Approximately thirty U.S.­based researchers gathered for two days of presentations and discussions centered on two questions: 1) How can polar science benefit from HPDC? and 2) What are the challenges in bringing HPDC and polar sciences together