SE in ES: Opportunities for software engineering and cloud computing in environmental science

Abstract

New and emergent computing architectures and software engineering practices provide an opportunity for environmental models to be deployed more efficiently and democratically. In this paper we aim to capture the software engineering practices of environmental scientists, highlight opportunities for software engineering and work towards developing a domain specific language for the configuration and deployment of environmental models. We hold a series of interviews with environmental scientists involved in developing and deploying computer based environmental models about the approach taken in engineering models, and describe a case study in deploying an environmental model (WRF: Weather Research Forecasting) on a cloud architecture. From these studies we find a number of opportunities for A) software engineering methods and tools such as Domain Specific Languages to play a role in abstracting from underlying computing complexity, and for B) new architectures to increase efficiency and availability of deployment. Together, we propose they will allow scientists to concentrate on fundamental science rather than specifics of the underlying computing.