Data Tas seminar series – recent Southern Ocean Clouds Radiation Aerosol Transport Experimental Study (SOCRATES) / The use of software construction tools to automate scientific workflows.

The Bureau’s Interests in the Southern Ocean Clouds Radiation Aerosol Transport Experimental Study (SOCRATES)
Scott Carpentier (Bureau of Meteorology)

Climate and weather models have a tendency to misrepresent clouds in the Southern Ocean. This is in part due to: (1) the pristine nature of the atmosphere compared to the more dusty and polluted northern hemisphere environment (where such models are largely tested against); and (2) the dearth of in-situ observations to help constrain satellite remote sensing errors for Southern Ocean clouds.  In early 2018, an international team of about 50 atmospheric scientists worked out of Hobart with a highly modified Gulfstream V business jet to collect cloud, aerosol and precipitation data over the Southern Ocean during a research project called the Southern Ocean Clouds, Radiation, Aerosol Transport Experimental Study (SOCRATES). The talk will highlight some of the measurements taken during the campaign, their open data policy and some preliminary ‘science-to-services’ applications of the campaign.

Scott is Manager of Antarctic Meteorology for the Bureau and co-chairs the Services Task Team for the World Meteorological Organisation’s Executive Council’s Panel of Experts on Polar and High Mountains Observations, Research and Services (WMO EC PHORS). Scott’s focus is on operational polar meteorology, including the design of the observations and modelling systems needed to support forecast and warning services.

Software construction tools make everything so easy, and automatic workflow brings joy to the scientist.
Tobias Stål (Earth Sciences / IMAS / University of Tasmania)

Early software construction tools were recognised as an efficient way to organise reproducible geophysical research. For example, seismic data is processed in workflows containing a large number of applications for signal processing, modelling, statistic analysis and visualisation. Without a construction script, it would be challenging to share all steps to other researchers. Not only do these tools facilitate reproducibility, they are also a very convenient way to organise science projects from the very first idea through to publication and beyond. The popular construction tool SCons recently got a major update. SCons speaks Python, handles dependencies, and has built-in support for a number of programming languages. It can also detect changes and facilitate parallel builds. It should be the first choice of tool, but in many ways SCons is similar to the classic and well known GNU Make. Tobias will present a short tutorial to SCons and give an example of his use of the tool for mapping of Antarctic lithospheric boundaries from multivariate datasets.

Tobias is a PhD student at UTAS, working on the Antarctic lithospheric structure through the Antarctic Gateway Partnership. His interests in Earth sciences shows a downward trend, it started with geomorphology, moved to sedimentology, reflection seismic and now geophysics and geostatistics for the deep lithospheric roots. He has a professional background as a welder, plumber, composer, light and video designer, but also traded goats and chickens in northern Ghana with limited success. He likes open source and open access.