How Grid enables E-Science?
Yoshio Tanaka · Synthesiology English edition · 2009
GEO Grid [2]-[4] is a system and a concept that enables users to handle integrated processing and analysis of geographical information system data as well as various observation data located in distributed environments, by large-scale archiving and high-speed processing of earth observation satellite data using grid technology.Its objective is to provide an environment where research communities and companies can safely and securely use diverse data and make the acquired computation for earth observation.The plan is to promote information integration of geological and satellite information owned by AIST, to promote further integration of this data with a broad range of earth observation information, and also to promote active international cooperation, particularly focusing on advanced use of these resources in Asia.Considering the trend for international standardization, the aim is to maintain international interoperability of all of the information systems and data. GEO Grid is an example of E-Science.There are many other areas where technological development may be greatly accelerated through E-Science, such as the bio information field for promoting efficient drug discovery using bio information databases, or the medical field for developing next-generation medical diagnosis systems utilizing medical databases and systems to support cancer diagnosis through the use of large-scale medical image databases.Although most of the basic technologies of the grid have achieved the level of practical use, they have not yet been put to wide use due to the following reasons.The grid was originally born in the field of highp e r fo r m a n c e c o m pu t a t io n , a n d i s t hu s s e e n a s "technology for conducting large-scale computation using -Design and implementation of the GEO Grid -