Abstract
ASPECT (Advanced Solver for Problems in Earth’s ConvecTion) is an
analysis tool that simulates convection in the Earth’s mantle and other
planets. The BALTO project has extended the ASPECT software so it can
read data used to perform the simulations from the BALTO brokering
server. These additions to the ASPECT codebase allow data to be remotely
accessed and then processed as if the data were stored on the user’s
local computer. The additions to ASPECT can be split into two distinct
sections: a URL reader and a netCDF reader/translator. The URL reader
uses the Data Access Protocol (DAP) to access remote data from supported
web servers. Data values are transferred from the BALTO broker and
converted within the URL reader plugin to match the format that is
expected by the rest of the ASPECT code. Similarly, the netCDF plugin
reads data stored using netCDF from the BALTO broker and transforms
these data into the sph file format required by ASPECT to perform global
mantle convection. The netCDF plugin can use either local or remote
data. Once the NetCDF data are read, the plugin combines and formats the
required variables (longitude, latitude, seismic velocity, and depth).
These newly formatted values are then converted into the sph internal
representation to be used as spherical harmonic data by ASPECT. The
conversion and processing of data all takes place within the ASPECT
program. Both plugins have been integrated to allow the user to lookup
remote data in a seamless fashion and broaden the types of data that can
be requested by the user.