Exploiting modern cyberinfrastructure for global Earth observations and geohazards mitigation

The recent tragic tsunami associated with the Sumatra earthquake leading to the loss of more than 280,000 lives in the Indian Ocean demands a fresh look at geohazards warning and mitigation globally. Advances in information technology or cyberinfrastructure provide enabling technologies when applied globally as advocated by the G-8' Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS). All scientists are familiar today with Moore's Law, which posits the density of transistors on a processor chip will double approximately every 18 months. Computing speed follows not far behind. However, similar even faster exponential growth characterizes storage capacity and network speeds. The extraordinary growth in network bandwidth coupled with initiatives such as the not-for-profit National Lambda Rail have enhanced grid computing and grid storage technologies making a truly global natural hazards detection, evaluation, and warning system not only possible, but imperative. The same system, enabling a global sensorweb, lowers most barriers to scientific research on vast amounts of new data and lowers the costs of operations and maintenance. A single-purpose national or global warning system, for tsunamis for example, is nearly impossible to maintain because of the time scales of major events - decades to centuries. However, a broad, scientifically based, multipurpose system can be maintained and will grow as new technologies become available and new approaches in cyberinfrastructure replace the old.