iClimate: a climate data and analysis portal

We will describe a new climate data and analysis portal called iClimate that facilitates direct comparisons between available climate observations and climate simulations. Modeled after the successful iPlant Collaborative Discovery Environment (www.iplantcollaborative.org) that allows plant scientists to trade and share environmental, physiological and genetic data and analyses, iClimate provides an easy-to-use platform for large-scale climate research, including the storage, sharing, automated preprocessing, analysis and high-end visualization of large and often disparate observational and model datasets. iClimate will promote data exploration and scientific discovery by providing: efficient and high-speed transfer of data from nodes around the globe (e.g. PCMDI and NASA); standardized and customized data/model metrics; efficient subsampling of datasets based on temporal period, geographical region or variable; and collaboration tools for sharing data, workflows, analysis results, and data visualizations with collaborators or with the community at large. We will present iClimate's capabilities, and demonstrate how it will simplify and enhance the ability to do basic or cutting-edge climate research by professionals, laypeople and students.