About the chronosphere* project
* from Χρόνος-σφαῖρα (gr.): time-orb
Earth systems are subject to continuous change that is natively incorporated in the data we use to describe and analyze our Planet’s history, its current state and to predict its future. They are functions of time. They, however do not only depend on the physical, objective time but also on, the state of our degree of understanding. Our knowledge of the Earth System changes constantly, precious resources of humanity are invested in observation, analysis and simulation of Earth System variables, making them continuously evolve: their state is also a function of knowledge-time.
The chronosphere is dedicated to the tracing of the evolution of Earth System Variables through knowledge time, enhancing reproducibility, replicability and robustness of Earth System research. To fill in the interdisciplinary gaps between geoscience disciplines and help with the reuse of data and code, and promoting FAIR principles and open science.
You can find more about the project here.
Access Data Items
We work to facilitate programmatic analyses of large quantities of data. On the fundamental, practical level, the chronosphere is a data-distribution framework that allows the immediate access to hundreds of permanently deposited data products, directly instantiating them in users programming/analytical environments. This service depends on a metadata- and codebase, that links data files with code items and their dependencies.
The chrononsphere is a research API, that makes code robust and portable.
The data distribution framework is organized into three levels of primary entities: data items, data products and product series. Etc… -how data products evolve
| Number of Items | 2276 |
|---|---|
| Number of Products | 2276 |
| Number of Series | 32 |
| Number of Sources | 16 |
Tracing Data Evolution
Besides the practicality of data distribution. The chronosphere is dedicated to the registration of data updates, and aims at
These features should allow the development of a dynamic codebase that expresses our knowledge of planet Earth, making the assessment of a desired aspect of our planet availble on demand with the most up-to-date, customizable information.
Formal variables
On a higher level, the chronosphere describes a standard model that tabulates descriptors of the Earth System. These descriptors, are the abstract variables that allow us to structure our knowledge about the planets major regimes. These include output varisbles of global climate, geological and macroecological nature, such as near surface air temperature, Sr isotopic composition of seawater and global taxonomic diversity.
Besides being abstract, they are also numerous: humans have developed thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands of aspecpects, from which we can analyze and asses our planet.
Technically these are functions that render information of some structure (the range), to other information (the domain).
- what formal varisbles exist
- what is their definition domin and range
- how they translate to other systems -how different data series are related
- what are the variables proxies of
Systematics of data
Summary
- Number of items
- Number of databases
- Number of variables
