Fragile Earth: NASA Earth Science simulation/forecasting models available

1. Educational Global Climate Model www.edgcm.org...

The Educational Global Climate Model (EdGCM), available for both Windows and Mac platforms, incorporates a 3-D climate model developed at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), New York. It wraps complex computer modeling programs with a graphical interface familiar to most PC users.

The climate model runs on a desktop computer to allow teachers and students to conduct experiments identical to those scientists run on supercomputers to simulate past and future climate changes. EdGCM links the climate model to both a database and scientific visualization utilities, making it simpler to create and organize data and images.

biz.yahoo.com...

2. QuakeSim quakesim.jpl.nasa.gov...

A NASA funded earthquake prediction program has an amazing track record. Published in 2002, the Rundle-Tiampo Forecast has accurately predicted the locations of 15 of California’s 16 largest earthquakes this decade, including last week’s tremors.
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“We’re elated our computer modeling technique has revealed a relationship between past and future earthquake locations,” said Dr. John Rundle, director of the Computational Science and Engineering initiative at the U.C. Davis. He leads the group that developed the forecast scorecard. “We’re nearly batting a thousand, and that’s a powerful validation of the promise this forecasting technique holds,” he said.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov...

While the EdGCM model runs on Windows and MacOS on a desktop computer and seems accessible to Earth Science enthusiasts in general, the QuakeSim model uses heavy Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis and is now targeted at many-processor clusters and grids. However, for at least a couple of older versions of the GeoFEST module, which "uses stress-displacement finite elements to model stress and strain due to elastic static response to an earthquake event in the region of the slipping fault, the time-dependent viscoelastic relaxation, and the net effects from a series of earthquakes", the model will run on a single-processor machine with the Linux OS. The source code for all three modules (GeoFEST, PARK, and Virtual California) are available for download.

[edit on 13-1-2005 by HeirToBokassa]