Science Workflow Management System for the Terrestrial Observation and Prediction System (tops)

The Terrestrial Observation and Prediction system (TOPS)[1] is a data and modeling software system designed to seamlessly integrate data from satellite, aircraft, and ground sensors, and weather/climate models with application models, to expeditiously produce operational nowcasts and forecasts of ecological conditions. TOPS provides reliable data on current and predicted ecosystem conditions through automation of data retrieval, pre-processing, integration, and modeling steps, allowing TOPS data products to be used in an operational setting for a range of applications. As the number of TOPS users and applications grows, there is an increased need to manage not only the data, but also to provide an easy way to design and manage custom processing pipelines that integrate Earth science data with processing components and models in order to meet the operational requirements of users and customers. This paper describes a workflow management system that provides capabilities for definitions and execution of science workflows within an extensible data and process management framework accessible both through a java API as well as through web service invocation.