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Pennsylvania State University Researchers Leverage CIROH Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Hydrological Modeling

Β· 3 min read
Arpita Patel
DevOps Manager and Enterprise Architect
Yalan Song
Research Assistant Professor
Tadd Bindas
Graduate Researcher

Pennsylvania State University (PSU) researchers have been leveraging CIROH Cyberinfrastructure to tackle complex hydrological modeling challenges. This post highlights their innovative approach using the Wukong computing platform in conjunction with Amazon S3 bucket storage to efficiently process and analyze large-scale environmental datasets. πŸš€


πŸ’» The Computing and Storage Infrastructure​

Wukong Computing Platform​

The PSU team has been utilizing Wukong, a high-performance computing (HPC) cluster specifically designed for data-intensive scientific applications, such as the high-resolution physics-informed machine learning for national water modeling (Song et al. 2024[YS1] ). Wukong provides the computational power necessary for running complex simulations and processing large environmental datasets that traditional computing resources would struggle with. πŸ”

Key advantages of Wukong include:​

  • 🎯 Large GPU capacity for high-resolution ML/differentiable process-based models
  • βš™οΈ Scalable parallel processing capabilities
  • πŸš€ Optimized performance for data-intensive workloads
  • ⏳ Reduced processing time for big data
  • 🌐 Support for multi-node computation to handle larger geographical areas

S3 Bucket Integration:​

To complement Wukong’s computational power, the PSU researchers and AWI DevOps staff implemented Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) buckets as their secondary data storage solution. This integration offers several benefits:

  • πŸ—„οΈ Virtually unlimited storage capacity for growing datasets
  • πŸ”’ Data durability and redundancy
  • πŸ’° Cost-effective long-term storage, with the use of S3 intelligent tiering to automate the storage cost savings by moving data when access patterns change
  • πŸ”„ Seamless data transfer between computing nodes
  • πŸ“ Version control for dataset iterations
  • 🀝 Easy data sharing with users not on Wukong

πŸ”¬ Research Applications​

The PSU team has applied this powerful computing infrastructure to several critical research areas:

  1. National Streamflow Modeling 🌊
    Training differentiable hydrologic models with high-resolution forcing and static attribute data across extensive geographical regions using observations from thousands of gauges, followed by whole-domain forwarding.

  2. National River Routing πŸ—ΊοΈ
    Conducting river routing on MERIT/HydroFabric river networks, combined with neural network-supported routing parameter learning.

  3. NextGen Candidate Models & Data Assimilation πŸ”„
    Applying multiple NextGen candidate models and data assimilation algorithms within the differentiable modeling framework, which supports compliance with BMI.

  4. Foundation Model Development 🏞️
    Developing a foundation model to explore co-evolution between landscapes.


Thank you to all those who contributed towards this effort.​

πŸ”— Learn More​

For more details on the Wukong computing platform, check out the official documentation:
πŸ‘‰ Wukong Documentation

For the full research paper by Song et al. (2024), visit:
πŸ‘‰ DOI: 10.22541/essoar.172736277.74497104/v1


CIROH at AGU 2024

Β· One min read
Arpita Patel
DevOps Manager and Enterprise Architect

AGU24 brought together the world’s leading minds in Earth and space sciences. CIROH participated actively, showcasing advances in water prediction, modeling techniques and many more technologies.

Presentations and Posters πŸ“Šβ€‹

The conference provided an excellent platform for CIROH researchers to present their groundbreaking work. Our team delivered impactful presentations and poster sessions highlighting CIROH’s innovative work, including advancements in water prediction systems and community water modeling.

These sessions sparked thought-provoking discussions and fostered collaborations with other researchers. For those who missed it, posters and presentation slides are now available here. Feel free to explore these materials and share your thoughts. πŸ“

CIROH Science Meeting 2024

Β· 3 min read
Arpita Patel
DevOps Manager and Enterprise Architect

The 2024 CIROH Science Meeting was a huge success, bringing together researchers, federal partners, and consortium members both in person and virtually. We're excited to share the valuable resources from this year's meeting with the wider CIROH community.

Slides and pictures from the various sessions, keynotes, and the Federal Town Hall have all been uploaded to a shared drive for easy access. You can find links to these materials here: Access the Shared Drive with Presentation Slides