[CIG-ALL] CIG News - November 2007

Tue Nov 27 10:43:12 PST 2007

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               CIG News
          November 2007
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Also available at
http://www.geodynamics.org/cig/proposalsndocs/newsdocs/newsletter-nov07

CIG Software Release

CitcomS 3.0.1 - CitcomS is a finite element code designed to solve  
thermal convection problems relevant to Earth's mantle. This release  
features two implementations of compressible convection; the ability  
to resume computation from previous checkpoints; multi-component  
chemical convection; a fixed non-Newtonian solver; a rheology option  
for pseudo-plasiticity; composition dependent viscosity and heat  
generation; compressed ASCII output; an easier way for mesh  
refinement for the radial coordinate; an exchanger package for solver  
coupling; an option to disable monitoring of maximum temperature, and  
other new features. See http://www.geodynamics.org/cig/software/ 
packages/mc/citcoms/ for source code and manual. You can also run  
this latest version of CitcomS on the TeraGrid, see http:// 
www.geodynamics.org/cig/software/csa/ for instructions.

CIG Science Gateway Available

The SPECFEM3D GLOBE Web Portal provides automated and on-demand  
simulations, e.g., seismic wave propagation and synthetic  
seismograms. This web site launches a simulation on remote  
supercomputers (mostly TeraGrid machines) using data gathered from  
various web sites and databases, and returns the results to the user.  
Create an account and login at https://crust.geodynamics.org/ 
specfem3dglobe/ to run default and customized seismology simulations  
(click "Accept this certificate..." when prompted). Use the  
invitation code cig-seismo-2007 when registering to start running  
simulations immediately.

CIG Awarded Petascale Code Development Grant

NSF Approves Proposal for High-Resolution Mantle Convection  
Simulation on Petascale Computers:  Although mantle convection is key  
to our understanding of the dynamics of the solid Earth, simulation  
of global mantle convection at realistic Rayleigh numbers down to the  
scale of faulted plate boundaries is currently intractable, due to  
the wide range of time and length scales involved. The new project,  
funded by NSF's Office of Cyberstructure (OCI) through the Peta-Apps  
competition, is led by PI Omar Ghattas (U. Texas at Austin), and co- 
PIs George Biros (Penn), Michael Gurnis (Caltech), and Shijie Zhong  
(Colorado U., Boulder), and will capitalize on upcoming petascale  
computing systems to carry out the first high resolution mantle  
convection simulations that can resolve thermal boundary layers and  
faulted plate boundaries, leading to breakthroughs in the  
understanding of the dynamics of the solid Earth. To accomplish this,  
CitcomS will be improved and scaled up to the petascale. Then parts  
of CitcomS will be incorporated with new parallel algorithms for  
adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and inverse solution that can scale to  
hundreds of thousands of processors. CIG will freely distribute the  
resulting software.

Magma Code Alpha Release

The Magma Development team has finished the alpha release of the  
Magma Dynamics Demonstration Suite (MADDs). The initial code  
implements the zero porosity/no melting magma benchmark for mid-ocean  
ridge solid flows in 2D and 3D built on the Underworld framework. The  
purpose of this code is principally to validate accurate pressure  
solvers for Stokes flow in current CIG supported software. Alpha code  
and initial instructions are available at http://www.geodynamics.org/ 
cig/workinggroups/magma/workarea/benchmark/stgmadds/ .

TeraGrid Time Available

Try out CIG's community allocations on TeraGrid - On July 1, CIG's  
Medium Resource Allocation award went into effect, enabling CIG to  
offer the geodynamics community blocks of time on TeraGrid machines.  
Sign up for an allocation to benchmark codes or to try out CIG codes  
to see if the TeraGrid can work for your research. To apply for some  
of CIG's TeraGrid time, send in the application at http:// 
www.geodynamics.org/cig/software/csa/ .

Meeting Announcements and Reports

* CIG Business Meeting, December 11 (during AGU), 6-8:30 p.m., Parc  
55 Hotel, Da Vinci Room (4th Floor), San Francisco. You are invited  
to this public forum for members of the Geosciences community to  
discuss the future development of CIG over the next few years. Expect  
a major change in format this year, with presentations by chairs of  
CIG working groups and members of the Science Steering Committee.

* AMR 2007 Workshop Summary. Held October 24 to 27 in Boulder,  
Colorado, the workshop was attended by 25 participants. The invited  
talks and tutorials allowed participants to see the potential  
benefits of AMR and the feasibility of building the software.  
Discussion centered on how to implement AMR in codes that are not  
easily extended to incorporate AMR capabilities. Read the full report  
at http://www.geodynamics.org/cig/workinggroups/cs/workshops/amr07/ 
report ; workshop participants are invited to login and comment.

EC and SSC Committee Updates

New EC and SSC Members - We are pleased to announce that the  
following people will be CIG's new officers filling 3-year terms:

     * EC: Peter Olson (Johns Hopkins), Carolina Lithgow-Bertelloni  
(University College, London), Alan Levander (Rice)
     * SSC: Bruce Buffett (U Chicago), Jeroen Tromp (reelected), Omar  
Ghattas (reelected)

In addition, EC members elected a new chairman, Mark Spiegelman  
(Columbia), and new vice chair, Brad Hager (MIT), and SSC members  
elected Brad Aagaard (USGS) as their new chairman.

Thanks to all who agreed to stand for election, and thanks also to  
the outgoing members of the EC and SSC for their service to CIG: Bill  
Appelbe for his hard work on the EC, especially for his invaluable  
advice in computational science and software engineering; Mark  
Richards for chairing the EC since October 2004 with his unique  
ability to both foster discussion and bring everyone to a final  
consensus; and Peter Olson for leading the SSC as chairman this past  
year. We also appreciate the efforts of the Nominating Committee,  
Brad Hager, Laurent Montesi, and Magali Billen, for their fine work  
putting together the slate of candidates.

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Who to contact

CIG Administration, contracts, travel, etc.:
Ariel Shoresh, (626) 395-1699
ariel at geodynamics.org

Equation solvers (PETSc) and PyLith development:
Matt Knepley, knepley at mcs.anl.gov

Gale and Magma development:
Walter Landry, (626) 395-4621
walter at geodynamics.org

Benchmarking, Cigma, and visualization:
Luis Armendariz, (626) 395-1695
luis at geodynamics.org

Build procedure and computational seismology:
Leif Strand, (626) 395-1697
leif at geodynamics.org

Citcom and Mantle convection benchmarks:
Eh Tan, (626) 395-1693,
tan2 at geodynamics.org

Website and user manuals:
Sue Kientz, (626) 395-1694
sue at geodynamics.org

Geodynamo, SVN software repository, and systems administration:
Wei Mi, (626) 395-1692
wei at geodynamics.org

Software architecture and Pyre framework:
Michael Aivazis, (626) 395-1696
aivazis at caltech.edu

Administration:
Mike Gurnis, (626) 395-1698
gurnis at caltech.edu

Science Steering Committee: contact Chairman
Brad Aagaard (USGS),
baagaard at usgs.gov

Executive Committee: contact Chairman
Marc Spiegelman (Columbia),
mspieg at lamont.ldeo.columbia.edu

-- 
Sue Kientz

Technical Writer/Web Manager
Computational Infrastructure of Geodynamics (CIG)
     http://www.geodynamics.org/
sue at geodynamics.org
ofc: (626) 395-1694
     ~Metaphors Be With You~

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