JEDI High Level Requirements

As Earth observing systems are constantly evolving and new systems launched, continuous scientific developments for exploiting the full potential of the data are necessary. Data volumes are also increasing with time, requiring more and more efficient data assimilation. Given the cost of new observing systems, it is important that this process happens quickly. One goal of the new framework is to enable efficient research work and accelerated transition from research to operations.

As weather and environmental forecasting progress, they are also evolving towards a more comprehensive representation of the Earth system. The framework will have to cater to all components of the Earth system, enabling the evolution towards a fully coupled Earth system.

Data assimilation algorithms themselves are also evolving and progressing to better exploit available data. The framework will include existing operational DA algorithms and facilitate exploration of new DA science across domains and applications. It is important to note that a unified system does not mean a single configuration to be imposed on all partners as each agency can use or develop different applications within the framework.

The supercomputers where data assimilation systems are run are becoming more and more complex with always more and possibly heterogeneous processing elements. Using them efficiently is a growing concern in the community, with most centers exploring ways to improve scalability of their forecasting models and data assimilation systems. The framework will have to take scalability into account and facilitate adaptation to new architectures.

Requirements for operational and research uses are different. Generally, the system will have to be flexible for development and research, and easy for users to learn and test. At the same time, it is imperative that it satisfies operational requirements for robustness, efficiency, coding standards, and maintainability.