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17 - Use of abstraction to support geoscientists' understanding and production of scientific artifacts

from Part V - Web services and scientific workflows

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2011

By
Ann Q. Gates ,
Paulo Pinheiro da Silva ,
Leonardo Salayandia ,
Omar Ochoa ,
Aida Gandara  and
Nicholas Del Rio
Edited by
G. Randy Keller  and
Chaitanya Baru
Ann Q. Gates
Affiliation:
University of Texas at El Paso
Paulo Pinheiro da Silva
Affiliation:
University of Texas at El Paso
Leonardo Salayandia
Affiliation:
University of Texas at El Paso
Omar Ochoa
Affiliation:
University of Texas at El Paso
Aida Gandara
Affiliation:
University of Texas at El Paso
Nicholas Del Rio
Affiliation:
University of Texas at El Paso
G. Randy Keller
Affiliation:
University of Oklahoma
Chaitanya Baru
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
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Summary

Introduction

With advances in cyberinfrastructure (CI), scientists are able to solve more complex problems; in particular, CI assists in solutions that require collaboration, use of advanced instrumentation, discovery of knowledge resources, and distribution of work across a network of machines. The promise of CI is that it can impact scientific discovery and problem solving by providing the ability to access data collected from shared instruments, evaluate hypothesis by computationally intensive analysis, and retrieve results compiled by other scientists from around the world (Gil et al., 2007). Furthermore, CI-based techniques and methods support the integration, coordination, transformation, and visualization of data and other resources.

Because of the growing complexity of problems being solved by scientists with the use of CI, the use of abstraction is becoming more relevant in helping scientists work with complex processes. Abstraction is the notion of removing unnecessary details to support understanding. How information is viewed, i.e., the perspective of information, guides how abstraction can be used. For example, consider the description of an automobile. From the perspective of a valet, the color, make, and year of the automobile are sufficient to describe a car, and other details can be ignored; from the perspective of a mechanic, details about the engine are necessary. In addition, one can define different levels of abstraction by expanding the amount of detail presented, albeit the amount of detail included at any one level could vary depending on the need.

Type
Chapter
Information
Geoinformatics
Cyberinfrastructure for the Solid Earth Sciences
 , pp. 266 - 284
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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References

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