December 4, 2008

Purdue project aims to make drought information more predictive, versatile to a variety of users

Researchers are developing a Web-enabled system for accessing data related to drought impact, while creating tools to probe, integrate and visualize information to aid in decision-making during a drought crisis. The National Science Foundation is funding the project.

When it is finished, researchers envision a prototype that can be used by climatologists, hydrologists, water systems managers, businesses, economists, farmers and local, state and federal governments. They want to expand on other drought-related research and the active online community portal U.S. Drought Monitor, which takes more of a national view and tends not to dip below the state level in its analyses.

A Purdue team, including a group from the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing, is working on ways to tailor drought-related information on a more localized level, better track the onset of droughts and predict drought impacts.

The system will make use of the TeraGrid, the world's largest open science computing network. The university is a TeraGrid partner and resource provider through the Rosen Center, the research and discovery computing arm of Information Technology at Purdue.

Purdue has a number of off-campus partners, such as the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, the National Weather and Climate Center and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Central Region. The project also includes a variety of academic partners, including the University of Illinois, Michigan State, Ohio State and Wisconsin, along with Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, Western Kentucky and the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India.

Writer: Greg Kline, (765) 494-8167, gkline@purdue.edu

Source: Carol Song, (765) 496-7467, carolxsong@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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