Award Abstract # 1550732
Collaborative Research: Reproducible research and educational software for geoscience data analysis in spherical and planar geometry

NSF Org: EAR
Division Of Earth Sciences
Recipient: CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FRESNO FOUNDATION
Initial Amendment Date: June 20, 2016
Latest Amendment Date: June 20, 2016
Award Number: 1550732
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Russell Kelz
EAR
 Division Of Earth Sciences
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: July 1, 2016
End Date: April 30, 2020 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $110,449.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $110,449.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2016 = $53,740.00
History of Investigator:
  • Alain Plattner (Principal Investigator)
    amplattner@ua.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: California State University-Fresno Foundation
4910 N CHESTNUT AVE
FRESNO
CA  US  93726-1852
(559)278-0840
Sponsor Congressional District: 20
Primary Place of Performance: California State University, Fresno
2576 E. San Ramon
Fresno
CA  US  93726-1852
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
20
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): CJSRSPWTJUH7
Parent UEI: CJSRSPWTJUH7
NSF Program(s): CI REUSE,
GEOINFORMATICS,
EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE
Primary Program Source: 01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):
Program Element Code(s): 689200, 725500, 736100
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

This project will develop, formalize, and improve documentation and functionality for a set of codes
used for research and education in geophysics but of potential application in other fields. The project
will continue algorithmic development and documentation of software for geophysical analysis using
wavelets, vector spherical harmonics and Slepian functions. Examples are: in geodynamics, the description of deformation in and of the Earth; in geomagnetics, the lithospheric magnetic field; in geodesy, models of terrestrial and planetary gravity; and any directional spherical processes that are vectorial in nature in other fields of science and engineering. The codes support (or will support) decomposition of fields, harmonic analysis, power spectral estimation, inversion parameterization, vector
field analysis, and satellite data. The project will also develop software for analysis of Ground Penetrating
Radar data. The work will involve students and course work between two very different institutions in
continual use, testing, and input to the development of the codes.

Analyses in vector-spherical harmonics are well established, but only legacy code, mostly in Fortran, exists to date. Matlab or Octave software archives are much needed, especially in the light of modern-day mathematical methods which consist in forming optimized linear combinations of vector harmonics into bandlimited, geographically localized functions: the so-called Slepian basis. Designing algorithms, and programming them well, in a robust and reproducible manner, is demanding but not often considered a scientific objective per se. The society at large, and the scientific community, are best served when all research-grade and educational code is fully documented and available, ready to run by novice or expert alike. Matlab and Octave are portable, low-threshold scripting languages that blend low-level flexibility, intermediate complexity and high-performance.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Alain Plattner and Frederik J. Simons "Internal and external potential field estimation from regional vector data at varying satellite altitude" Geophysical Journal International , v.211 , 2017 , p.207 10.1093/gji/ggx244
Alain Plattner and Marcus Pacheco "A community-developed free Ground Penetrating Radar software" Near-Surface Views, , v.26 , 2019 , p.13 https://seg.org/Portals/0/SEG/News%20and%20Resources/Near%20Surface/Near%20Surface%20Newsletter/2011-present/2019_Q1.pdf
Austin R.Robbins, AlainPlattner "Offset-electrode profile acquisition strategy for electrical resistivity tomography" Journal of Applied Geophysics , v.151 , 2018 , p.66 10.1016/j.jappgeo.2018.01.027

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