Week 1

Week 1

 Environmental Sources of Big Data

The best example of Big Data the is provided by the environment is the weather and the changes within it. Supercomputers are used to create weather simulations in real time to analyse current weather and look for patterns, and furthermore use this data to predict the weather that is still to come. This data includes things such as air pressure, humidity and sea surface temperature. 

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/big-data-and-the-environment/3/steps/420355

 Observing Earth from space with Big Data

Big data can also help humans observe the planet from space and choose to view select parts of it. Satellites in space can be used to 24/7 monitor the planet and can send back data such as weather or communications data. These can also be used for sending mapping data for earth and cartography data.

Google earth is an example of that, where the entire planet is available to be viewed thanks to the data that has been obtained from satellites

GOSAT is an example of a satellite that monitors the earth's data. specifically, this is the first satellite that has been specifically set up to monitor the amount of greenhouse gasses in the earths atmosphere

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/big-data-and-the-environment/3/steps/420356

 Big Data Storage

CEDA stands for Center for Environmental Data Analysis and has been working with big data for a long time. it focuses on atmospheric data sent from satellites as well as simulations, observations and aircraft. Data is added to CEDA in many different formats, ranging from the most basic ways such as a physical disk being sent in the mail to using the internet to share files using the file transfer protocol. it also allows adjacent computers to analyse the data without having to move it between networks which reduces the chance of duplicated data.

JASMIN is an analysis infrastructure held by CEDA which is run for its users. it works with petabyte-scale amounts of data storage and again allows users to analyse and exploit CEDA's data.

Currently, over 1000 users user JASMIN on a regular basis, which allows them to log in and analyse the data remotely. 30,000 people access JASMIN to view the data catalog. It works on a huge range of projects such as earthquake monitoring, greenhouse gas emissions, etc

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/big-data-and-the-environment/3/steps/420358

 Big Data computing 

It is important when dealing with large amounts of big data that a company has the adequate amount of power in order to deal with the amount of data coming in and process it accordingly. Dr Jon Blower explains that "it is pointless having a super computer that can process all the data at light speed if it isn't able to actually move and read the data equally as fast" meaning that it is important to have all of these attributes balanced so that a company can take full advantage of the computers capabilities to handle the data appropriately 

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/big-data-and-the-environment/3/steps/420361