Transcript Cronus Web Calculators

CRONUS Web Calculators
(formerly ‘Stone Age’)
• Important need at present:
– Rate of publication of exposure-dating papers is big.
– most present applications by nonspecialists are exposure ages
and erosion rates.
– these lack a common basis for the calculations: results in
proliferation of inconsistent results.
– many users aren’t familiar with the basic calculation tools.
• Rapid and useful deliverable to user community
Initial goals:
• 1. Compute P(z) for Al-26, Be-10, Cl-36, (and He-3)
• 2. Compute simple exposure ages and/or steadystate erosion rates therefrom.
• Summary: provide basic functions to satisfy
majority of straightforward applications. Make
framework that can be expanded to include
improvements in future years.
Design -• Running on MATLAB web server
–
–
–
–
Easy language to learn
Ingests and regurgitates basic HTML
Eliminates unpleasant CGI/Java/whatever coding
Already in use by most CRONUS folks
• Modular design -– All functions replaceable with improved versions
– Anyone can contribute a function with specified I/O
• Well-documented
• Emphasis on organization, documentation, clarity,
separability rather than computational speed
Example -- P(z) for Cl-36
Plan -• Buy LINUX server -- housed/maintained at UW
• Implement basic Be-10, Al-26, Cl-36 production rate,
exposure age, and steady erosion rate calculators
– Mainly relies on pre-existing code at UW; contributions solicited
– Target spring/summer 2005
• Circulate internally
– CRONUS folks to test; discussion of model/parameter choices
• Notify public via publication (in online journal), and open web
site to users. Release all MATLAB functions to public.
– Target summer/fall 2005…
Issues….
• Data reporting and referencing in published work.
– Suggestion: Calculations receive unique number when requested, at
which point the data and calculation parameters are archived on the
web site, and can be referenced in the publication/retrieved by
readers.
– Archived data/parameters can be recalculated later to reflect
improvements. How to handle this?
• Basin-averaged production rates.
– High demand. Much bigger challenge to centralise. Maybe just offer
MATLAB/ARC/GMT/whatever code to do this offline.
• Where does the calculation start?
– 10/9 ratio or atoms/g Be-10?
• (problem: correlated [Cl], [Cl-36] errors…)
– Coordination with PRIME/LLNL reporting schemes?