A $4 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is helping a team lead by SURA to implement a modeling testbed. The testbed has 4 components:

• Inundation Modeling • Shelf Hypoxia Modeling • Estuarine Hypoxia Modeling • Cyberinfrastructure

The Cyberinfrastructure (CI) team is working with each of the modeling groups addressing issues related to:

• Common access protocols for model and observation data • Data storage schemas and standardization of spatial and “station” model results • Unstructured Grid Access • Model Skill Assessment tools • Matlab, Python, and web-based tools to access the distributed data warehouse • Server-side processes via web services • Interoperable standards that support operational users.

The CI team used a wide variety of OpenSource/community-based tools, services, and standards developed by groups such as Unidata, NOAA, and OGC. The testbed proved to be an extremely valuable environment for evaluating these different tools and standards and demonstrating the power of interoperability; the project also identified the challenges faced in applying community tools and standards to operational modeling systems.

This paper will discuss these successes and challenges and how components of the development may be considered for transition to operational modeling centers.