CryoStack#
CryoStack
The umbrella platform that connects cryosphere modeling and data assimilation applications to reproducible software environments and computing resources — from a laptop to an HPC cluster.
Choose the workflow that fits your research.
CryoStack brings together numerical modeling, data assimilation, and scientific data products within one connected platform.
CryoLauncher
Run supported ice-sheet models directly through an interactive browser interface.
ICESEE
Run coupled ICESEE workflows for state estimation, parameter inference, and ensemble-based data assimilation with supported ice-sheet models.
Living Ice Sheet Temperature
Explore Antarctic ice-sheet temperatures inferred from radar sounding observations and constrained by borehole measurements.
Frozen Legacies
Explore historical Antarctic airborne radar surveys, flight tracks, radar-derived products, and processed SPRI-NSF-TUD campaign observations.
Configure, execute, monitor, visualize, download.
CryoStack is the infrastructure that connects scientific applications to reproducible software environments and computational resources. Each application follows the same shape.
Configure
Choose a model and example and set the scientific options through a guided or an advanced workflow in your own workspace.
Execute
Submit the run to a remote server, an HPC cluster, or a container, against a reproducible software environment.
Monitor
Follow staging, the scheduler job, and progress in a run log and run history that persist across sessions.
Visualize
Discover what the run actually produced and render fields and diagnostics deterministically in the browser.
Download
Take the structured result package or the rendered figures for further analysis.
Why CryoStack?
CryoStack reduces the technical barriers associated with scientific software deployment, remote computing, and application integration, allowing users to focus on cryosphere research.
Browser First
Access modeling, data assimilation, and visualization tools directly from a modern web browser without managing complex local installations.
HPC Ready
Connect applications to workstations, remote servers, Slurm clusters, and cloud computing resources while keeping the interface consistent.
Modular by Design
Integrate new cryosphere applications and scientific workflows without redesigning the entire platform.
Built for Open Science
Support reproducible research through community models, open-source software, shared datasets, containers, and documented workflows.
What CryoStack does today.
Capabilities that are implemented and in use, primarily through the CryoLauncher / ISSM path.
User-isolated workspaces
Each authenticated user has a private workspace for examples, edits, and datasets that persists across sessions and is never visible to other users.
Reproducible environments
Runs execute against tested container images or managed Spack environments rather than an ad hoc local install.
Software & container provenance
Every run records the environment it used, resolved to a specific identity — a tested image is pinned by verified digest.
Structured scientific results
Completed ISSM runs export a transport-neutral result package that describes exactly which solutions and fields were produced.
Deterministic visualization
Fields and diagnostics are rendered in the browser from the result package — the same selection always produces the same plot.
Downloadable outputs
Take the full structured result package or just the rendered figures for offline analysis.
Recent developments.
Major work completed as CryoStack matures. Cloud execution runs real jobs today on AWS Batch's default Fargate compute mode, and now also on its Advanced EC2 On-Demand compute mode (single node, CPU); EC2 Spot, GPU, and multi-node remain not-yet-AWS-validated.
Basic and Advanced workflows
A guided, validated configuration surface and a user-owned workspace editor, with per-user examples and datasets that stay isolated between users.
User Manual →Tested container and Spack execution
Docker / OCI runs use a digest-pinned tested image; the ICESEE-Spack backend has a first-time environment check and prepare workflow before a run is allowed.
Execution guide →Structured ISSM results and visualization
Completed runs export a structured result package, and CryoLauncher discovers and deterministically renders the solutions, fields, and timesteps a run actually produced.
Results guide →Cloud execution
AWS Batch execution, on a default Fargate compute mode with an Advanced EC2 alternative. CryoLauncher's ISSM and Icepack workflows have each completed end-to-end execution on both Fargate and EC2 On-Demand (single node, CPU) — for ISSM, including institutional MATLAB licensing through Connector/Relay — and ICESEE's Lorenz-96 example has done the same on Fargate. EC2 Spot, GPU, multi-node, and ICESEE's own Cloud/ISSM workflows remain unvalidated.
Cloud Run Guide →