Category: Research

Geospatial data, including many climate and weather datasets, are often released by government and nonprofit organizations in compressed file formats such as the Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) or GRIdded Binary (GRIB). As the complexity and size of geospatial datasets continue to grow, it is more time- and cost-efficient to leave the files in one place, virtually query the data, and download only the subset that is needed locally. Unlike legacy file formats, the cloud-native Zarr format is designed for virtual and efficient access to compressed chunks of data saved in a central location such as Amazon S3. In this walkthrough, learn how to convert NetCDF datasets to Zarr using an Amazon SageMaker notebook and an AWS Fargate cluster and query the resulting Zarr store, reducing the time required for time series queries from minutes to seconds.

The AWS Open Data Sponsorship Program makes high-value, cloud-optimized datasets publicly available on AWS. Through this program, customers are making over 100PB of high-value, cloud-optimized data available for public use. As April 22 is Earth Day, the AWS Open Data team wanted to highlight some new datasets from our geospatial and environmental communities of practice, as well as the other new or updated datasets available now on the Registry of Open Data on AWS and also discoverable on AWS Data Exchange.

In 2020, Meta introduced the Daylight Map Distribution, which combines OpenStreetMap (OSM) data with quality and consistency checks from Daylight mapping partners to create a no-cost, stable, and simple-to-use global map. This blog post provides a brief overview of OSM and Daylight followed by a step-by-step tutorial using five real-world examples. We combine the powerful query capabilities of Amazon Athena from with the feature-rich Daylight OSM data to demonstrate a typical OSM data analysis workflow.

The Think Big for Small Business (TBSB) program provides AWS Partners with access to AWS Partner Programs, financial incentives, and additional visibility with customers and AWS teams. Since March 2021, more than 500 partners from 41 countries have participated in the TBSB program, and have launched more than 1,200 opportunities with public sector customers. Learn how four TBSB partners supported public sector customers through their digital transformation in the TBSB program.

Data spaces can help break down these silos between industries and sectors. Data spaces facilitate a decentralized and secure data exchange across organizations and industries that come together to pool, access, process, and share data. They enable simple, secure, open standards-based, and interoperable data-sharing, while allowing for organizations to maintain full control over their data. Learn how data spaces support simple and secure data-sharing between organizations and sectors, current data space initiatives in Europe and beyond, and how to leverage a data space with AWS.

In 2022, Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI) Global Hackathon, part of a new collaboration with the International Research Centre in Artificial Intelligence, under the auspices of UNESCO. Participants were asked to use their creativity, intelligence, and technical skills to build sustainability solutions using data from ASDI on any AWS Cloud services to build solutions that support one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the United Nations (UN). We connected with Jeff McWhirter, the first place winner, to learn more about his winning project, the Repository for Archiving and MAnaging Diverse Data (RAMADDA).

Today, AWS announced the addition of new nonprofit solutions in the AWS Solutions Library and AWS Marketplace. These solutions are tailored to the unique requirements of credit unions and nonprofit research organizations. They range from architectural guidance to ready-to-deploy solutions, and also include offerings developed by AWS Partners. Learn the solution categories that collect these new solutions into important mission areas, as well as some of the specific solutions that can help credit unions or research organizations get started with AWS.

Amazon Lightsail for Research is a new service that makes it simple to incorporate cloud computing resources into your work without cloud experience. With Lightsail for Research, you can shift large and/or time-consuming analysis from your laptop onto powerful cloud resources, run multiple analyses simultaneously, and continue computations even when your laptop is off or being used for other activities. In this blog post, learn how to use Lightsail for Research with a simple but common use case.

As part of the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI), AWS invited Seán Lynch, the founder of OpenLitterMap, to share how AWS technologies and open data are helping to solve global challenges like biodiversity loss and plastic pollution with citizen science. Solutions like OpenLitterMap help unlock the potential that a global abundance of technology has for the collection and dissemination of pertinent data that is an instrumental part of positive social change.

AWS today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Thailand’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research, and Innovation (MHESI) to boost innovation using cloud technology. Through this collaboration, AWS will support MHESI to identify pilot workloads for the ministry to start migrating to the AWS Cloud. MHESI will also use AWS training programs to upskill employees on AWS Cloud skills across over 200 education institutions and over 20 MHESI-managed research and education agencies across Thailand by early 2026.