Scientific Computing in a Web Browser: GALPROP WebRun

As scientific software tools become increasingly complex and computationally demanding, sharing the source code of a scientific project with the community may be insufficient to support peer interest and ensure the appropriate use of the tools. In order to facilitate the use of astrophysical code GALPROP, our group has launched a public online service named GALPROP WebRun. This service, live since August 2010, includes: the ability to configure GALPROP computing tasks in a Web browser; access to a dedicated computing cluster and precompiled binaries for code execution; and user support in the form of online documentation, automated validation tools, and forum/bug reporting online software. This paper reports the details and status of the GALPROP WebRun project as well as our experience with it.

Complete paper:  Colfax_Galprop_WebRun.pdf (2 MB)