E-Infrastructure shared between Europe and Latin America (EELA)

EELA (E-Infrastructure shared between Europe and Latin America) is a project that aims to deploy and potentially develop grid applications in e-learning, biomedical science and particle physics, while also creating a human network in grids, e-science and e-infrastructures.

EELA began on 1 January 2006 and will run for two years. 21 institutions from Europe and Latin America are participating in the project, which is funded by the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme.

The project's main focus is to create a collaboration network that will organise training in grid technologies, and in parallel is deploying a pilot grid infrastructure for e-science applications. The pilot infrastructure will include grid cluster deployment wherever possible, and the development and enforcement of operational and organisational schemes and policies.

EELA has been an integral part in the support of volcano sonification studies, conducted first at Mount Etna, Sicily and later extended to include Ecuador’s Tungurahua volcano. Scientists in Europe and Latin America are collecting geophysical information on seismic movements, and transforming it into sound waves. These sound waves can then be analysed for patterns in order to identify similarities in eruption dynamics - an important technique for predicting future activity.

The sonification software was developed by Dr. Domenico Vicinanza at the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) for use at Mount Etna, the tallest volcano in Europe. Dr. Vicinanza and a team of scientists, led by Prof. Roberto Barbera from the University of Catania, are now collaborating with colleagues in Ecuador to study the Tungurahua volcano, transferring data across GÉANT2 to the ALICE-RedCLARA network using the project's transatlantic 622Mbps connection. The Ecuadorian National Research and Education Network (CEDIA) is responsible for the connection to the scientists based at Tungurahua itself.