Grid service for visualization and analysis of remote fusion data

Simulations and experiments in the fusion and plasma physics community generate large datasets at remote sites. Visualization and analysis of these datasets are difficult because of the incompatibility among the various data formats adopted by simulation, experiments, and analysis tools, and the large sizes of analyzed data. Grids and Web services technologies are capable of providing solutions for such heterogeneous settings, but need to be customized to the field-specific needs and merged with distributed technologies currently used by the community. This paper describes how we are addressing these issues in the fusion grid service under development. We also present performance results of relevant data transfer mechanisms.