The Global Light Rail is a high speed network that has been extended from the US to the UK at Imperial College. This network will essentially allow each of the institutions to access to unique facilities and intellectual capital at the other institutions, helping to build collaborations, transcend borders and furthermore develop a global classroom.

Essentially the linkage will allow:

• videoconferencing that will be performed easily and frequently for regularly scheduled meetings and ad-hoc researcher collaborations
• remote use of the ORNL electron microscopes
• sharing of data
• use of supercomputer at ORNL
• transportation of data in real time from instruments at SNS and the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at ORNL
• access to analytical equipment at all three institutions
• sharing of lectures, workshops and academic courses
• any other future remote instrumentation access and control and data transfer applications as they are developed

An example of its use thus far can be seen through the images below where modeling of climate was carried out using distributed computing, facilitated by the Lambda Rail