Space Physics Research Environment: Meeting the Challenges of Integrating Disparate Data Systems II
Presiding: D Sibeck, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; A Davis, California Institute of Technology
SH43B-01 INVITED 13:30h
EGSO - A maturing VO for Solar Physics
The European Grid of Solar Observations, EGSO, is a Grid test-bed funded under the Information Societies Thematic Priority of the European Commission's Fifth Framework Programme (FP5). In the case of EGSO, the application chosen was the use of Grid technology to establish a virtual observatory for solar physics, and the project addresses the generic problem of how to provide access to a distributed, heterogeneous data set for a scattered user community. In order to identify observations that match a user's search criteria, EGSO has been building an environment that will support complex searches. Because of the absence of the metadata needed to tie the heterogeneous data together, EGSO has placed emphasis on the provision of databases that can be accessed from the Internet through special providers. The provision of appropriate metadata is of extreme importance in establishing a virtual observatory, and the approach used can be adapted to facilitate the inclusion of any data, including non-solar data. We report on the capabilities of EGSO and discuss experience gained in creating the facility. We also discuss how EGSO has been working with other virtual observatories that support the solar, heliospheric and space plasma communities in order to try to achieve interoperability between the numerous data sets. We highlight what we consider are the most profitable ways of doing this.
http://www.egso.org
SH43B-02 13:45h
Towards a Virtual Heliospheric Observatory: Data Querying, Processing and Science Applications
Ongoing efforts among the L1 data providers and the Virtual Heliospheric Observatory (VHO) team have led to combined data sets as well as more efficient processing and calibrations. Ultimately, this leads to higher quality data products for the community. Additionally, the VHO provides prototype software for advanced querying and also data processing applications. We present an overview of the VHO efforts including currently available data sets, processing and querying applications as well as specific science examples enabled by the VHO. Further, future efforts of the VHO will be discussed which include the addition of new data sets as well as collaborative efforts with the CoSEC and SPASE communities
http://vho.nasa.gov
SH43B-03 14:00h
The Virtual Solar Observatory: Still a Small Box
Two and a half years after a design study began, and a year and a half after development commenced, version 1.0 of the Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO) was released at the 2004 Fall AGU meeting. Although internal elements of the VSO have changed, the basic design has remained the same, reflecting the team's belief in the importance of a simple, robust mechanism for registering data provider holdings, initiating queries at the appropriate provider sites, aggregating the responses, allowing the user to iterate before making a final selection, and enabling the delivery of data directly from the providers. In order to make the VSO transparent, lightweight, and portable, the developers employed XML for the registry, SOAP for communication between a VSO instance and data services, and HTML for the graphic user interface (GUI's). We discuss the internal data model, the API, and user responses to various trial GUI's as typical design issues for any virtual observatory. We also discuss the role of the "small box" of data search, identification, and delivery services provided by the VSO in the larger, Sun-Solar System Connection virtual observatory (VxO) scheme.
http://virtualsolar.org/docs/AGUSPD200505/
SH43B-04 14:15h
Are You Being Served? - Solar Data Management at the National Solar Observatory
Solar physics is a data driven field, where no progress can be made without multi-wavelength and multi-cadence information about the sun's behavior. The National Solar Observatory (NSO) has provided data to the research community for over 30 years and thus has considerable experience in the areas of data processing, archiving, and distribution. This presentation will describe the development of NSO's data services, outline what lessons have been learned along the way, and attempt to forecast the future of data management at NSO.
http://diglib.nso.edu/
SH43B-05 14:30h
Using the Collaborative Sun-Earth Connector for integrating data systems
We demonstrate the coupling of disjoint data systems into virtual collaborative operations using the Collaborative Sun-Earth Connector (CoSEC). In addition to demonstrating possible interactions between Virtual observatories, we will present how individual missions and researchers can integrate their systems with space science services already incorporated into CoSEC. We present more advanced concepts of how to create collaborative data environments using upcoming solar missions as examples. This research has been supported through NASA contract NNH04CC00C.
http://cosec.lmsal.com
SH43B-06 14:45h
STEREO's Interactions With the Virtual Solar and Heliospheric Observatories
STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) will observe the Sun and solar storms with two nearly identical spacecraft in heliocentric orbits, one ahead of Earth, the other trailing behind. This multi-spacecraft approach provides both stereoscopic views of the solar corona with the imaging telescopes, and multipoint observations of the heliosphere with the in-situ and radio experiments. Combined analysis with other viewpoints will be essential to STEREO science. Data archived at the NASA/GSFC STEREO Science Center will be completely integrated into the Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO), with shared resources and personnel. The in-situ and radio data will also be directly available through the Virtual Heliospheric Observatory (VHO). This dual system will ensure the maximum visibility of STEREO data to both the imaging and particle/field communities. Linkages between the VSO and VHO will allow all the STEREO data to be available through either system. Event lists will enhance the data set, and ease the data selection process.
http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov