Access to Heliophysics data has become increasingly easy and more uniform. The adoption of descriptive and format standards not just at NASA but more internationally is helping greatly. The following provides a guide to a number of HP data resources. It is more complete for NASA data access routes than for others, but some major US/nonNASA and international sources are included. The Heliophysics Data Portal provides, among other things, links to data provider web sites from missions around the world.
The Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO) has focused on delivering solar data files from many observatories at different locations using a unified interface. They deliver FITS files from SOHO, Yohkoh, TRACE, Hinode, STEREO, other spacecraft, and a large number of ground-based observatories. VSO has a simple browser interface and an API for direct access. This VO is the original “small box” building block of a VxO system. The VSO includes preview movies, a “shopping cart,” and links to descriptive information for repositories. It is now possible to gain direct access to data from the SolarSoft library using VSO as an (invisible) web service.
The Heliophysics Data Portal, hosted by NASA’s Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF), provides searches for and access to Space and Solar Physics data, models, plots, indices, images, and movies from over 100 observatories/spacecraft using both direct access with web services and with the interfaces provided by the repositories. The registry uses the SPASE data model. Over 1000 data products are registered, including most past and present NASA missions, many international spacecraft, and a significant number of ground-based resources. Large numbers of quick overview plots, images, and movies are available, in addition to quick access to orbits, papers, and other resources.
NASA’s Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) provides plot, download, and direct application access to a large collection of space physics datasets, including that from many of NASA’s recent and past missions. Data from many sources may be plotted together, and output data products for desired time ranges and variables may be produced in CDF or ASCII. SPDF services include the popular OMNI datasets and associated tools plus orbit plotting tools (SSC) and an associated 3-D viewer (TIPSOD). Data may be accessed directly from applications using web services.
NASA’s Solar Data Analysis Center (SDAC) provides access to a variety of current and past solar data products, and it is home to the VSO (see above). Links are provided to very useful overviews of present and past solar images and related data, and the Solar Monitor and the Latest Event services are rich sources of “space weather” information, both past and present.
NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) is a source for ground-based activity indices, GOES X-ray, magnetic field, and particle data, cosmic ray datasets, DMSP images and particle data, and other Heliophysics related data. Time series plots, data inventories, and data downloads are available, and a Web service provides easy direct access from applications such as IDL.
JAXA’s Data Archives and Transmission System (DARTS) is a rich source of Japanese solar and space physics data (among other things). The site provides Geotail, Hinode, Yohkoh, Akebono, and other datasets and a “Conjunction Event Finder” (CEF) that allows convenient data browsing, determination of satellite footpoints, and other useful services.
The French Centre de Données de Physique des Plasmas (CDPP) has large amounts of HP data from earlier (ARCAD, Interball, etc.) and current (Cluser, STEREO, Ulysses, etc.) missions. Search by keywords or quicklooks, and download selected data.
The NASA “Virtual Observatories” provide a variety of information and tools related to data from subdiscipline “x.” What follows is a very brief guide to these services.
The Virtual Heliospheric Observatory (VHO) unites a number of distributed repositories for heliospheric data. The VHO has included in its tasks assuring the data are well calibrated and complete for improved solar wind studies.
The Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory - GSFC (VMO) and the companion Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory - UCLA (a second VMO) are coordinating efforts to develop many SPASE descriptions as well as useful registry tools and middleware, and have interfaces to search for data using freely chosen keywords, specific search categories, and, as with the VHO, search by constraints on parameter values.
Virtual Ionosphere, Thermosphere, Mesosphere Observatory (VITMO) delivers data based on parameter- and event-based searches. VITMO incorporates a coincidence tool to aid searches involving space-based in situ and remotely sensed data along with ground-based observations.
Virtual Radiation Belt Observatory (ViRBO) has helped the RB community to improve a number of datasets that are now made available in much more convient forms than previously. ViRBO is also the sponsor of the increasingly widely used Autoplot software that allows the plotting of data from in a wide variety of formats from both local and internet sources.
SuperMAG provides VO-like access to nearly all the ground-based magnetometer network, as well as to related auroral images.
The Virtual Model Repository is a VxO that is making progress on the difficult task of integrating computational model results with observed data by facilitating visualization, data/model comparisons, and independent interpretation of model results.
The Virtual Energetic Particle Observatory (VEPO) has augmented the VHO resources with data on energetic particles from both inside and outside the heliosphere, as well as provided a new tool for plotting energetic particle data from multliple spacecraft to perform intercomparisons (MSSP)
Most recently, a Virtual Wave Observatory (VWO) was selected to unite datasets associated with radio and plasma wave phenomena in the magnetosphere and heliosphere. As with VEPO, VWO will use much of the VHO “middleware” to simplify their efforts.