The Heliophysics Data and Model Consortium was created to provide coherence and long-term support for a number of aspects of the HPDE, including VxOs and related services, RAs, and upgrades to existing data products. The HDMC is under the direction of a Project Scientist and an Implementation Working Group consisting of representatives of all relevant subgroups. Meetings and telecons are held and subgroups are appointed as needed to advance the work. The HDMC works closely with SPDF and SDAC, as well as with nonNASA groups such as NSF and the IMPEx initiative in Europe to provide data and related services to the HP community efficiently and usefully.


Virtual Observatories

The task of providing unified access to all of Heliophysics data is a large one, so it has been divided into a number of sub-discipline related Virtual Observatories. To make sure these are coordinated, the VxOs (where “x” refers to an area such as “Magnetospheric”) are all part of the HDMC. A major task of the VxOs has been to generate the uniform metadata (“SPASE”) required to allow easy discovery of and access to data. See the “Data Access” link above for more details. Going forward, the plan for VxOs is to move toward a more integrated “VHSO” based on standards for data, metadata, and transfer protocols that will be the core of the VO rather than particular portals. The latter should be easy to design, as needed, and will include such things as uniform access to datasets from application software such as Python, IDL, or MatLab. (See the “Software Tools” tab above for the beginnings of this.)


Resident Archives

Traditionally in Heliophysics, when a mission ended it would be given some time to deliver final products to NSSDC, but there was no clear plan for continued access to these products. The HP Data Policy now defines “Resident Archives” that are funded to continue access to mission data, and “Final Archives” that are where data products will remain accessible for the long-term. Resident Archives are not intended to do much improvement of the data, but rather to keep data flowing in a useful manner, and to provide expert help with the data as needed by the community. It is expected that RAs will have a plan to transition the data to a Final Archive, and in a number of recent instances, much of the data is going directly to a Final Archive, making this transition easier. An RA typically will provide a higher level of service for the data (more tools) than the Final Archive for as long as this is deemed useful by the community and Senior Reviews. As the process of moving data to final archives during the active mission phase becomes more robust, the need for RAs has decreased considerably, and may eventually vanish; there will be no call for them this year (2017) in the NASA ROSES “Heliophysics Data Environment Enhancements” program.


Data Upgrades

Many older datasets are not used because they are in archaic formats or not well organized for modern access methods. The HDMC oversees the continual upgrading of these older data sets, with the priorities determined through NRA competition. This has been a very effective route for both making older data more widely used and for maintaining access through, for example, the upgrade of older hardware.


Value Added Services

The more uniform access to data provided by uniform descriptions and VxO “middleware” makes it possible to add services that would not have been otherwise practical. Thus, for example, projects are underway to provide access to solar data using a “Helioviewer” visual interface and the VSO as a backend service, to provide uniform access to Event Lists, and to remove the impediments imposed by the existing variety of formats for datasets. As Value Added Services mature, they will become part of infrastructure funding rather than depending on possibly precarious NRA funding. Examples of this include Helioviewer, Autoplot, and SPEDAS (see “Software Tools” in the menu above).


A Complete list of HDMC projects

Here are the projects that have been funded by competition in the VxO/HDEE offering in ROSES, all of which now fall under the HDMC, given by category of award and the by the year of the ROSES call that is relevant for the task. Also included are a number of tasks that are not HDMC funded, but are relevant to the HPDE. Here also are the abstracts for the all the awards:

Abstracts of winning selections for 2005 NRA (2006 awards).
Abstracts of winning selections for 2006 NRA (2007 awards).
Abstracts of winning selections for 2007 NRA (2008-9 awards).
Abstracts of winning selections for 2009 NRA (2010 awards).
Abstracts of winning selections for 2010 NRA (2011 awards).
Abstracts of winning selections for 2011 NRA (2012 awards).
Abstracts of winning selections for 2012 NRA (2013 awards).
Abstracts of winning selections for 2013 NRA (2014 awards).
Abstracts of winning selections for 2014 NRA (2015 awards).
Abstracts of winning selections for 2015 NRA (2016 awards).
Abstracts of winning selections for 2016 NRA (2017 awards).
Abstracts of winning selections for 2017 NRA (2018 awards).