Goddard Space Flight Center
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NASA's Heliophysics Data
Environment:
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Heliophysics Data and Model Consortium (HDMC) kickoff
meeting, 10-12 June 2008
The VOs, RAs, and related data projects have a new umbrella
organization, the HDMC, that will be responsible for the cross-mission
and post-mission serving of HP data. The Implementation
Working Group, consisting of representatives of all the constituent
groups, had an initial, formative meeting on 10-12 June at UMBC in
Baltimore, MD. Each of the VxOs presented their visions and
plans, and there was discussion of topics of mutual interest, including
SPASE registries, a possible SPASE Query Language, and the role of
Resident and other Archives. The idea of the HDMC is
endorsed by the HP Data and Computing Working Group, and this meeting
broght general acceptance by the particpants. Many of the
presentations from the meeting can be found here.
Results of NRA for VxOs, Services, RAs, and Data Upgrades published, June
2008
The selections based on the 2007 NASA ROSES call for proposals are now
finalized. There was one addition to the VxOs, the Virtual Wave
Observatory (VWO), which will be closely associated with VHO, and the
Virtual Model Repository (VMR) was given regular funding. There were
five
proposals for value-added services funded, notably one to help manage
event lists and one to include auroral image data in a "VO" that unites
ground-based magnetometer stations. In addition, there were five
proposals accepted for
Data Service Upgrades to improve the utility and accessibility of
various particular data products. New this year, six Resident Archive
proposals were accepted, for missions including Yohkoh, SOHO, POLAR, TRACE,
and SNOE. Read the complete set
of abstracts of winning awards.
The next round of VxO, Service, and Data Upgrades selected
for the NASA HP VxO program, July 2007
The previous round of VxO selections are now all funded, and the
competition based on the 2006 NASA ROSES call for proposals is now
complete. There were two additions to the VxOs, the Virtual Cosmic Ray
Observatory (ViCRO), which will be closely associated with VHO, and the
Virtual Model Repository (VMR) which will begin to explore how modeling
will be incorportated into the VO architecture. There were two
proposals for value-added services that were funded, one for an
enhancement to VSO and the other to develop what is needed for uniform
access to the parameters in files for the use of tools that can span
products easily. In addition, there were nine proposals accepted for
Data Service Upgrades to improve the utility and accessibility of
various particular data products. Read the complete set
of abstracts of winning awards.
VO, SPASE workshops held, June/July 2007
A workshop was held 12-15 June 2007 that involved a very broad
discussion of the issues involved in "Virtual Observatories in
Geophyics" VOiG.
On 11 June, the NASA VxOs (and friends including GAIA and VSTO) met to
exchange status reports and to further discussions of cross-VxO issues.
A meeting
of the SPASE group was held in Abingdon, UK on 9-11 July
2007. It advanced the SPASE Data Model considerably. As a result of the
meeting, the Resource Types of Software, Document, Service, and Model
will be worked on by various subgroups and eventually added to the
model. There was considerable discussion of the great importance of and
the possibilities for international collaboration, and this will be a
continuing theme. Preesentations from the SPASE meeting can be found here.
NASA selects new discipline specific Virtual Observatories
(VxO's);
Kickoff and related meetings held, May 2006
The next phase of NASA's Heliophysics Data Environment has begun with
the selection of a set of five (mostly new) VxOs to add to the
established Virtual Solar Observatory. A number of small projects were
also selected to provide data service upgrades for specific datasets.
The three year VxO projects are the: Virtual
Heliospheric Observatory (VHO, Adam Szabo, PI); Virtual Magnetospheric
Observatory (VMO, Jan Merka, PI); Virtual Magnetospheric
Observatory (a second VMO, Raymond Walker, PI); Virtual Radiation Belt Observatory
(ViRBO, Robert Weigel, PI); and Virtual
Ionosphere, Thermosphere, Mesosphere Observatory (VITMO,
Daniel Morrison, PI). This set of VxOs, along with various ongoing
efforts (see the Data Access link above) and collaborations with other
agencies and countries, will bring us to the next level of realization
of the plans outlined in the Workshop discussed below.
Read the complete set of
winning propoal abstracts for both the VxOs and the data
service upgrades.
A kickoff meeting was held on 22 May 2006 in Baltimore that involved
the new VxOs along with the more established VSO, VSPO, GAIA, CoSEC,
and SPDF (see below for infomation and and links). The agenda and
presenations from that meeting are all available.
At the AGU meeting following the kickoff meeting, a special session was
held on "The Science Needs for the Data Environment of the Great
Observatory" and many
papers from this session are available that should help VxO
designers in their work. Also, the Friday of the VxO kickoff week, a
workshop was held on the use of "Ontologies" to capture and use the
meaning and relationships of the terms used in Earth and Space Science.
A summary
with links to papers is now online.
To help the space and solar physics
community arrive at a clear plan for its data environment, NASA's
Living With a Star Program sponsored a multi-agency, international
workshop on October 27-29, 2004 at the Marriott Hotel in
Greenbelt, MD. The idea of this workshop was endorsed by the
Virtual Observatories Birds-of-a-Feather meeting at the Fall 2003 AGU
meeting, and by NASA's Sun-Earth Connection Data and Computing Working
Group. About 100 people attended, representing many of the major
efforts within space and solar physics as well as related Earth Science
and Astronmy groups.
Read the complete first
announcement. Most of the time was spent in focus
and plenary working groups, but there were invited presentations, and
many posters which were up for the whole meeting. A near final agenda and suggestions for
the focus groups is still available.
Oral Talks and Posters
from the workshop are posted at this link.
A summary of the workshop findings is contained in the downloadable
workshop report "A
Framework for Space and Solar Physics Virtual Observatories."
(Or get the PDF
version.)
The present site has many backgound documents for the workshop. If you
have something you would like to post, send it to aaron.roberts@nasa.gov.
Responsible NASA official: Dr.
Aaron Roberts
E-mail: aaron.roberts@nasa.gov
Webmaster: Tom Vollmer
E-mail: Thomas.W.Vollmer@nasa.gov
Last revised 14 July 2008