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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.

Space and Solar Physics Virtual Observatories Workshop, October 2004

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
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