![Text Box: According to “A Framework for Space and Solar Physics Virtual Observatories (VO)” [2005]: a VO should “enable new, global problems to be solved. Being able to access diverse datasets and services should allow researchers to rapidly gain integrated views from the solar origin to the terrestrial effects of an event. Wide-ranging search capabilities will allow a user to find data related to any particular observation. Ultimately VOs and associated services should enable us to answer queries such as ‘Show me the data from cases where a large CME* and its effects that was observed by SOHO* was also observed in situ in the heliosphere, in the Earth’s magnetotail, and in responses in the magnetospheres and ionospheres of any planets.”
Figure 1. HELM will effectively serve the “VO community vision” as stated above by processing complex, multi-disciplinary scientific queries across the discipline-oriented VxOs having distinct domains (colored regions). HELM will provide SPASE-based query and results formats and protocols, event list management and interfaces.](HELM_proposal_files/image003.png)
Scientific/Technical
Management
1.0 Objectives and Expected Significance
Imagine you want to do some cross-mission analysis, perhaps to compute correlations between Earth aurora brightening and isolated CMEs. In our proposed system, you can easily bring together lists of CME events from VSO*, a list of otherwise quiet times from OMNIweb geophysical indices, a list of times when spacecraft with imagers onboard are above the poles from SSCweb’s Query functionality or VITMO’s Coincidence Calculator, and finally pass the merged list of times matching all those conditions to VITMO to get auroral images for analysis.
To do the same work in our present Heliophysics
data environment, you have to manually match the time ranges in these lists and
type in each of the many time ranges into each services’ browser interface. The
effort required to correlate event lists and to collect the related data is
very time consuming and laborious, hindering these sorts of cross-mission and
survey-type studies. Creating a service to make this task easier will be very
beneficial to the researcher, especially at the speculating stage when looking
for interesting event-based correlations to investigate further. We propose to
coordinate amongst the VxOs and SPDF to develop common SPASE-based query and
results formats and build an event list management server to store and
manipulate those lists. This approach has the added benefits of enhancing data
discovery and leveraging the VxOs, as envisioned in the NASA Heliophysics
Science Data Management Policy [HSDMP].
The goal of the Heliophysics Event List
Management (HELM) system is to support global-scale (cross-disciplinary)
Heliophysics research that require analyses of diverse datasets and models from
different Heliophysics disciplines.
This goal is derived directly from the “community-based vision” for crossing
the domain limitations of the discipline-oriented VxOs, as shown in Figure 1,
where many scientific and space weather questions cut across multiple
discipline domains. We will develop an event list server for capturing these
lists, merging and intersecting them, allow commenting and extending them,
publishing them, and most importantly sending the lists to other services for
selecting and plotting data. Particularly new is the provision for queries that
have multiple time ranges, by incorporating event lists into the queries,
greatly extending common queries with a single time range.
The hallmark of Sun-Earth system
science research is the development of space weather forecasting and nowcasting
capabilities. This requires cross-disciplinary correlation of events at one
time and location with events at other times and locations. To that end, we
propose a coordinated effort to develop HELM to enable complex data queries and
generation of event lists for studying classes of events with similar data
features, and for studying relationships between events in separate regions
(e.g., vortices in the magnetopause and spirals/pearls in the aurora). To
support analyses of large-scale problems, such as in Sun to solar wind to
magnetosphere to ionosphere couplings, HELM will improve the query generation
and handling of results from various services of the VxOs and science centers
(such as ACE, THEMIS, and SPDF at NASA Goddard).
This system provides a sort of meta-VxO for cross-disciplinary research
and has support from all the Heliophysics VxOs, SPDF, and some VxO Services
projects (see Letters of Support), with team members on all VxOs (see Letters
of Commitment). The utility of HELM will increase as the VxOs add more
resources such as catalogs and search services.
HELM will enable data search
capabilities based on the context (such as the solar wind, IMF, energetic particles,
and geomagnetic conditions associated with the events or data to be analyzed,
appropriately time shifted) and content (i.e.,
particular data features of interest) of the data to support
cross-disciplinary, global-scale research. The key organizing parameter for
most Heliophysics data is time: times when “something” happens or time spans
when some condition is true. Scientists now manually generate, manage and share
lists of times of observations defined by a given physical condition or
signature. While some VxOs will point to others in domain-specific areas, users
generally have to query each VxO separately in the existing data environment,
and individually enter each time range of interest. Our proposed collective
effort will enable combining the results of complex data queries accessing
multiple VxOs and other services across multiple time ranges.
HELM objectives are to enable multi-VxO query generation and event
list handling, plus retrieval of data occurring in multiple time intervals, in
order to facilitate solving global problems and gaining integrated views of
Heliophysics events from the solar origin to their terrestrial effects. To
accomplish this, we will:
1. Coordinate amongst the VxOs and
science centers to develop common SPASE-based query and results formats, and
submit to SPASE,
2. Develop a HELM service for
managing event lists (XML database and API), both published and dynamically
generated,
3. Develop HELM user interface to
search, manipulate, display, and annotate event lists,
4. Collaborate with VxOs and other
services to accept and emit these queries and event lists.
The schematic in Figure 2 shows the
role of HELM in supporting Heliophysics research. Section 1.1 gives a few
examples of how a set of data and complex-query requirements may be derived
from different types of science questions. HELM will facilitate complex queries
and retrieval of pertinent datasets to support relevant analyses, thereby
solving the scientific problems. Universal access across all VxOs with HELM
software and standards will enable a revolutionary change in cross-discipline
studies.
Relevance
of the proposed work to NASA objectives/strategic goals: HELM directly addresses the highest level requirement of NASA’s
Strategic Goal 3 to “Develop a balanced overall program of science,
exploration, and aeronautics…,” see Section 4. Many science questions raised in
addressing space weather problems are especially multi-disciplinary and global
scale, and HELM cross-disciplinary services will be uniquely suited for these
science needs. In addition, there are many global scale questions that are
central to addressing sub-goal 3B (to understand the Sun and its effects on
Earth and the solar system), such as those raised by the NASA Living With A
Star community, which cannot be easily
addressed without a tool like HELM. Event-based studies for solar flare and CME
energetic particle data also have clear relevance to manned exploration of
space and other planetary bodies. In addition to supporting cross-disciplinary
research, the HELM project will provide an integrating layer for the VxOs and services,
thus enhancing the overall capability of the federated system.
1.1 Sample Science Problems and Data/Query
Requirements
The NASA LWS TRT program annually solicits from the space science
community for high-priority focus science questions to be addressed by that
program in the next year. Many of the questions raised by the community for
2007 [Gambosi, 2006] clearly involve cross-disciplinary queries well beyond the
scope of LWS that the HELM system and SPASE/HELM standards will address. In
addition to the simple scenarios described above, the following are more
complex cross-disciplinary Heliophysics problems that would be aided by HELM.
While some queries below are not yet available, we anticipate the VxOs
developing most of these services. These queries usually require searching for
multiple or joint conditions, not easily supported by individual discipline-oriented VxOs. In each example, we present the science
problem questions, types of data and analysis needed to answer the problem
questions, and the queries to define the times and locate the required data as derived
from the relevant science questions, following down the left side of Figure 2. HELM
will leverage the VxO search and retrieval services and simplify multi-source
retrieval to make the required connections.
Sample problem 1 (Sun–solar
wind–magnetosphere–ionosphere interactions): In studying solar events that produce energetic particles and effects
at the Earth, a science user might query OMNIweb for times for a particular
heliophysical state, including when solar activity is high, and query SSCweb
for times when Cluster, Geotail and Polar/IMAGE are in position to measure the
cusp, magnetotail and the Earth’s aurora, respectively. The scientist might
also search for times when Polar and magnetometer ground stations are on the
same field lines, for correlating the data from them. Each of these queries
generates an event list to be stored at HELM, and the lists can then be
intersected to find times meeting all criteria. Using this combined list of
times, one can query VxOs for data during the specified high activity events
and browse data plots from these spacecraft, along with Wind and ACE field and
plasma data, to identify inter-planetary shocks from these events arriving at
Earth. Many of these queries produce an event list of thousands of time ranges
(and associated data). Without HELM, finding times of overlap (intersections)
is currently tedious and using the resulting list to get data from the data
providers and VxOs requires manual input of each time range.
Sample problem 2 (Sun–solar
wind–radiation belts–ionosphere–atmosphere interactions): Tracking and explaining the geo-effects of a solar event
from Sun to Earth with ionospheric consequences is a primary goal of
Heliophysics research [Fox et al.,
1998, Tsurutani et al., 2005].
Understanding the cause-and-effect relationships and the couplings between
different Heliophysics domains will allow eventual prediction of near-Earth
space weather. The central question here is what types of solar events (coronal
holes, high-speed solar wind streams, solar flares, CMEs, etc.) are linked
directly to what types of ionospheric disturbances (density and irregularity
enhancements, temperature enhancements, ionization or conductivity
enhancements, scintillations, etc.)? This requires analyzing timing information
(taking response times and event locations into account) from lists or catalogs
of solar events, interplanetary structures (ICMEs, magnetic clouds, pressure
pulses), magnetospheric responses (bow shock and magnetospause crossings,
plasmapause locations, geomagnetic indices), and ionospheric disturbances.
Query sequence:
(1) Query VSO catalogs for times of solar features;
(2) Query VITMO catalogs for times of ionospheric
disturbances;
(3) Query VMO and ViRBO catalogs for times of
crossings of magnetospheric boundaries, radiation belt and plasmasphere;
(4) Query VHO catalogs for times of solar wind
structures;
(5) Present lists side by side for visual
comparison, time shifting events according to solar wind velocity and distance
from the Sun.
HELM will aid in each step of the query sequence. Event lists are
shared in the HELM event list format and HELM will provide the interface for
the visual comparison of lists.
Sample problem 3 (solar wind–magnetosphere
interaction): What are the
salient structural differences [Tsyganenko
and Mukai, 2003; Wing and Newell, 2002] in the near-Earth magnetotail
(-15 < X < -7 RE) between northward and southward IMF, during
high (>700 km s-1) and low (< 500 km s-1) solar
wind speeds? Changes in the average magnetotail structure with solar wind and
IMF conditions must be manifested in the magnetotail plasma density, magnetic
field, plasma flows, electron and ion energy spectra, ion compositions, and
plasma wave characteristics (e.g., broadband electrostatic noise). We need to
analyze plasma density, flow structure, magnetic field, electric field, wave
and energetic particle data to identify plasma sheet, neutral sheet, and lobe
boundary crossings during different external driving conditions. Analyses of
the corresponding magnetospheric conditions such as given by geomagnetic
indices (Kp, Dst, and AE) will be needed to determine their influences on the
average tail structures while under different external forcing. Analyses of
solar wind and IMF data are required to determine the external stress exerted
on the magnetosphere under different solar wind and IMF conditions.
Query sequence:
(1) Query OMNIweb for the four sets of
time intervals when solar wind and IMF context conditions, corresponding to the
four combinations of solar wind speeds (Vsw > 700 km or < 500 km s-1)
and IMF Bz (> 0 or < 0), are satisfied.
(2) For each of the four sets of these
intervals,
(a) Query
VHO for high resolution solar wind and IMF data for stress calculations,
(b) Query
VMOs for ground-based geomagnetic data, and
(c) Query
SSCWeb to determine which spacecraft or missions provide data in the
magnetotail region of interest (-15 < X < -7 RE, given certain
range limits in Y and Z also).
(3) Combine above lists in HELM and
send to VMOs to get pertinent spacecraft data.
HELM will aid in each step of the query sequence. Event lists are
shared in the HELM event list format and HELM will facilitate the retrieval of
data from the VMO by generating the appropriate set of queries.
1.2 Query services and existing catalogs
In addition to the VxO resources to be queried in Figure 3
(most already have dynamic query interfaces), there are a number of other
existing event lists (personal and published) that we will make available
through HELM; see Figure 4. HELM will also make available community-contributed
lists and will make an effort to include lists that are available from other
sources (such as the Astrophysics Data Center).
|
Provider |
Heliophysical parameters to search |
Science data queries |
|
VITMO |
Activity indices; Combinations of viewing directions
for space-borne and ground-based instruments |
Ionospheric, mesosphere, thermosphere |
|
VHO |
Solar wind, IMF |
Lagrangian point 1 |
|
VEPO |
Energetic particles |
All regions |
|
VMO-G |
Fields, plasma, bowshock & magnetopause
crossings |
Magnetosphere |
|
VMO-UCLA |
Solar wind, ground-based instruments, propagated
solar wind data, activity indices |
Magnetosphere |
|
ViRBO |
TBD |
Radiation belt |
|
VSO |
Solar flares, CMEs, X-ray events, solar proton
events, brightpoints and sunspot numbers |
Solar |
|
Through VxOs |
|
Ground-based |
|
SPDF |
CDAWeb: Numerous missions and instruments SSCweb: Satellite/ground-station locations,
conjunctions OMNIweb: Solar-geophysical activity indices MSQS: Solar-geophysical activity indices, relative
delays Helioweb: Heliocentric trajectories for spacecraft,
planets |
Numerous Heliophysics data |
|
CCMC |
Models of fields, plasma, temperature, density |
|
Figure 4: HELM will interface or include
directly existing catalogs and other event lists (possible examples below).
|
VIRBO Jie Zhang catalogs |
|
CDAWeb list of events (started with ISTP event list,
but extended by McGuire based on large Wind EPACT SEPs) |
|
SPDF bowshock and magnetopause crossing lists <http://ftpbrowser.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
LASCO CME lists at <http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=content/cmelist> |
|
VSO searchable catalogs <http://vso.nso.edu/cgi/catalogui?> including LASCO CMEs, GOES X-rays, RHESSI
flares, KPVT coronal holes, solar proton events, active regions, bright spots
and sunspot numbers. Also search the solar event and feature catalogs
available through European Grid of Solar Observations (EGSO) |
|
LMSAL SolarSoft Latest events archive <http://www.lmsal.com/solarsoft/latest_events_archive.html> |
|
Gopalswamy catalogs, including solar
CDAWs event lists <http://cdaw.gsfc.nasa.gov> |
|
ACE list of Transients and Disturbances
<http://www.ssg.sr.unh.edu/mag/ace/ACElists/obs_list.html> |
|
TIMED SEE Flare Catalog
<http://lasp.colorado.edu/see/see_flare_catalog.html> |
|
VMO McPherron catalogs of substorm
onsets, magnetic storms, corotating interaction regions, sawtooth injection
events |
|
Lists from publications, such as empirical bow shock
and magnetopause empirical models; statistical SEP studies of Cane et al., etc. |
2.0
Technical Approach and Methodology
In order to achieve the objectives
of HELM, we will develop and implement the HELM querying capabilities to enable
(1) the management of event lists (Sections 2.1 and 2.2) and (2) point to VxO
and science center query services for queries of geophysical conditions,
spacecraft regions, conjunctions or locations, queries of existing feature
lists, and queries for data granules and plots (see Section 2.5). We will work
with all VxOs (all are collaborating on this proposal) to use their querying
protocols for their existing search capabilities and for accessing data that
falls within the time ranges generated by the above queries. We will work
closely as part of the SPASE group to codify event list descriptions and query
protocols (some Co-Is are working on a SPASE Heliophysical Query Language
[HQL]).
The sample questions in Section 1.1
illustrate the types of queries we will support. Some VxOs are planning solely
a “small box”, providing metadata-only searches that only return pointers to
data granules, while others are providing for querying the contents of
selected, pre-processed datasets. Other VxOs and data services are providing
feature list search capabilities (such as bow shock crossings and flare lists).
The HELM project is not generating fundamentally new event lists but will host
lists for searching and provide services to coalesce and visualize lists. The
HELM Advisory Panel (Section 5.0) will set the priorities and coordinate
defining the event list description schema and necessary event list protocols.
The HELM server will both store
some lists of time ranges and associated information, and will access existing
lists on other systems (solar feature lists, bow shock crossings, etc.), as well
as querying dynamic services. The event list manager enables unions and
intersections of the lists, generating new lists that can be sent (via URLs or
SPASE ResourceIDs) to other services for getting data or other processing. The
VxOs and science centers will modify or add to their various external query
services to accept these lists as inputs and to emit such lists (as XML URLs or
SPASE ResourceIDs passed back to the list manager). So users can search SSCweb
for spacecraft in conjunction, search OMNIweb for times when KP is in some
range, get list of CMEs, and merge all of these into a new list to send to data
providers. The event list manager will enable adding comments and other fields
to the list, and allow the user to publish it in HELM (producing a ResourceID
or URL to go in a paper, to point readers to the exact data used in the
research) or save it to a local system. The event lists also serve as datasets
of their own and can even be displayed as line segments or highlighted areas on
a time line.
The correlation condition
prescribed by a user is satisfied by accounting for time lags between event
lists due to the finite separation of the measurement locations or finite system
response times. In cases where there are existing event lists, we will query
those lists for each desired conditions separately, then merge the results with
appropriate time lags in HELM to produce the desired list that can be used to
retrieve data for analysis. Time lags can be fixed or based on solar wind
speed, or some other functions as defined by users.
2.1
Using SPASE to standardize queries
Most VxOs develop their search mechanisms using SPASE metadata descriptions of their data (due to development before SPASE was well-defined, VSO translates from the SPASE dictionary). We will also base our query mechanism on the SPASE data model and use SPASE terms in event lists. HELM queries will allow searching on attributes not currently in the SPASE metadata. Working with all VxOs, an event list schema will be developed, which will be submitted to SPASE for vetting by the community and included in its standards. Each event list is a form of Catalog resource in the current SPASE resource schema. HELM serves a functional purpose for SPASE as it will truly test the inter-disciplinary nature of SPASE. We will register existing catalogs, enable finding catalogs and query services relevant to specific queries, and facilitate searching the existing catalogs and making queries to dynamic query services (defining both the search format and results format).
In general terms, the event list outline is given below. An event list is composed of header information (including the query parameters) and a body of individual events. The list is a SPASE-based resource. EventType will be enumerated to have things like “BowShockCrossing, CME, etc.” to aid in searching. Description can hold additional details, Caveat can provide cautions, and Certainty can carry other qualifiers. ObservedRegion will distinguish between Earth and other planets and other SPASE terms such as InstrumentType will carry other optional information useful to specific services. AssociationID will tie to specific resources. Additional attributes in an event list might include PropagationMethod, Technique, Contact (which uses a SPASE PersonID). A SPASE Collection Resource could be defined to couple multiple EventLists by AssociationIDs.
<EventList>
<Description/>
<AssociationID>Spase://blah/blah</AssociationID>
<Event>
<StartDate/>
<StopDate/>
<EventType/>
<Description/>
<Caveat/>
</Event>
<Event>
</Event>
</EventList>
The important contribution of this proposal is to formalize the expression of event lists so that services can leverage the information to perform a task. For the scale of this proposal, we will provide “find available resources”, “merge event lists”, and “display event lists” services. A full event list editor may be beyond the resources of this proposal (although since event lists are expressed in XML, people can hand construct lists).
2.2 The
Heliophysics Event List Manager (HELM) Service
The HELM server receives and holds
the various output lists and can merge and intersect them. Users either
provides an event list (generated by hand or another service) or selects an
existing event list in the HELM database. HELM will also allow reviewing,
commenting, updating (or extending), and publishing the event lists. More
importantly, HELM can also send the lists to services for selecting, retrieving
or plotting the data. Figure 5 shows how various query types are made to
various services and then accessed by other services. In addition to the usual pre-mined
lists (such as times of boundary crossings, FTEs and CMEs), the concept of
event lists is expanded here to include lists of time intervals that result
from context queries of state parameters [see for instance, MSQS papers by Fung
et al.] and general content queries.
The event lists themselves can also
be treated as datasets and highlighted on a time line. The list information (time
range, data description) can be added to a user’s own list or to a
group-maintained list such as a collection of identified shock crossings.
A basic HELM session starts at the HELM user interface (listing all the VxO
query capabilities) or directly using a VxO query interface to select a type of
query and fill in the search parameters. A user can search for and select lists
currently catalogued by HELM or submit a personal list to the interface. A user
may also submit queries to supporting services at VxOs or other systems which
construct lists based on data content. The result of this search will be a list
of time ranges matching the query conditions (perhaps along with other data).
This list is then stored in a standard XML format at the search site with its
list URL or SPASE ResourceID passed back to HELM, or the list is immediately
redirected to HELM (with HELM trapping the service as if it came directly to
HELM). After one or more lists is selected in HELM, a user can then initiate
one of the HELM services.
The user may select the lists and
request a merger (intersection or union) where the lists are merged based on
matching the conditions for the time ranges, with time lags added to particular
lists to account for measurements in different locations. This final list can
then be passed into another service to retrieve and plot the data for analysis
or for further revision of the queries (Figure 2). Another service is the
visualization of lists by showing multiple lists on a common timeline.
Some events are just points in time and some
are more than a begin/end time range (like precursor, peak and slow falloff of
a storm). A solar flare has a begin, peak and end time, with the effects
occurring through time towards the Earth, some shifted by speed of light and
some by solar wind speed. Each list has a set of records with each a tuple of
times and other specifics for that particular view, plus pointers to events in
other lists. The user can generate new lists by shifting, contracting or
selecting specific time fields, that point back to the events in the original
list. Users can attach additional information for each time range (data
granules or notations, for instance).
2.3 Developing HELM
We will develop HELM services that allows storing, commenting on, and intersecting lists of events using a standard (but expandable) XML format and URL or SPASE ResourceID passing. It will use an extendable schema so fields can be added at will (where receiving systems will apply matching fields and ignore others). Limited header information and time ranges are the only required information. The event list manager will store the lists in an open-source eXist XML database, providing efficient index-based Xquery processing and full text searching (we are already using eXist at SPDF for VSPO and VITMO). Xquery is used to extract and manipulate collections of XML data and will enable querying custom fields in event lists without requiring the lists to have fixed schemas. HELM will assign each list a unique SPASE-compliant ResourceID and REST-style URL for recall, cross-list references, publication and passing to non-SPASE compliant services. We will host HELM on an existing SPDF-supported web server for high performance, ensuring stable long-term support. Each HELM function will be available via a web service API for access by local and remote services, similar to the CDAWeb and SSCweb web services.
We expect that calling each query service will
require some custom configuration. Rather than hard-coded software, we will use
configuration files for each specific service. For each query-able service, we
will collect information on its location, owner, parameters, activeness,
overall time range, and whether published or dynamic. For each parameter within
the service, we will collect information on its meaning, terms, units,
precision, meaning if empty, validation, min/max, summary, searching, and
provenance. Where search services are not modified to accept and deliver the
event list format, we will parse the information from the search result web
page or text list (using a screen scraping library), possibly converting to
common units using the UDunits software. HELM will have public protocols to
ingest/update, query, export (CSV, VOTable, ASCII), and comment/annotate. An
interactive query (and resulting lists) will carry the metadata about the query
itself, so it can be re-run to modify the results. Existing catalogs and event
lists will be queried only as needed, to ensure getting the most current
results.
We will leverage the work of the VxOs in
searching catalogs, event lists and data sets to generate lists of time
intervals and will use existing libraries and formats (VO, VOTable, eXist,
VITMO and VSO event list efforts). This will keep custom software to a minimum
and allow adaptability to the various VxO and data service interfaces.
Development will be highly modular, portable and customizable for flexibility
and use of existing well-tested open source packages. The software will be
available for various sites to use and adapt. We will use SPASE metadata and
protocols as much as possible (see Section 2.1). We will use a
combination of techniques to pass the lists between services: (1) Use existing
VxO query interfaces and rely on VxOs to modify their systems to return lists
to HELM; (2) Streaming of event list XML between services; (3) Allow user to
use URLs or SPASE ResourceID pointers to the lists between services. By using
extendable XML, each service that reads an event list only needs to interpret
what it understands (always time range and otherwise mostly the SPASE fields).
2.4
HELM user interface
HELM will have a user interface for
searching, presenting lists, and for combining lists to create new ones. For
some (especially large) queries, we will provide the query results in summary
form, with the user able to readily expose the actual results. We will use
existing software libraries to enable interactive display of the lists, from
summary form to full exposure, with sorting on various parameters (using XSLT
and CSS overlays on the XML results). We will implement interactive display of
events in time with Timeline, a dynamic tool for visualizing time-based events.
Users will be able to alter time
ranges in a list, by shifting a fixed amount or shifting by a function of solar
wind speed or speed of object, or by expanding or contracting the range. Users
will be able to add comments, labels, and keywords on the whole list or
particular events. To enable collaborative tagging across systems similar to
BioDAS and Heliophysics Knowledgebase [HPKB], we will add support for annotation
using a open source package such as Annotea that enhances collaboration via
shared metadata (tags and comments) on the event lists and events, without
having to modify the lists themselves. Users will be able to subscribe to RSS
feeds for changes to catalogs of interest.
The lists are basically sorted and
merged based on the time ranges, with list selection based on matching header
information. We will provide simple searching of the other parameters, but only
at the level of a custom field containing some text. It would be useful to
search or merge based on the semantic content of the custom fields in the
lists, but such unrestricted correlations produce a multi-dimensional search
space requiring computationally-intensive intersections, especially for large
catalogs and lists.
2.5 Collaborations with Searchable Services
HELM mainly relies on capabilities of existing VxOs and related services to access selected data. Our system will effectively be a meta-query system, capable of decomposing compound queries into single science-based queries to the appropriate VxOs. The HELM query result is then the combined results from external services. All VxOs will offer data granule searches based on spacecraft, instrument, time range and probably measurement type and other SPASE metadata, generally returning a list of URLs or other pointers to the data files at the provider sites. We will access ground-based data repositories and other virtual observatories like GAIA via VMOs and VITMO that are already making arrangements for these ground-based data. SSCweb and some VxOs will also enable searching by various conditions, such as spacecraft location and spatial regions, mapping location to time ranges that then specify the data granules of interest. We will work closely with the VxOs to develop the search architecture to enable the necessary VxO query services and make cross-VxO queries as easy as possible.
The HELM team
participates in ongoing electronic-based discussions among the established
VxOs, and actually constitutes much of the VxO personnel. The main effort
involving the individual VxOs is to emit users’ query results to HELM and to
accept results from HELM for calling their services. We
will work with all VxOs to develop searchable interfaces so that we can connect
uniformly to them.
VSO (Gurman, PI) provides searching for data granules by time, spectral range, spatial location (region of interest), and plans to add correlating angles between instruments and tracking feature paths across the Sun’s face. The VSO plans to enhance data discovery and identification by enabling searches on additional event lists within its discipline. HELM will access searchable catalogs of CMEs, flares, solar proton events, active regions, bright spots and sunspot numbers. We will also use the solar event and feature catalogs available through European Grid of Solar Observations (EGSO).
VHO (Szabo, PI), VMO-G (Merka, PI), VEPO (Cooper, PI) are working closely together and are providing content searches over lower resolution statistical quantities such as average, min, max, and median of V, Vx, Vy, Vz, Np, and T for some magnetic field and plasma data sets, and in the case of VEPO for energetic particle data sets. The search results are either lists of applicable data granules or lists of time ranges matching the query. VMO plans to host some searchable feature lists, such as magnetopause bow shock crossings. The VMO, VEPO and VHO search queries are readily accessible to HELM since they use web services and SPASE metadata.
VMO-UCLA (Walker, PI) provides content-based search services and selection by time and resource type. The services provided by VMO-UCLA complement those of the VMO-G. The holdings at VMO-UCLA include ground-based data and solar wind data from a number of monitors propagated to the Earth via several approaches, as a valuable resource for event list related analysis. The VMO search queries are readily accessible to HELM and SPASE metadata.
VITMO (Morrison, PI) provides access to most of the major
ITM datasets, including space-based missions (UARS, TIMED, DMSP and NPOESS
(space environment sensor suite), AIM, C/NOFS, SNOE, Polar, and IMAGE) and
ground-based data sets (SuperDARN radar network, the VSTO and MADRIGAL). VITMO
will provide search capabilities for solar-geophysical indices (reduced set
compared to OMNIweb), regions of space, and event lists based on the viewing
geometries (coincidences) of many remote-sensing instruments (constantly
changing as the satellite orbits or yaws around). The latter enables searches
for when instrument A on satellite B was looking at ground site C or when
instrument A on satellite B was looking at the same location that instrument C
on satellite D was looking to within some adjustable delta time. Such events
can be further constrained by time ranges. HELM event lists will be used as
starting points or added constraints in VITMO searches in addition to internal
event lists.
ViRBO (Weigel, PI) is a near
real-time archive of observed and simulated radiation belt data that enables
scientific discovery and provides tools for engineers and satellite operators.
ViRBO will provide query access to inter-calibrated measured and simulated data
from which to derive new climatological models covering a wider range of
geomagnetic conditions, spatial coordinates, and particle energies. HELM will
work with ViRBO to develop an interface for searching and accessing radiation
belt data.
Integration of event lists for
ICMEs (Alysha Reinard, PI) is a VxO
Value-added Services project for bringing together the often disparate lists of
ICME boundaries and of CME-related quantities in the heliosphere and at the
Sun. This project will coordinate event list standards and queries with HELM.
Services of the Space Physics
Data Facility (SPDF) at NASA GSFC include
the CDAWeb multi-mission data service, with a powerful, simultaneous view of
data from most (25) current Heliophysics missions and instruments, both
space-based and ground-based; the SSCWeb multi-mission orbits and science
planning service, providing spacecraft positions in many coordinate systems and
generating lists of times when a spacecraft is in magnetic conjunction with a
place on the Earth or when a spacecraft is located in particular regions of
geophysical space; and the OMNIWeb database of near-Earth interplanetary
conditions. Services and data are available via public FTP, SOAP web services,
OPeNDAP, and web browser. We will modify existing services in SPDF, to accept
and deliver event lists via HELM URLs and SPASE ResourceIDs, probably by adding
another web service that calls existing services repeatedly, once for each time
range.
The Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC)
supports a collection of physics-based models as well as key space physics empirical
models. The physics models and empirical models both require data comparison
and validation. HELM will provide such comparison capabilities by enabling
retrieving and analysis of all data for the same specified magnetospheric or
heliospheric state as used in calling the model.
2.6 Development Practices
With
participation from all VxOs and SPDF, we will get strong community input
directly or through the Advisory Panel (Section 5.0) in setting requirements,
identifying data resources and evaluating the resulting system. All VxOs have
agreed to integrate with HELM as an overall team effort.
We will follow our software development processes currently used for CDAWeb and SSCWeb in rapid development, repetitive testing, and configuration management. Assurance of system quality is realized by user involvement (in-house and external) in development and continual testing. We employ usability testing, including participatory design by local scientists and interested focus groups. We will determine usability in three ways: effectiveness (improvement in the amount and quality of users’ science knowledge derived from these new techniques and accuracy/errors in detecting geophysical events in the data), efficiency (learning time and time/effort to analyze the data), and satisfaction (attitude and comfort rating surveys, users’ preferences). Our progress will be evaluated by tracking degrees of task completion and users satisfaction. We will collect usage statistics to indicate HELM’s usefulness to the science community.
Software documentation: As we have strived to do with our current CDAWlib library and web services, already used by scientists worldwide, we will document our software and add web pages describing the APIs and tools, with calling instructions and examples.
Dissemination plan: HELM services will be widely advertised via articles and announcements in American Geophysical Union SPA section newsletter, EOS, AGU and similar meetings, and direct community contacts. All source code will be distributed under the NASA Open Source Agreement (NOSA) and will be available for VxOs and science centers to host their own HELM service. We will also register our software and services through any VO service registries.
Maintenance: Since we expect these services to continue and grow over time, design and development will emphasize flexibility, expandability, and easy maintenance, particularly to enable easy additions.
3.0 Impact
of the Proposed Work
The ultimate goal and societal
importance of Heliophysical research is the ability to forecast and nowcast
space weather to support human utilization and exploration of space. Two
essential prerequisites for achieving this increasingly complex task are (1)
easy access to data from all regions of the Heliophysics domains and (2) query
systems that help in finding pertinent data in terms of data content or
context, so that relevant datasets for multiple events of interest can be
quickly compared for analyses. This has
led to community-wide efforts to develop discipline-specific VxOs with the
prime objective of finding and providing easy access to the data within the
specific discipline. Our proposal provides query and data finding
capabilities across discipline boundaries.
Whereas a VxO is crucial to modeling and understanding the specific
disciplinary region ‘x’, HELM enables coupling the different data views and
models across Heliophysics boundaries with the ultimate goal of describing
heliophysical events self-consistently from Sun to Earth. Examples in Section
1.1 show the benefit of HELM for the development of better Heliophysics models.
Successful integration of HELM
with other VxOs is ensured by close personnel collaboration (Section 5.2.2)
with all existing VxOs. Standardizing an event list format will improve the
sharing of this valuable information between researchers and will enable the
development of event-based services beyond the scope of this proposal. This
will also lead to a higher degree of coordination among the different VxOs in
carrying out their primary functions.
3.1 Facilitate and promote cross-discipline investigations
HELM is most suited for
supporting cross-discipline Heliophysics system science activities, such as the international effort on Climate and
Weather of the Sun-Earth System (CAWSES), a SCOSTEP Program for 2004-2008, and
COSPAR. For example, CAWSES’ objectives are to (1) collect data to document
with increasing fidelity various aspects of the Sun-Earth system, (2) use
physically-based models for assimilating observed data and deriving enhanced outputs
for segments of the solar-terrestrial system, and (3) mobilize researchers to
work together to understand variability throughout the entire solar-terrestrial
system. CAWSES has recently started a Sun-Earth Connections Virtual
Conference series to identify and address the inter-disciplinary
questions relating to the “Grand Challenges” in Heliophysics [Kozyra, 2006].
Similar to the issues confronting the LWS program, HELM capabilities cut across
discipline boundaries and help the entire Heliophysics community to solve their
problems.
3.2 Lowering the cost for addressing resource-intensive science
questions
HELM will be effective in
facilitating research in Sun-Earth system science and provides a cost-effective
way to conduct national and international, multi-agency collaborations such as
the NSWP and the ILWS program. ILWS has the objective to stimulate, strengthen,
and coordinate space research to understand the governing processes of the
connected Sun-Earth System as an integrated entity. The ILWS umbrella currently
has close to 50 satellite missions or programs, <http://ilws.gsfc.nasa.gov/ilws_missions.htm>.
As this data becomes registered in the VxOs or the organizations provide
suitable search interfaces, HELM will allow users to get to the pertinent data
granules quickly, decreasing time (from weeks/days or longer to hours/minutes)
and resources needed for solving cross-disciplinary problems.
4.0 Relevance to NASA
4.1 To NASA programs and interests
HELM
directly addresses the highest level requirement of NASA LWS program to attain
“unprecedented integration of data and models across many missions, data
centers…;” to provide a “coordinated effort to link data and service providers
to scientific users;” and finally to enable a “uniform face to an underlying
heterogeneous and distributed set of sources.” With its focus on global-scale
science needs that cut across discipline-oriented VxOs, and by collaborating
with all existing VxOs, our proposed work will be uniquely positioned “to
foster communication amongst the nascent VxOs.” In addition, while HELM will
mainly be a high-level search service to NASA’s Heliophysics mission data, some
of the data and data systems linked through HELM will reach out to other
systems or international partners via various VxOs.
The HELM
program will contribute directly to NASA’s Strategic Goal 3 to “Develop a
balanced overall program of science, exploration, and aeronautics…” and its
sub-goals 3B (“Understand the Sun and its effects on Earth and the solar
system”), 3C (“Advance scientific knowledge of … hazards and resources present
as humans explore space”) and 3F (“Understand the effects of the space
environment…”). Many science questions raised in addressing space weather
problems are multi-disciplinary and global scale, and HELM cross-disciplinary
services will be uniquely suited for these science needs. In addition,
global-scale questions, such as those concerning the overall coupling from the
Sun’s plasma environment to that of the Earth, are central to addressing
sub-goal 3B.
The unique cross-disciplinary
capabilities of the HELM program will also complement the particular
disciplinary focus of present missions such as Cluster and THEMIS, and of
future missions such as RBSP and MMS. In particular, Cluster science addresses
how specific plasma processes within boundary regions such as the magnetopause
respond to input solar wind conditions, which is related in turn to other solar
and solar terrestrial environment parameters that are not maintained by the
Cluster Active Archive.
4.2 To the VxO program objectives
Like existing VxOs, HELM addresses
the specific needs of the Heliophysics community in performing analyses that
deal with cross-discipline coupling processes, e.g., sun-solar wind, solar wind-magnetosphere, or
magnetosphere-ionosphere-mesosphere coupling. It follows the VxO paradigm in
emphasizing uniform access to other VxOs and data services and extends it by
handling complex, cross-disciplinary queries, generating and managing event
lists, and supporting cross-disciplinary data-model comparisons. Finally, it
clearly responds to the VxO NRA call for “Providing access to and use of event
and/or feature lists.”
5.0 General Work Plan
Providing coordination of search
and event list standards across all VxOs is the most important aspect of HELM.
Much of the development effort will be performed at the NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center, the PI’s institution, and where the VSO, VHO, VMO-G, VEPO and
the SPDF (home of VSPO, MSQS, CDAWeb, SSCWeb, OMNIWeb, etc.) are located.
Participation in the design and specification of the event list format, service
interfaces and other aspects of the HELM system will include personnel who have
been directly involved in the development of SPASE, ISTP, IACG and PDS
standards. Upon receiving the proposal award, the PI will set up grants and
contracts to disburse funds to the Co-I institutions to support their work as
proposed. The PI will host regular (e.g. monthly) teleconferences with Co-Is
and technical personnel to review progress and identify issues to be resolved.
To ensure that HELM remains mutually compatible to all VxOs, all VxO leads or
their designees are members of the HELM Advisory Panel. The panel will meet
bi-monthly in teleconferences to set requirements, test the system, and review
milestone and work status. Section 5.1 gives a summary work schedule for
completing the proposed work.
5.1 Work schedule and key milestones
Year 1
0. Establish Advisory Panel
1. Complete the task analysis to set the requirements
of the query and event list service
1.1 Determine the messages to be passed
1.2 Determine constraints of existing VxOs
1.3 Verify HELM prototype queries
1.4 Analyze the existing APIs for data services
2. Build and test prototype event list manager
2.1 Build middleware for individual queries
2.2 Build a user interface to the middleware
2.3 Populate the prototype with at least three
disparate search capabilities
2.4 Test prototype for usability & functionality
2.5 Determine additional or unmet requirements
Year 2
4. Extend the prototype with data retrieval queries
4.1 Enable retrieval of data from VxOs
4.2 Enable retrieval of data from archives and other
sources
5. Extend the prototype with query service features
5.1 Add simple cross-list correlation (headers and
time only)
5.2 Add ability for users to add/update lists
5.3 Add ability to add more search sources
5.4 Add features/requirements found in testing
5.5
Release event list service API to VxOs
6. Extend the prototype with remote event lists
6.1 Publish API for providers to serve event lists
6.2 Connect to existing event list services
6.3 Upgrade event list services, where necessary
Year 3
7. Test the prototype (phase 2)
7.1 Verify that remotely hosted event lists are being
read correctly
7.2
Verify all prototype queries can be executed
7.3
Verify API from VxOs
8. Implement releasable version
8.1
Correct any issues found in second test phase
8.2 Add
annotation features
8.3 Document the system for maintainers, end users,
and developers
9. Release system
10. Advertise / public outreach
11. Ongoing maintenance
5.2 Management structure
5.2.1 Collaborations
HELM will collaborate with all
existing and future VxOs to ensure mutual compatibility and accessibility. In
fact, all VxOs are partners of HELM in serving the international Heliophysics
community.
5.2.2 Personnel responsibilities
The proposed team consists of
active Heliophysics scientists, including all the current VxO leads, and
computer scientists, all of whom have extensive experience in designing,
developing and using data tools in their professions. Participants and their
specific expertise and responsibilities in the proposal are listed in the
following table, with specifics below for the funded positions. Biographical
sketches are provided after the Acronyms section.
Robert Candey, a NASA engineer/scientist, leads this program,
applying 24 years leading efforts at GSFC to make data and models more usable
and accessible to the scientific community. Mr. Candey will lead the
requirements definition, detailed design, and coordinate the protocol
definition and software development and testing. He will ensure that the goals
and milestones are met and will regularly report consolidated status to NASA
HQ. He will lead monthly telecons of team members to coordinate all efforts,
particularly in testing interoperability between the VxOs and science centers
and the HELM server.
Bernard Harris is the lead designer of the SPDF web services and
VITMO/VSPO XML databases. He will develop the HELM XML database, web services
interfaces, user interfaces, and adapt CDAWeb and SSCweb to use HELM.
Tom Narock will be responsible for enabling the VHO, VEPO and VMO-G to interoperate with HELM. In addition, Tom will develop the annotation service enabling markup of event lists for science based searches as well as the query language. In the first year, he will work with HELM colleagues to help design the user interface and determine how this will impact VHO, VMO and the design of the query language; and begin modifying VHO and VMO to allow these systems to work and communicate with HELM. Compatibility with HELM will also be implemented in the design and implementation phase of VEPO as a VHO-supported service. In the second year, he will finish HELM interoperability with VHO and VMO and continue on query language development and testing with VHO, VMO and HELM. In the third year, he will verify and deploy the new HELM system, test and evaluate the interaction between HELM, VHO and VMO, and document how the system works for maintainers, end users and future developers.
Todd A. King is chief systems designer for the PPI Node of PDS
and is the leader of the SPASE data model team. He is currently the lead of the
PDS4 Data Model working group and the SPASE Services group. He will be
responsible for all HELM development activities at the VMO located at UCLA. He
has developed various tools based on the SPASE model including the SPASE XML
parser, web SPASE editor, validator, and prototype registry server. He will
participate in defining event list format, service interfaces and any resulting
SPASE extensions. He will represent the VMO in the development process.
Robert L. McPherron will coordinate UCLA efforts and supervise Mr. Todd King, meeting regularly to discuss the problems of event identification, event characterization, list generation, and list publication. He will provide several extensive event lists to T. King to help in prototype development. These include substorm onsets, magnetic storms, corotating interaction regions, sawtooth injection events.
The Collaborators are all committed to accomplishing this project and will jointly define the query and results protocols and adapt their VxO and SPDF systems to use them. In addition, Joseph Hourclé and Alisdair Davey will provide special expertise in event lists and their current use in solar research. HELM is a distributed effort with the VxOs are contributing in kind.
Names and Roles |
Relevant Expertise |
Responsibilities |
|
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
||
|
Robert M. Candey (PI) |
SPDF
Lead Architect and systems engineer |
Overall project responsibility and direction,
planning and development, publications of results |
|
Bernard Harris (Support Staff) |
Lead developer of SPDF web services |
Development of XML database, web services
interfaces, user interfaces, and adapting CDAWeb and SSCweb to use HELM |
|
Robert E. McGuire (Collaborator) |
SPDF Lead,
heliospheric physics |
Guiding HELM interface with CDAWeb and
SSCWeb; heliospheric science support |
|
Joseph Gurman (Collaborator) |
VSO lead,
solar physics |
Guiding HELM interface with VSO; solar science
support |
|
Adam Szabo (Collaborator) |
VHO lead,
heliospheric physics |
Guiding HELM interface with VHO; heliospheric
science support |
|
John Cooper (Collaborator) |
VEPO lead,
energetic particles |
Guiding HELM interface with VEPO; energetic
particles science support |
|
Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins
University |
||
|
Daniel Morrison (Collaborator) |
VITMO lead,
ITM science |
Guiding HELM interface with VITMO; ITM science
support |
|
University of Maryland - Baltimore County |
||
|
Jan Merka (Collaborator) |
VMO-Goddard lead, Magnetospheric physics |
HELM interface with VMO-G; magnetospheric science
support |
|
Tom Narock (Co-I) |
VHO, VEPO, VMO-G implementation |
HELM interface with VHO, VEPO and VMO-G |
|
George Mason University |
||
|
Robert Weigel (Collaborator) |
ViRBO lead,
Magnetospheric physics |
HELM interface with ViRBO; magnetospheric science
support |
|
University of California Los Angeles |
||
|
Raymond Walker (Collaborator) |
VMO-UCLA lead, Magnetospheric physics |
HELM interface with VMO-UCLA; magnetospheric science
support |
|
Robert L. McPherron (Co-I) |
Magnetospheric research |
Coordinate UCLA team for HELM development |
|
Todd A. King (Other Support) |
SPASE lead |
SPASE query and results standardizing, develop
VMO-HELM interfaces |
|
RS Information Systems, Inc. |
||
|
Joseph A. Hourclé
(Collaborator) |
VSO implementation |
HELM interface
with VSO |
|
Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics |
||
|
Alisdair Davey
(Collaborator) |
Solar physics |
HELM event list
merging; Solar physics science support |
|
University of
Colorado and NOAA |
||
|
Alysha Reinard (Collaborator) |
Integration of
event lists for ICMEs VxO upgrade |
HELM interface to
ICME results; Solar physics science support |
References
A Framework for Space and Solar
Physics Virtual Observatories, Results from
a Community Workshop sponsored by NASA's Living With a Star Program, held on
27-29 October 2004, Marriott Hotel, Greenbelt, MD, January 2005.
Asai,
A.; Ishii, T. T.; Shibata, K.; Gopalswamy, N., Anemone structure of Active
Region NOAA 10798 and related geo-effective flares/ CMEs, presented at the 26th
meeting of the IAU, Joint Discussion 3, Prague, Czech Republic, 16-17 August,
2006.
Fox, N.J., M.
Peredo, and B.J. Thompson, Cradle to grave tracking of the January 6-11, 1997
Sun-Earth connection event, Geophys. Res. Lett. 25(14), 2461-2464, 1998.
Fung, S. F. (2004a), Announcement of a
‘‘Magnetospheric-State Query System,’’ SPA Sect. Newsl. XI, edited by P. Chi,
AGU, Washington, D. C. (Available at <ftp://igpp.ucla.edu/scratch/aguspa/volume11_2004/vol11no009>.)
Fung, S. F., Survey of current situation in radiation
belt modeling, Advances in Space Research,
Volume 34, Issue 6, p. 1441-1450, 2004b
Fung, S. F.; Shao, X.; Tan, L. C.;
Huston, S. L.; Candey, R. M.; Golightly, M. J.; McGuire, R. E., A prototype
magnetospheric state-based trapped radiation model (solicited), 35th Cospar
Scientific Assembly, Paris France, July 18-25, 2004.
Fung, S. F., E.V. Bell, L.C. Tan, R.M.
Candey, M.J. Golightly, S.L. Huston, J.H. King and R.E. McGuire, Development of
a magnetospheric state-based trapped radiation database, Advances in Space
Research, Volume 36, Issue 10, Pages 1984-1991, 2005.
Fung, S. F. and X. Shao, Specification of multiple geomagnetic responses to variable solar wind and IMF input, Ann. Geophysicae, submitted, November 22, 2006.
Gambosi, T., Call
for Suggestions: 2007 LWS TR&T Focused Science Topics, SPA SECTION
NEWSLETTER, Volume XIII, Issue 89, Nov 15, 2006. Available at <ftp://igpp.ucla.edu/scratch/aguspa/volume13_2006/vol13no089>
Kozyra, J. U., “Sun-Earth Connection Virtual Conference Series,”
American Geophysical Union SPA Section Newsletter, Volume XIII, Issue 84,
October 29, 2006.
Tsurutani,
B.T., et al., The October 28, 2003 extreme EUV solar flare and the resultant
extreme ionospheric effects: Comparison to the other Halloween events and the
Bastille Day event, Geophys.
Res. Lett. 32, L03S09, doi:10.1029/2004GL021475, 2005
Tsyganenko,
N.A., and T. Mukai, Tail plasma sheet models derived from Geotail data, J. Geophys. Res., 108, 23-1, 2003.
Wing,
S. and P. T. Newell, 2D plasma sheet ion density and temperature profiles for
northward and southward IMF, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29, (9), 21, 2002.
Acronyms and URLs
|
AGU |
American Geophysical Union
<http://www.agu.org/> |
|
AIM |
Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/aim/> |
|
AJAX |
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML |
|
Annotea |
<http://www.annotea.org/>
<http://www.w3.org/2001/Annotea/> |
|
API |
Application Program Interface |
|
ASCII |
American Standard Code for Information Interchange |
|
ATMOweb |
Atmospheric and ionospheric data
<http://atmoweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
BioDAS |
<http://biodas.org/> |
|
CAWSES |
Climate and Weather of the Sun-Earth System
<http://www.bu.edu/cawses/> |
|
CCMC |
Community Coordinated Modeling Center
<http://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
CDAWeb |
Coordinated Data Analysis workshop Web
<http://cdaweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
CDAWlib |
CDAWeb IDL <ftp://cdaweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/CDAWlib/> |
|
CDF |
Common Data Format <http://cdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
CME |
Coronal Mass Ejection
<http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/classroom/definitions.shtml#CME> |
|
COHOweb |
Deep space hourly merged magnetic field, plasma, and
ephemerides data <http://cohoweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
COSPAR |
Committee on Space Research
<http://www.cosparhq.org/> |
|
CSS |
Cascading Style Sheets
<http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/> |
|
CSV |
Comma-Separated Values |
|
EGSO |
European Grid of Solar Observations
<http://www.egso.org/> |
|
EOS |
American Geophysics Union’s weekly newspaper
<http://www.agu.org/pubs/eos.html> |
|
ESA |
European Space Agency <http://www.esa.int/> |
|
eXist |
A repository and retrieval engine for XML
<http://exist.sourceforge.net/> |
|
FTE |
Flux Transfer Event or Full Time Equivalents |
|
FTP |
File Transfer Protocol |
|
FUV |
Far Ultraviolet Imager
<http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/image/> |
|
GAIA |
Global Auroral Imaging Access
<http://gaia-vxo.org> |
|
Geotail |
Geotail Mission
<http://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/geotail.shtml> |
|
GSFC |
Goddard Space Flight Center
<http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
GOES |
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites
<http://www.oso.noaa.gov/goes/> |
|
GUVI |
Global Ultraviolet Imager
<http://guvi.jhuapl.edu/> |
|
HelioWeb |
Heliocentric trajectories for selected spacecraft,
planets, and comets <http://www.spds.nasa.gov/space/helios/heli.html> |
|
HELM |
Heliospheric Event List Manager |
|
HPDK |
Heliophysics Features and Events Knowledge Base <http://www.lmsal.com/helio-informatics/hpkb/> |
|
HQL |
Heliophysical Query Language <http://www.hao.ucar.edu/projects/vsto/voig/index.php/Session_VII:HQL> |
|
HSDMP |
NASA Heliophysics Science Data Management Policy
<http://hpde.gsfc.nasa.gov/HPDP.html> |
|
IACG |
Inter-Agency Consultative Group |
|
IAU |
International Astronomical Union
<http://www.iau.org/> |
|
ICME |
Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejection |
|
IDL |
Interactive Data Language from ITT-VIS
<http://www.ittvis.com/idl/> |
|
ILWS |
International Living With a Star Program <http://ilws.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
IMAGE |
Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration
<http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
IMF |
Interplanetary Magnetic Field
<http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/classroom/definitions.shtml#IMF> |
|
Interball-Tail |
One of two satellites in the INTERBALL program
<http://www.iki.rssi.ru/vprokhor/tail.htm> |
|
IPS |
Interplanetary shock |
|
IRI |
International Reference Ionosphere |
|
ISEE |
International Sun-Earth Explorers
<http://www.spds.nasa.gov/space/isee.html> |
|
ISO-9001 |
The International Organization's for
Standardization’s standards for quality management <http://www.iso.org> |
|
ISTP |
International Solar-Terrestrial Physics <http://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp_guide/> |
|
ITM |
Ionosphere-Thermosphere-Mesosphere |
|
IVOA |
International Virtual Observatory Alliance
<http://www.ivoa.net/> |
|
LASCO |
Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph
<http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/> |
|
LWS |
Living With a Star <http://lws.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
LWS TRT |
LWS Targeted Research and Technology |
|
MADRIGAL |
An upper atmospheric science database
<http://madrigal.haystack.mit.edu/> |
|
MMS |
Magnetospheric MultiScale Mission
<http://stp.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions/mms/mms.htm> |
|
ModelWeb |
Space physics models online accessible
and executable <http://modelweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
MSQS |
Magnetospheric State Query System
<http://radbelts.gsfc.nasa.gov/modeling.html> |
|
NASA |
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
<http://www.nasa.gov/> |
|
NOSA |
NASA Open Source Agreement <http://opensource.arc.nasa.gov/page/nosa-software-agreement/> |
|
NPOESS |
National Polar-orbiting Environmental Satellite
System <http://www.ipo.noaa.gov/> |
|
NSSDC |
National Space Science Data Center
<http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
NSSDCFTP |
NSSDC FTP server
<http://nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
NSWP |
National Space Weather Program < http://www.nswp.gov/> |
|
OMNIweb |
Database of solar wind, magnetic field and plasma
data, energetic proton fluxes, and geomagnetic and solar activity indices
<http://omniweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
OPeNDAP |
Open-source Project for a Network Data Access
Protocol <http://opendap.org/> |
|
PI |
Principal Investigator |
|
Polar |
NASA Polar Mission
<http://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/polar/> |
|
RBSP |
Radiation Belt Storm Probes
<http://rbsp.larc.nasa.gov/> |
|
RDF |
Resource Description Framework
<http://www.w3.org/RDF/> |
|
REST |
Representational State Transfer
<http://rest.blueoxen.net> |
|
ROSES |
Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences,
NASA |
|
RSS |
Really Simple Syndication
<http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification> |
|
SCOSTEP |
Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics
< http://www.scostep.ucar.edu/ > |
|
SNOE |
Student Nitric Oxide Explorer
<http://lasp.colorado.edu/snoe/> |
|
SOAP |
Simple Object Access Protocol
<http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/soap.html> |
|
SOHO |
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
<http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/> |
|
Solvent |
Screen scraping to RDF
<http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/Solvent> |
|
SPA |
Space Physics and Aeronomy section of the AGU
<http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/spa/> |
|
SPASE |
Space Physics Archive Search and Extract
<http://www.spase-group.org/> |
|
SPDF |
Space Physics Data Facility
<http://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
SSCweb |
Satellite Situation Center (SSC) Web
<http://sscweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
STEREO |
Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory
<http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
SuperDARN |
Super Dual Auroral Radar Network
<http://superdarn.jhuapl.edu/> |
|
THEMIS |
Thermal Emission Imaging System
<http://themis.asu.edu/> |
|
TIMED |
Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and
Dynamics |
|
Timeline |
DHTML-based AJAXy widget for visualizing time-based
events <http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/> |
|
UARS |
Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite
<http://umpgal.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
UCLA |
University of California Los Angeles |
|
UDunits |
Unit conversion
<http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/udunits/> |
|
URL |
Uniform Resource Locator
<http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1738.txt> |
|
VEPO |
Virtual Energetic Particles Observatory |
|
VHO |
Virtual Heliospheric Observatory
<http://vho.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
ViRBO |
Virtual Radiation Belt Observatory
<http://virbo.scs.gmu.edu/> |
|
ViSBARD |
Visual System for Browsing, Analysis, and Retrieval
of Data <http://lep694.gsfc.nasa.gov/visbard/> |
|
VITMO |
Virtual Ionosphere--Thermosphere-Mesosphere
Observatory <http://vitmo.jhuapl.edu/> |
|
VMO |
One of two Virtual Magnetospheric Observatories
<http://vmo.igpp.ucla.edu/>, <http://vmo.nasa.gov/> |
|
VO |
Virtual Observatory |
|
VOTable |
XML format for exchange of tabular data
<http://www.ivoa.net/Documents/latest/VOT.html> |
|
VSO |
Virtual Solar Observatory
<http://virtualsolar.org/> |
|
VSPO |
Virtual Space Physics Observatory <http://vspo.gsfc.nasa.gov/> |
|
VSTO |
Virtual Solar-Terrestrial Observatory
<http://vsto.hao.ucar.edu/> |
|
VxO |
Any discipline-specific virtual observatory |
|
WSDL |
Web services Description Language |
|
XML |
eXtensible Markup Language
<http://www.w3.org/XML/> |
|
Xquery |
XML query language <http://www.w3.org/XML/Query/> |
|
XSLT |
Transform XML from one form to another <http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/> |