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References to SPASE in the literature. Most recent first Populating and Harvesting Metadata In a Virtual Observatory R. Walker, T. King, S. Joy, L. Bargatze, P. Chi and J. Weygand Conference: 37th COSPAR Scientific Assembly, Montreal, Canada, July 13-20 2008
Founded in 2007 the Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory (VMO) provides one stop shopping for data and services useful in magnetospheric research. The VMO’s purview includes ground based observations as well as observations from spacecraft. The data and services for using and analyzing these data are found at laboratories distributed around the world. The VMO is itself a federated data system with branches at UCLA and the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). These data can be connected by using a common data model. The VMO has selected the Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) metadata standard for this purpose. SPASE metadata are collected and stored in distributed registries that are maintained along with the data at the location of the data provider. Populating the registries and extracting the metadata requested for a given study remain major challenges. In general there is little or no money available to data providers to create the metadata and populate the registries. We have taken a two pronged approach to minimize the effort required to create the metadata and maintain the registries. First part of the approach is human. We have appointed a group of domain experts called “X-Men”. X-Men are expert in both magnetospheric physics and data management. They work closely with data providers to help them prepare the metadata and populate the registries. The second part of our approach is to develop a series of tools to populate and harvest information from the registries. We have developed SPASE editors for high level metadata and adopted the NASA Planetary Data System’s Rule Set approach in which the science data are used to generate detailed level SPASE metadata. Finally we have developed a unique harvesting system to retrieve metadata from distributed registries in response to user queries.
A Service with Uniform Access to Granule Content for Heliophysics Datasets J. D. Vandegriff, L. E. Brown and J. Faden Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 15-19 December 2008
We present a prototype service offering unified access to space physics data content. Our focus is the time series data cataloged by the now operational Virtual Observatories (VxOs) within NASA's heliosphysics community. While the VxOs largely focus on data discovery, our focus is uniform access to granule content for energetic particle, plasma, and magnetic field datasets. Given a dataset name and a time range, the service returns the requested subset of data content in a format that is identical for products of a particular measurement type, i.e., all energetic particle datasets will resemble each other in format, all plasma data will be identically formatted, etc. The prototype service offers key datasets from the Virtual Heliospheric Observatory (VHO), the Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory (VMO), and the the Virtual Space Physics Observatory (VSPO). We discuss the use as well as the design of the service, including its relationship to SPASE metadata. Also, visualization for the output of the service is presented using Autoplot (http://www.autoplot.org). We conclude with an outline describing how this prototype could be extended from its current capacity (dozens of datasets) to a much larger capacity of hundreds of datasets.
S. P. A. Aeronomy
Recent Advances of the SPASE Data Model J. R. Thieman, T. King and D. A. Roberts Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 15-19 December 2008
The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) data model is being adopted by virtual observatories and data providers world-wide. Since the release of version 1.2.1 of the data model in March 2008 it has been used to describe a large variety of data resources. This experience has generated feedback to the SPASE consortium which has been actively working to improve the data model. The SPASE consortium has strived to enrich the expressiveness of the data model and simplify its structure. This has resulted in many improvements to the data model. Release of version 1.3.1 of the data model represents the current metadata standard for the heliophysics community. We will discuss the recent decisions affecting the evolution of the model, describe the advances and tools improving the usability, and present a vision for future direction. The usage of SPASE by the Virtual Observatories and in the Heliophysics data environment as a whole is a major part of this vision. The SPASE consortium is committed to address the needs of the community and actively seeks advice and feedback from data providers, researchers and general users.
S. P. A. Aeronomy
Interoperability of Heliophysics Virtual Observatories J. Thieman, A. Roberts, T. King, J. King, T. Narock and D. Morrison Conference: Joint Assembly, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA, 27–30 May 2008
If you'd like to find interrelated heliophysics (also known as space and solar physics) data for a research project that spans, for example, magnetic field data and charged particle data from multiple satellites located near a given place and at approximately the same time, how easy is this to do? There are probably hundreds of data sets scattered in archives around the world that might be relevant. Is there an optimal way to search these archives and find what you want? There are a number of virtual observatories (VOs) now in existence that maintain knowledge of the data available in subdisciplines of heliophysics. The data may be widely scattered among various data centers, but the VOs have knowledge of what is available and how to get to it. The problem is that research projects might require data from a number of subdisciplines. Is there a way to search multiple VOs at once and obtain what is needed quickly? To do this requires a common way of describing the data such that a search using a common term will find all data that relate to the common term. This common language is contained within a data model developed for all of heliophysics and known as the SPASE (Space Physics Archive Search and Extract) Data Model. NASA has funded the main part of the development of SPASE but other groups have put resources into it as well. How well is this working? We will review the use of SPASE and how well the goal of locating and retrieving data within the heliophysics community is being achieved. Can the VOs truly be made interoperable despite being developed by so many diverse groups?
S. P.-M. Physics
A Network Enabled Platform for Canadian Space Science Data R. Rankin, D. R. Boteler, T. P. Jayachandran, I. R. Mann, G. Sofko and A. W. Yau Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 15–19 December 2008
The internet is an example of a pervasive disruptive technology that has transformed society on a global scale. The term "cyberinfrastructure" refers to technology underpinning the collaborative aspect of large science projects and is synonymous with terms such as e-Science, intelligent infrastructure, and/or e- infrastructure. In the context of space science, a significant challenge is to exploit the internet and cyberinfrastructure to form effective virtual organizations (VOs) of scientists that have common or agreed- upon objectives. A typical VO is likely to include universities and government agencies specializing in types of instrumentation (ground and/or space based), which in deployment produce large quantities of space data. Such data is most effectively described by metadata, which if defined in a standard way, facilitates discovery and retrieval of data over the internet by intelligent interfaces and cyberinfrastructure. One recent and significant approach is SPASE, which is being developed by NASA as a data-standard for its Virtual Observatories (VxOs) programs. The space science community in Canada has recently formed a VO designed to complement the e-POP microsatellite mission, and new ground-based observatories (GBOs) that collect data over a large fraction of the Canadian land-mass. The VO includes members of the CGSM community (www.cgsm.ca), which is funded operationally by the Canadian Space Agency. It also includes the UCLA VMO team, and scientists in the NASA THEMIS mission. CANARIE (www.canarie.ca), the federal agency responsible for management, design and operation of Canada's research internet, has recently recognized the value of cyberinfrastucture through the creation of a Network-Enabled-Platforms (NEPs) program. An NEP for space science was funded by CANARIE in its first competition. When fully implemented, the Space Science NEP will consist of a front-end portal providing access to CGSM data. It will utilize an adaptation of the SPASE-based registry developed by Ray Walker et. al at UCLA, along with a common set of services and federation of CGSM data. An important aspect of the space science NEP is the development of scientific workflows that allow users to more easily develop data analysis tools that can be stored on their desktop for re-use. The presentation will include a high-level view of the methodology and software architecture to be implemented through the development of the CANARIE NEP for space science.
S. P. A. Aeronomy
Developing a SPASE Query Language T. W. Narock and T. King Journal: Earth Science Informatics, Volume: 1, Issue: 1, April, 2008
The advent of the Virtual Observatory has begun an evolution in the space physics data environment. A number of nascent and discipline specific Virtual Observatories have started to emerge with an emphasis on data search and retrieval. As this new data environment takes shape an emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary communication in attempts to address large scale and global problems. To this end we formulate the development of a query language to facilitate Virtual Observatory to Virtual Observatory communication. Furthermore, we outline the goals of such a language, how it would work and how existing community efforts can be leveraged to speed the development of this query language.
ISSN: 1865-0473 (Print) 1865-0481 (Online) DOI: 10.1007/s12145-008-0007-2
URL: http://www.springerlink.com/content/f4h25211t7772u33/?p=e42982f3485c42e09cc379e8c9a3c90a&pi=7
A View Of A Unified Heliophysics Data Environment T. Narock, J. King, J. Merka and A. Szabo Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 15-19 December 2008
Recent developments in discipline Virtual Observatories (VOs) and services has led to advances in search, retrieval and access of Heliophysics data. However, at present, many of these utilities exist in isolation awaiting the ultimate goal of this effort - the use of the Heliophysics data environment as a collective whole. We present our efforts to use existing standards (SPASE) to create a query language that will enable a common interface for most VOs and services. Thus, enabling access via one software toolkit, decreasing development time and improving overall efficacy. In particular, we demonstrate the results of this effort when applied to several services in the analysis of a real-world space physics research question. Scientific results are presented in conjunction with the benefits of our approach.
S. P. A. Aeronomy
Navigating through SPASE to heliospheric and magnetospheric data J. Merka, T. W. Narock and A. Szabo Journal: Earth Science Informatics, Volume: 1, Issue: 1, April, 2008
Virtual observatories have been introduced by the astrophysics community as an environment connecting distributed data sources with a unified interface. The heliophysics community soon recognized that they faced a similar problem of many distributed data sets with varying amount of information about them and several discipline specific virtual observatories have been established. Two of them, the virtual heliospheric observatory (VHO) and the virtual magnetospheric observatory (VMO), share a common architecture design with development efforts oriented towards a structured data search. This paper describes the VHO/VMO middleware and its components from metadata preparation and processing to the user interface.
ISSN: 1865-0473 (Print) 1865-0481 (Online) DOI: 10.1007/s12145-008-0004-5 URL: http://www.springerlink.com/content/h97hl1u82w8374x8/?p=e42982f3485c42e09cc379e8c9a3c90a&pi=6
The architecture of a multi-tiered virtual observatory T. King, J. Merka, R. Walker, S. Joy and T. Narock Journal: Earth Science Informatics, Volume: 1, Issue: 1, April, 2008
Virtual observatories are being established in a wide range a disciplines, supported by a variety of agencies. Groups such as the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA), Planetary Data System (PDS) and the Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) consortium are defining metadata standards to aid in archiving and sharing of information resources. The role of the virtual observatories in this resource sharing environment is to locate available resources and help users find the resources they need and then gain access to those resources. There are many different existing resource providers from which virtual observatories must collect descriptions of their resources. These resource providers may have associations with other providers so the topology of information exchange can be complicated. We explore the variety of topologies that can exist and discuss methods of collecting (harvesting) information from providers such as scheduled and on-demand harvesting. We compare the benefits of each approach and look at the issues of management overhead, adaptability and timeliness. We also explore the benefits of combining searching and harvesting services as part of a comprehensive solution.
ISSN: 1865-0473 (Print) 1865-0481 (Online) DOI: 10.1007/s12145-008-0006-3 URL: http://www.springerlink.com/content/t475202m07847536/?p=e42982f3485c42e09cc379e8c9a3c90a&pi=4
The Science Centered Approach of the Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory S. P. Joy, R. J. Walker, T. King, J. Merka, L. F. Bargatze, J. Weygand, P. Chi, J. Mafi, T. W. Narock and R. L. McPherron Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 15-19 December 2008
The Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory (VMO) has been established to aid the magnetospheric research community. To fulfill this charge: 1) The VMO must locate, describe and register resources pertinent to magnetospheric research. 2) The VMO must make it as easy as possible to discover and extract those resources which can used to answer a research question. To accomplish the first task the VMO has enlisted active magnetospheric researchers to indentify existing resources and set priorities for their inclusion. These same researchers aid in describing the resources and registering them with the VMO. The VMO uses the Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) standards as a core technology. To accomplish the second task we are engaging researchers to use the system and solicit their feedback. This feedback is used to guide the development of the system and the design of desired improvements. This dialog has been extremely useful in determining the science drivers for the VMO. We discuss the current state of the VMO, data registration schedule, planned improvements, and how the researcher's perspective influences our direction. Current activities related to the addition of value-added services and interaction with resident archives also will be addressed.
S. P. A. Aeronomy
A Framework to Manage Information Models J. S. Hughes, T. King, D. Crichton, R. Walker, A. Roberts and J. Thieman Conference: Joint Assembly, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA, 27–30 May 2008
The Information Model is the foundation on which an Information System is built. It defines the entities to be processed, their attributes, and the relationships that add meaning. The development and subsequent management of the Information Model is the single most significant factor for the development of a successful information system. A framework of tools has been developed that supports the management of an information model with the rigor typically afforded to software development. This framework provides for evolutionary and collaborative development independent of system implementation choices. Once captured, the modeling information can be exported to common languages for the generation of documentation, application databases, and software code that supports both traditional and semantic web applications. This framework is being successfully used for several science information modeling projects including those for the Planetary Data System (PDS), the International Planetary Data Alliance (IPDA), the National Cancer Institute's Early Detection Research Network (EDRN), and several Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) projects. The objective of the Space Physics Archive Search and Exchange (SPASE) program is to promote collaboration and coordination of archiving activity for the Space Plasma Physics community and ensure the compatibility of the architectures used for a global distributed system and the individual data centers. Over the past several years, the SPASE data model working group has made great progress in developing the SPASE Data Model and supporting artifacts including a data dictionary, XML Schema, and two ontologies. The authors have captured the SPASE Information Model in this framework. This allows the generation of documentation that presents the SPASE Information Model in object-oriented notation including UML class diagrams and class hierarchies. The modeling information can also be exported to semantic web languages such as OWL and RDF and written to XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) files for import into UML tools.
S. P.-M. Physics
Virtual observatories for space and solar physics research C. C. Harvey, M. Gangloff, T. King, C. H. Perry, D. A. Roberts and J. R. Thieman Journal: Earth Science Informatics, Volume: 1, Issue: 1, As soon as the first data became available online over the Internet, it was obvious that different sites holding related datasets should appear to the end user as a single data system, even if the data itself is stored at multiple locations. To achieve this objective in the context of continuing parallel development of multiple data centres, in 2003 several actors in the realm of space plasmas created the international consortium Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE). Since 2005 US participation in SPASE has been supported by NASA, and early in 2006 NASA funded five new Virtual Observatories to cater for different aspects of solar system plasma science. This paper outlines the current status of the SPASE effort, the opportunities it offers, its specificities with respect to other parts of the astronomical virtual observatory, and the possibilities it offers for space weather.
ISSN: 1865-0473 (Print) 1865-0481 (Online) DOI: 10.1007/s12145-008-0008-1 URL: http://www.springerlink.com/content/4163553805612t20/?p=e42982f3485c42e09cc379e8c9a3c90a&pi=2
Registering Active and Passive IMAGE RPI Datasets with the Virtual Wave Observatory I. A. Galkin, S. Fung, T. A. King and B. W. Reinisch Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 15-19 December 2008
Development of the Virtual Wave Observatory (VWO) for acquired active/passive plasma wave and radiation datasets will be a significant step forward for the Heliophysics community in its efforts to make wave-specific science data searchable, understandable, and usable. The first phase of the VWO project commenced in September 2008 with the goal of converting existing custom database storing wave data acquired by the Radio Plasma Imager (RPI) on the NASA IMAGE satellite into the VxO realm and, specifically, the SPASE Data Model. The RPI dataset comprises 1.2 million active and 0.8 million passive stepped-frequency measurements whose exploration incurs substantial expense of data search and expert interpretation. Our attention is drawn to the ability of the VWO not only to organize numeric and display data records in the SPASE-compatible manner, but most importantly, provide the essential means to capture the wave research community knowledge in accompanying metadata so as to let users understand the VWO data collections and search them by phenomena and context conditions. To that end, we pursue to extend the SPASE model to include wave-relevant terms and to develop a VWO annotation service to provide searchable data interpretations to the scientists who may not be a wave expert. The SPASE Data Model provides several means to describe data sets in a unified manner, forging them together in a three large categories, (1) numeric data, (2) display data, and (3) catalogs. Whereas numeric data resources simply point to the instrument data, the other two categories refer to the presentation of derived and interpreted information. We consider images of the RPI data as derived products that required investment in time and effort to create, especially if their author provided interpretation of visible signatures and optimized the visualization settings to highlight the signatures. When such interpretations are available, they can be used to further group RPI data in categories and build SPASE Catalogs correspondingly. The paper discusses lessons learned from the process of adopting the SPASE nomenclature and architecture in order to organize RPI data into a valid VWO data resource. In particular, we concentrated on a SPASE Granule concept to establish a VWO service that returns a list of qualifying data granules when queried with a set of search parameters, including start and stop times, type of phenomenon, measurement settings, etc, with the ultimate, enabling goal of letting Heliophysics community to productively use wave data as part of their research.
S. P. A. Aeronomy
A Data Services Upgrade for Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) Data A. J. Davis and G. Hamell Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 15-19 December 2008
Since early in 1998, NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft has provided continuous measurements of solar wind, interplanetary magnetic field, and energetic particle activity from L1, located approximately 0.01 AU sunward of Earth. The spacecraft has enough fuel to stay in orbit about L1 until ~2024. The ACE Science Center (ASC) provides access to ACE data, and performs level 1 and browse data processing for the science instruments. Thanks to a NASA Data Services Upgrade grant, we have recently retooled our legacy web interface to ACE data, enhancing data subsetting capabilities and improving online plotting options. We have also integrated a new application programming interface (API) and we are working to ensure that it will be compatible with emerging Virtual Observatory (VO) data services standards. The new API makes extensive use of metadata created using the Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) data model. We describe these recent improvements to the ACE Science Center data services, and our plans for integrating these services into the VO system.
S. P. A. Aeronomy
Virtual Energetic Particle Observatory (VEPO) J. F. Cooper, N. Lal, R. E. McGuire, A. Szabo, T. W. Narock, T. P. Armstrong, J. W. Manweiler, J. D. Patterson, M. E. Hill, J. D. Vandergriff, R. B. McKibben, C. Lopate and C. Tranquille Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 15-19 December 2008
The Virtual Energetic Particle Observatory (VEPO) focuses on improved discovery, access, and usability of heliospheric energetic particle and ancillary data products from selected spacecraft and sub-orbital instruments of the heliophysics data environment. The energy range of interest extends over the full range of particle acceleration from keV energies of suprathermal seed particles to GeV energies of galactic cosmic ray particles. Present spatial coverage is for operational and legacy spacecraft operating from the inner to the outer heliosphere, e.g. from measurements by the two Helios spacecraft to 0.3 AU to the inner heliosheath region now being traversed by the two Voyager spacecraft. This coverage will eventually be extended inward to ten solar radii by the planned NASA solar probe mission and at the same time beyond the heliopause into the outer heliosheath by continued Voyager operations. The geospace fleet of spacecraft providing near-Earth interplanetary measurements, selected magnetospheric spacecraft providing direct measurements of penetrating interplanetary energetic particles, and interplanetary cruise measurements from planetary spacecraft missions further extend VEPO resources to the domain of geospace and planetary interactions. Ground-based (e.g., neutron monitor) and high-altitude suborbital measurements can expand coverage to the highest energies of galactic cosmic rays affected by heliospheric interaction and of solar energetic particles. Science applications include investigation of solar flare and coronal mass ejection events, acceleration and transport of interplanetary particles within the inner heliosphere, cosmic ray interactions with planetary surfaces and atmospheres, sources of suprathermal and anomalous cosmic ray ions in the outer heliosphere, and solar cycle modulation of galactic cosmic rays. Robotic and human exploration, and eventual habitation, of planetary and space environments beyond the Earth require knowledge of radiation hazards informed by VEPO data resources. The VEPO project has completed the first year of work to define science requirements, to document and register selected data products in SPASE format while evolving SPASE for increased applicability to VEPO data, and to support enhanced discovery and access for these products through the evolving data query and middleware system of the Virtual Heliospheric Observatory (VHO). The VEPO team operates as a heliophysics focus group for energetic particle data resources in partnership with VHO and also leverages existing data services of NASA's Space Physics Data Facility. We invite comments from the U.S. and international data provider and user communities on review of the current VEPO/VHO user interface, on directions for future evolution of VEPO and supporting data systems including VHO and SPDF, and on relations to other elements of the heliophysics virtual observatory environment.
S. P. A. Aeronomy
Implementing SPASE Metadata into the Virtual ITM Observatory C. Colclough, M. Weiss, D. Morrison, L. Immer, R. Barnes, D. Patrone, R. Holder and M. Potter Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 15-19 December 2008
SPASE (Space Physics Archive Search and Extract) is a consortium of space physics users from a wide variety of institutions. This consortium is in the process of developing and updating a metadata specification for space physics products. Most Virtual Observatories are using SPASE as their source of information. Since SPASE uses XML, which is hierarchical, systems based upon SPASE tend to express themselves in a similar hierarchical manner. Often, knowledge of the data and its structure is needed in order to answer many questions. VITMO (Virtual Ionosphere Thermosphere Mesosphere Observatory) does not use SPASE internally, instead VITMO uses a relational database which allows the user to search based on scientific concepts, without apriori knowledge of the structure of the data. VITMO also has an architecture and metadata structure that predates the SPASE specification. SPASE, however, is the interlingua of the VO community. We will show how we have translated between the VITMO internal metadata structure and the SPASE metadata specification. This presentation will focus on the value in adopting SPASE and lessons learned in implementing it.
S. P. A. Aeronomy
Heliophysics Event List Manager (HELM) R. M. Candey, R. A. Chimiak, B. T. Harris, T. King, R. E. McGuire and T. W. Narock Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 15-19 December 2008
The key organizing element for most Heliophysics research is time: times when an "event" of a given character occur or time spans when some condition is true. A list of such times may be created through a hands-on science analysis process for a specific research project (e.g., a list of bow-shock crossing times for a study of properties of the bow shock) or may be generated through automated services (e.g., times when the observed interplanetary magnetic field at Earth is southward by >2 nT). We are developing a Heliophysics Event List Management service (HELM) that will improve queries and enable annotating and intersecting lists of events across a full range of Heliophysics data sources, both published and dynamically generated. HELM lists will be kept in a standard (but expandable) XML format, keyed to appropriate SPASE terms. The lists and list intersections are passed directly through a HELM user interface or to intermediate services via a HELM API. This will be a major improvement over how scientists manually generate, manage and share lists of observations and is an important capability to leverage the VxOs. For example, starting from the HELM master list or from individual query services, you could query OMNIweb for times meeting some set of geophysical states and pass the list to the list server. From within SSCweb, you can find when spacecraft are in suitable regions of space and determine intersections of the two lists with the HELM list service. Finally send that list of times and spacecraft to VMO for data retrieval, plotting or statistics. You could then publish a useful list for others to use and allow others to add or comment. The various VxOs and SPDF (CDAWeb, SSCWeb, OMNIweb) are all collaborating on this effort.
S. P. A. Aeronomy
New Access and Analysis Tools for Voyager LECP Data L. E. Brown, M. E. Hill, R. B. Decker, J. F. Cooper, S. M. Krimigis and J. D. Vandegriff Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 15-19 December 2008
The Low Energy Charged Particle (LECP) instruments on the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft have been returning unique scientific measurements since launching in 1977, most notably observations from the historic tour of the giant planets. As these spacecraft continue on their exit trajectories from the Solar system they have become an interstellar mission and have begun to probe the boundary between the heliosphere and the interstellar cloud and continue to make exciting discoveries. As the mission changed from one focused on discrete encounters to an open ended search for heliospheric boundaries and transitory disturbances, the positions and timing of which are not known, the data processing needs have changed. Open data policies and the push to draw data under the umbrella of emerging Virtual Observatories have added a data sharing component that was not a part of the original mission plans. We present our work in utilizing new, reusable software analysis tools to access legacy data in a way that leverages pre-existing data analysis techniques. We took an existing Applied Physics Laboratory application, Mission Independent Data Layer (MIDL) -- developed originally under a NASA Applied Information Research Program (AISRP) and subsequently used with data from Geotail, Cassini, IMP-8, ACE, Messenger, and New Horizons -- and applied it to Voyager data. We use the MIDL codebase to automatically generate standard data products such as daily summary plots and associated tabulated data that increase our ability to monitor the heliospheric environment on a regular basis. These data products will be publicly available and updated automatically and can be analyzed by the community using the ultra portable MIDL software launched from the data distribution website. The currently available LECP data will also be described with SPASE metadata and incorporated into the emerging Virtual Energetic Particle Observatory (VEPO).
S. P. A. Solar and P. Heliospheric
Science Studies from Archived Observations T. P. Armstrong, J. W. Manweiler and J. D. Patterson Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 15-19 December 2008
Goals for spaceflight investigations include the discovery and characterization of physical features of the in- situ and remote environment. Abundant successes of flight investigations are easily documented. Prudent scientific practice dictates that to the maximum extent possible, observations should be well-characterized, reliably catalogued, and knowledgeably interpreted. This is especially true of data sets used in the publication of results in the reviewed literature. Typical scientific standards include making primary data numbers available to other investigators for replicated study. While NASA's contracts with investigators have required that data be submitted to agency official archives, the details, completeness (especially of ancillary and metadata) and forms differ from investigation to investigation and project to project. After several generations of improvements and refinements, modern computing and communications technology makes it possible to link multiple data sets at multiple locations through a unified data model. Virtual Observatories provide the overall organizational structures and SPASE-compliant XML defines the data granules that can be located. Proofs of the feasibility and value of this latest approach remain to be seen, but its ultimate goal of improving archival research using flight-derived data sets appears to depend on user acceptance and efficient use of the VxO resources. Criteria based on the authors experience in science derived from archival sources follow: 1. Interfaces and tools must be easy to learn, easy to use, and reliable. 2. Data numbers must be promptly downloadable in plain text. 3. Data must be available in or readily converted to physical units using calibrations and algorithms easily traceable as part of the search. Knowledge about (or heritage of) specific data items present in the science literature must be associated with the search for that item. 4. Data items must be trustworthy, having quoted uncertainties and available history where versioning has occurred. While these are challenging criteria to meet especially in succinct form the use of archival data for valid science publication requires that these criteria are achieved. The full presentation will illustrate and expand on these criteria.
S. P.-M. Physics
An Overview of VOs for Integrating Space and Solar Physics Data M. Weiss and D. A. Roberts Conference: Joint Assembly, Acapulco, Mexico, 22-25 May 2007
NASA, NSF and other groups, both in the US and abroad, are developing an infrastructure for unified access to the wide range of heliophysics data products needed to respond to our evolving space mission set and research needs. This infrastructure will expand on existing services and use new computer technologies. The environment will continue to be distributed but integrated through the creation of virtual observatories. Starting in 2001, NASA sponsored the development of the Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO) and the Virtual Space Physics Observatory (VSPO). Drawing upon the successes of these projects, NASA selected in 2006 five new "VxOs" spanning the heliosphere, the Earth's magnetosphere and radiation belts, and ITM regions. These projects are now underway, as are the NSF sponsored VSTO, the Canadian GAIA, the European EGSO, and the Japanese STARS as well as other service and data oriented projects. This paper will introduce existing and planned VOs, their attributes, data sources, the SPASE data model intended to unite them, and the communities served. In addition to providing search and access capabilities, the VxOs will enable value-added services by allowing machine access to a wide variety of datasets.
S. P.-M. Physics
When Metadata Alone Is Not Enough M. Weiss, D. Morrison, R. Barnes, L. Immer, C. Colclough, R. Holder, M. Potter, R. Daley, M. Hashemian, S. Nylund, S. Yee, E. Talaat, J. Russell, R. Heelis, J. Kozyra, D. Bilitza, R. McGuire, R. Candey and P. Fox Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, The Virtual ITM Observatory (VITMO) is currently operational and provides unique search and data delivery capabilities to the Ionosphere Thermosphere Mesosphere (ITM) community. Many of these capabilities in data search are currently constrained by the lack of detailed metadata required to support user requests. For example, determining when a remote sensing instrument observes a ground site is not knowable using today's metadata. In VITMO, we enhance our search capabilities by tying together the standard SPASE compliant metadata, virtual metadata generators, solar geophysical indices databases, and event lists. These additional databases and tools provide the enhanced capabilities that allow the VITMO to answer detailed searches across a variety of data sources. We will detail the architecture of this system and show how these capabilities can allow the researcher to perform many levels of scientific analysis directly from the search system. VITMO can be found at http://vitmo.jhuapl.edu.
Earth and I. Space Science
The Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory at UCLA R. J. Walker, T. A. King, S. P. Joy, L. F. Bargatze, P. Chi and J. Weygand Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 10-14 December 2007
The Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory (VMO) creates robust links to the world's relevant data bases and thereby provides one-stop shopping for the magnetospheric researcher seeking data. The VMO is a joint effort of scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and UCLA. The VMO supports two ways for a scientist to find the data and access the data needed for a given study. One is a structured interface developed at GSFC and the other is a word based interface (Google like) developed at UCLA. Both interfaces provide well organized views of the diverse scientific data holdings needed for magnetospheric research. The word based interface will be demonstrated at the poster. Since data are dynamic, the VMO portal design allows frequent and asynchronous updating. The VMO will only succeed in serving the needs of the magnetospheric science community if most of the world's data repositories are part of the system. Therefore we have worked to make it simple to participate in the VMO. The registries for both data and services are designed to make it easy for suppliers to make their resources available and update information. The basis for resource descriptions is the SPASE data model. We have created tools to enable data repositories to populate the registries and to communicate with the VMO even if they use other data models. Scientists trained in data management, called domain experts, are available to work with data suppliers to prepare the metadata and to create archival quality data products. We describe how the domain experts bring information into the VMO.
S. P. A. Solar and P. Heliospheric
SPASE Progress Facilitating Heliophysics Data Description, Location, and Acquisition J. R. Thieman, M. Weiss, T. King and A. Roberts Conference: Joint Assembly, Acapulco, Mexico, 22-25 May 2007
The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) team of representatives from throughout the solar and apace physics international community have continued to develop a Data Model and supportive tools for data description, location, and acquisition. SPASE Data Model 1.2 is now available through the SPASE website (http:www.spase-group.org). Hundreds of data sets have been described in accordance with this model but there is a need to describe more data sets from a broader spectrum of the heliophysics community data holdings. Tools for facilitating these data descriptions are being developed and can be tested in accordance with the present model. The SPASE effort facilitates the search and retrieval of data across the heliophysics Virtual Observatory data environment. An example of the types of search and retrieval than can presently be done based on SPASE-related data description can be found in the Virtual Space Physics Observatory Product Finder. The SPASE team continues to improve the Data Model by providing further capabilities to describe data down to the level of detailed data description. The group also continues to respond to feedback by the community for specific needs. We invite the general community to try the services that have been developed and join with us in developing still more versatility for the future.
S. P.-M. Physics
Lessons Learned in Heliophysics Data Description: Discussion of the Development and Use of the SPASE Data Model J. R. Thieman, E. Bell, J. Hourcle, J. King, T. King, P. Richards, R. Walker, R. Weigel and M. Weiss Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 10-14 December 2007
The heliophysics community is presenting at this meeting the results of the development of a number of virtual observatories that have been funded by NASA to provide data access for various subdisciplines (magnetospheres. ionospheres, cosmic rays, radiation belts, etc.) within the realm of heliophysics. For users in one subdiscipline to determine what data might be available and useful in another subdiscipline it is necessary to do cross-subdiscipline searches. To enable such cross-subdiscipline searches to be done in an efficient and thorough manner it is important to have the data described according to a common set of metadata terms or data model. The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) Data Model was developed by representatives of the subdisciplines for this purpose. It is now being applied to describing the data sets in the virtual observatories and, as might be expected, there are a number of lessons that have been learned in this process. This presentation will make note of the lessons learned in the process of describing the data and what problems have yet to be solved. We intend to share this experience with representatives from other disciplines and learn from their experiences as well. We encourage those seeing the presentation to come prepared to relate their knowledge, even if it is only a brief interaction at that time.
S. P. A. Solar and P. Heliospheric
The Virtual Space Physics Observatory as a Portal to the Heliophysics Great Observatory D. A. Roberts, J. King, J. Schmidt, C. Cornwell and R. McGuire Conference: Joint Assembly, Acapulco, Mexico, 22-25 May 2007
NASA's Virtual Space Physics Observatory (VSPO), now sponsored by the Space Physics Data Facility at GSFC, is an operational portal to most of the frequently accessed Space Physics datasets from current and past missions. It includes access to many relevant solar physics data products as well as some services (e.g., SSCWeb-based "quick orbits" and links to CCMC). The Web interface to the underlying gateway allows a user to search for data using criteria such as observation time, measurement type, resolution, observatory/spacecraft, and region of space observed. It is now directly based on the SPASE data model and can harvest new product descriptions and make both the descriptions and the products available immediately. VSPO provides direct links to data services such that plots and data subsets from CDAWeb or files from the Virtual Solar Observatory can be obtained directly through the VSPO interface. Direct machine access to datasets allows other applications to use VSPO to find and load data. Discipline specific VxOs and data center based data systems can provide greater functionality for particular datasets, but VSPO provides a simple route to a broad range of "Heliphysics Great Observatory" products. It is thus useful for a range of tasks, inlcuding browsing data from many missions and geophysical/solar indices, obtaining quick downloads of data and plots, finding the location of spacecraft, and determining what products are available in a given region of space. We will continue to add products, harvesting data descriptions from VxOs and working on obtaining access to as nearly a complete set of Space and Solar Phsyics datasets as possible.
S. P.-M. Physics
Integrating Cluster Data into the VO Infrastructure P. J. Richards and C. H. Perry Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 10-14 December 2007
The UK Cluster Data Centre (UKCDC) has provided access to Cluster data products since the launch of the Cluster spacecraft in 2000. In keeping with the aim of providing the widest possible access to the Space Physics community, the UKCDC has participated in several projects to advance the interoperability of their data holdings within the emerging international VO infrastructure. These activities include AstroGrid in the UK, ESA's SpaceGrid and participation in the NASA led Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) Consortium. Although, as demonstrated by SpaceGrid, the technology exists to build the VO infrastructure, the main obstacle to progress has been the absence of a metadata standard used by Data Centres and other data providers. The Cluster Active Archive (CAA), which is providing an archive of Cluster high resolution data, has a comprehensive metadata dictionary which is used to describe all Cluster data products. The UKCDC is ingesting into the CAA the summary and primary data products being used during the mission for event monitoring. As part of this activity, the CAA metadata is also being translated into SPASE metadata and the UKCDC is in the process of building a SPASE registry of the data products available at the UKCDC and also data access services developed according to the SPASE standards. The experience gained as the SPASE standard matures will form the basis for building a SPASE registry and services for access to the Cluster archive.
S. P. A. Solar and P. Heliospheric
Magnetospheric Data Discovery and Access J. Merka, T. A. King, T. W. Narock, R. J. Walker and S. P. Joy Conference: Joint Assembly, Acapulco, Mexico, 22-25 May 2007
Magnetospheric data are provided by a variety of diverse sources and the data is generally not provided in the same format, nor with the same level of documentation. The Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory (VMO), a joint effort of scientists at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and UCLA, aims to provide the scientific community with an integrated access to well documented data and related services. In this presentation we will demonstrate current and upcoming features of the VMO, important to both end-users and data providers. The primary function of the VMO is to search for available data sets matching user-specified criteria and to return links to matching data. The query submission process and its results will be demonstrated. In order to compare and search different data sets, they are described using the standard SPASE data model. We have developed tools for creating resource descriptions and for managing them in registries. Such tools simplify metadata preparation for the data providers to participate in the VMO. We will also discuss VMO value-added services (e.g., formatting, subsetting, display data, data mining).
S. P.-M. Physics
Scientific Uses and Directions of SPDF Data Services R. McGuire, D. Bilitza, R. Candey, R. Chimiak, J. Cooper, S. Fung, D. Han, B. Harris, R. Johnson, J. King, T. Kovalick, H. Leckner, N. Papitashvili and A. Roberts Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 10-14 December 2007
From a science user's perspective, the multi-mission data and orbit services of NASA's Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) project perform as a working and highly functional heliophysics virtual observatory. CDAWeb enables plots, listings and file downloads for current data across the boundaries of missions and instrument types (and now including data from THEMIS and STEREO), VSPO access to a wide range of distributed data sources. SSCWeb, Helioweb and our 3D Animated Orbit Viewer (TIPSOD) provide position data and query logic for most missions currently-important to heliophysics science. OMNIWeb with its new extension to 1- and 5- minute resolution provides interplanetary parameters at the Earth's bow shock as a unique value-added data product. To enable easier integrated use of our capabilities by developers and by the emerging heliophysics VxOs, our data and services are available through webservices-based APIs as well as through our direct user interfaces. SPDF has also now developed draft descriptions of its holdings in SPASE-compliant XML In addition to showcasing recent enhancements to SPDF capabilities, we will use these systems and our experience in developing them: to demonstrate a few typical science use cases; to discuss key scope and design issues among users, service providers and end data providers; and to identify key areas where existing capabilities and effective interface design are still inadequate to meet community needs.
S. P. A. Solar and P. Heliospheric
The Rosetta Model: Can the Different Physical Science Data Models be Reconciled? T. A. King, D. L. McGuinness, R. J. Walker, P. Fox, D. A. Roberts and C. Harvey Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 10-14 December 2007
There are a variety of data models in the physical sciences, some of which are in overlapping domains. Each of the data models have been derived in different ways. Some have been based on formal ontologies, others on informal ontologies and others on relational schemas. An additional complication is that different international agencies have divided the physical science domains into different sub-domains leading to some confusion as to which data model to adopt. The most prevalent data models in use today are the Planetary Data System (PDS), Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE), Virtual Solar Terrestrial Observatory (VSTO), the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) and the Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). We take a comparative look at the various data models and ask the questions: Can they be reconciled? Is it possible to have a Rosetta Model to translate between each of the models? What role can ontologies play in defining a Rosetta Model?
Earth and I. Space Science
The Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory at UCLA R. J. Walker, T. A. King, S. P. Joy, L. F. Bargatze, P. Chi, J. Weygand, R. L. McPherron and C. T. Russell Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 11–15 December 2006
The successful management of space science measurements requires a combination of expertise in both science and information technology. The Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory (VMO) creates robust links to the world's relevant data bases thus providing one-stop shopping for the magnetospheric researcher seeking data. The VMO is being implemented by using existing and widely adopted technologies and strives to provide well organized views of diverse science holdings. Since data are very dynamic especially during the early phases of a mission, the VMO portal design allows frequent and asynchronous updating. The VMO portal provides access to value-added services (e.g. to reformat, manipulate, analyze and display data) developed both locally and remotely. The registries for both data and services are designed to make it easy for suppliers to make their resources available and update information regarding the resources. The basis for resource descriptions is the SPASE data model. We have created tools to enable data repositories to communicate with the VMO even if they use other data models. Finally we work with data suppliers to create archival quality data products.
S. P.-M. Physics
SPASE: Metadata Interoperability in the Great Observatory Environment J. R. Thieman, T. A. King, D. A. Roberts and J. H. King Conference: Joint Assembly, Baltimore, MD, USA, 23–26 May 2006
SPASE is the Space Physics Archive Search and Extract project. This project is funded by NASA to provide a data model for the Great Observatory data environment that can be used as a common basis for locating and retrieving data of interest for the space and solar physics community. Common terminology that maps to much of the disparate metadata being used by these systems enables unified searches across the archives and ready comparison of the results to determine time overlaps, data commonalities, applicability for research purposes, etc. The SPASE Data Model Version 1.0 has been created and will be described. The model now needs to be tested by the community by describing a wide variety of data holdings and providing feedback for further improvement of the model. The latest version of the Data Model can be obtained by clicking on the Link marked "Current Draft" at the following web site: http://www.igpp.ucla.edu/spase/. Hundreds of data descriptions created with this model in mind have been entered into the Virtual Space Physics Observatory search engine called the "Space and Solar Physics Product Finder". We recommend exercising this system to find data of interest and to see the value of a common data model for search and retrieval. The VSPO Product Finder is available at the following URL: http://vspo.gsfc.nasa.gov/websearch/dispatcher. Future enhancements of the SPASE Data Model will include more depth of description to more fully describe the science content of a data set as well as automated tools to ease the task of describing data according to the Data Model. As always, the value of the SPASE effort will depend on the use and feedback by the space physics community.
S. P.-M. Physics
The Application of SPASE to Heliophysics Data Description J. R. Thieman, T. A. King and D. A. Roberts Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 11-15 December 2006
The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) Project has developed a Data Model for the description of heliophysics data sets. The Data Model is intended as a standard means for describing data so that the descriptions could be used for interoperable data search and retrieval across the varied archives and data centers that hold heliophysics data throughout the world. The success of this project depends on the wide usage of the Data Model in the community. In this presentation we will talk about the development of the Model through dedicated committee work and input from major international data centers and archives. We will show where to get the Model, how to apply it, and examples of its use. Version 1.1 is available presently and has been "frozen" for usage in a stable environment. (See http://www.spase-group.org) The Model will ultimately evolve as the needs of the community dictate. We invite feedback and participation in the evolution from interested members of the community, especially those associated with the heliophysics Virtual Observatory effort.
S. P.-M. Physics
New SPDF Directions and Evolving Services Supporting Heliophysics Research R. McGuire, D. Bilitza, R. Candey, R. Chimiak, J. Cooper, S. Fung, D. Han, B. Harris, R. Johnson, C. Klipsch, H. Leckner, M. Liu, N. Papitashvili, T. Kovalick and A. Roberts Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 11-15 December 2006
The next advances in Heliophysics science and its paradigm of a Great Observatory require an increasingly integrated and transparent data environment, where data can be easily accessed and used across the boundaries of both missions and traditional disciplines. The Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) project includes uniquely important multi-mission data services with current data from most operating space physics missions. This paper reviews the capabilities of key services now available and the directions in which they are expected to evolve to enable future multi-mission correlative research. The Coordinated Data Analysis Web (CDAWeb) and Satellite Situation Center Web (SSCWeb), critically supported by the Common Data Format (CDF) effort and supplemented by more focused science services such as OMNIWeb and technical services such as data format translations are important operational capabilities serving the international community today (and cited last year by 20% of the papers published in JGR Space Physics). These services continue to add data from most current missions as SPDF works with new missions such as THEMIS to help enable their unique science goals and the meaningful sharing of their data in a multi-mission correlative context. Recent enhancements to CDF, our 3D Java interactive orbit viewer (TIPSOD), the CDAWeb Plus system, the new inclusion of the VSPO effort into SPDF, our plans to support the SPASE data dictionary effort and our continuing thrust towards fully-functional web services APIs to allow ready invocation from distributed external middleware and clients will be shown.
S. P.-M. Physics
Information Engineering and Adaptive Data Systems T. A. King, R. J. Walker, S. P. Joy, D. A. Roberts and J. R. Thieman Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 11-15 December 2006
Information engineering is a rigorous architectural approach to developing and deploying applications within an enterprise. It progresses through natural stages of analysis, design and implementation with the focus on how information is organized to achieve desired objectives. NASA has undertaken the task of organizing and leveraging the vast expanse of information in the Heliophysics domain. To achieve this goal NASA has supported the SPASE modeling effort and established domain specific Virtual Observatories. We explore how this effort fits into an information engineering approach and discuss the important and relevance of data modeling, standardization and open frameworks to achieving NASA's goals. The SPASE modeling effort and independent analysis by some of the Virtual Observatories have determined that the best solution is the development of data systems that are organized based on available resources, that is, adaptive to their environment. We explore why adaptive data systems are the best choice for reducing information entropy, adding value and improving information dissemination within NASA's Heliophysics domain.
S. P.-M. Physics
The Science Requirements and VSPO Implementation of Multi-Level Metadata for the Great Observatory Data Environment J. King and D. A. Roberts Conference: Joint Assembly, Baltimore, MD, USA, 23-26 May 2006
The metadata component of the emerging Great Observatory data environment must support a spectrum of scientist requirements ranging from enabling the finding of whole data products and linking to the web pages of the product's host system to enabling the application-software-driven identification and retrieval of individual physical parameters from the records of relevant data products for specified variables and time spans. The Virtual Space Physics Observatory (VSPO) covers a significant part of this "requirements domain" and offers one paradigm for the emerging GO data environment. It uses the SPASE Data Model to attain the descriptive uniformity needed to accomplish its goals. Many of the scientific questions needing to be addressed in developing a "systems-level" understanding of the coupling among solar, heliospheric, magnetospheric, ionospheric, and atmospheric components of the Sun-Earth System will require easy finding and retrieval (by persons and/or by their software) of data transcending the domain of individual discipline-specific VxO's. VSPO is intended to describe and provide access to distributed data across the full sun-Earth system domain. VSPO uses the services of general repositories and discipline-specific VxO's to broaden its reach. For example, of VSPO's current registry of 344 data products, somewhat over 10% link to solar data through the Virtual Solar Observatory and a much larger fraction use the Web Services from CDAWeb and SSCWeb to obtain data and orbits directly. Such linkage will become increasingly common as additional VxO's become operational. While the SPASE Data Model provides proposed standards for the description of products and their contents, service metadata standards would be useful to make the linking of various VO services simple and efficient. We will discuss these in the context of our current VSPO development.
S. P.-M. Physics
Integrating a Data Center and Resident Archive into the Emerging Virtual Observatiry System: Practical experience and perspectives A. J. Davis, S. G. Kanekal, M. D. Looper, G. M. Mason and R. A. Mewaldt Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 11-15 December 2006
The SAMPEX Resident Archive is currently under construction, and will be co-hosted at Caltech with the ACE Science Center. With SAMPEX in low earth orbit, and ACE at L1, and a suite of instruments on each spacecraft, the combined data cover a very broad range in species, energy, location, and time. The data include solar wind, solar energetic particle, and galactic cosmic ray intensity and composition data, as well as solar wind and magnetic field parameters on a variety of time scales. We describe our recent efforts to provide enhanced access to these data via the emerging virtual observatory system, including work with the Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) Consortium to ensure that the ACE and SAMPEX data can be adequately described using the SPASE data model, development of a SOAP web services interface between the ACE Science Center and the virtual observatories, and ideas for combining the ACE and SAMPEx data in useful ways.
S. P.-M. Physics
The Virtual Space Physics Observatory: Quick access to Data and Tools C. Cornwell, D. A. Roberts and R. E. McGuire Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 11-15 December 2006
The Virtual Space Physics Observatory (VSPO; http://vspo.gsfc.nasa.gov) has grown to provide a way to find and access about 375 data products and services from over 100 spacecraft/observatories in space and solar physics. The datasets are mainly chosen to be the most requested, and include most of the publicly available data products from operating NASA Heliophysics spacecraft as well as from solar observatories measuring across the frequency spectrum. Service links include a "quick orbits" page that uses SSCWeb Web Services to provide a rapid answer to questions such as "What spacecraft were in orbit in July1992?" and "Where were Geotail, Cluster, and Polar on 2 June 2001?" These queries are linked back to the data search page. The VSPO interface provides many ways of looking for data based on terms used in a registry of resources using the SPASE Data Model that will be the standard for Heliophysics Virtual Observatories. VSPO itself is accessible via an API that allows other applications to use it as a Web Service; this has been implemented in one instance using the ViSBARD visualization program. The VSPO will become part of the Space Physics Data Facility, and will continue to expand its access to data. A challenge for all VOs will be to provide uniform access to data at the variable level, and we will be addressing this question in a number of ways.
S. P.-M. Physics
Future Directions in Space Physics Data Management R. J. Walker, T. A. King and S. P. Joy Conference: Joint Assembly, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 23—27 May, 2005
The past decade has seen a dramatic increase in the availability of space physics data. There are literally hundreds of web sites providing access to data from space physics missions as well as ground based observatories. Space physics clearly has entered an era of open data. Now members of the space physics community are working to coordinate access to these diverse resources and to make sure the data are available beyond the termination of missions or projects. The Space Physics Access Search and Extract (SPASE) program will provide a common data dictionary which will help interconnect the sources while the virtual observatory and resident archive programs will provide continuity. However, all of these efforts will only succeed if the science data are of high quality and useable. The key to understanding data quality and proper use of science data is the metadata. All space science analysis requires that users have adequate information about the data. In this talk we will discuss methods for assuring high quality data and will introduce the concept of the self-organized archive (also see King et al, this meeting) as a means of utilizing high quality metadata.
S. P. A. Solar and P. Heliospheric
The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) Project: Glue for Interoperability J. R. Thieman, J. King, A. Roberts, T. King and V. Rezapkin Conference: Joint Assembly, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 23—27 May, 2005
The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) Project is a NASA-funded, collaborative development effort among multi-institution, international, space physics data holding organizations intended to allow science users to interoperably locate space physics data of interest, intercompare the information about data, and retrieve selected data sets or portions of data sets. Presently this consortium is continuing to update the SPASE Data Model (see http://www.igpp.ucla.edu/spase/) as a common metadata language for searching across the multitude of disparate data archives for data of interest. The model is being applied to data set descriptions for the important data holdings of the participating institutions. Searching via SPASE-compliant interfaces generates a query using the common metadata language. The query is translated into local search terminology at each relevant space physics data center. Search results are then gathered and displayed to the user in a common format. Thus, there is no need to change the software and search procedures used at the individual institutions. The model is intended to support data description at multiple levels of detail.JosephTodd Data set intercomparisons will enable determination of which data are useful for the purposes of the scientist/user. We are working with the Virtual Observatories relevant to space physics to enable data searching, access, and retrieval from these unifying theme portals. An example interface is available at the Virtual Space Physics Observatory (VSPO) through the following URL: http://vspo.gsfc.nasa.gov/websearch/dispatcher Development of an effective Data Model is challenging and requires feedback from all sectors of the community. We welcome new participants and discussion of the SPASE activities with the authors either in the session or in future SPASE teleconferences, presentations, or related meetings.
S. P. A. Solar and P. Heliospheric
Venturing into SPASE; Applying the SPASE Data Model to Data Description J. Thieman, T. King, A. Roberts and J. H. King Conference: Joint Assembly, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 23—27 May, 2005
The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) Project is a NASA-funded, collaborative development effort among multi-institution, international, space physics data holding organizations intended to allow science users to interoperably locate space physics data of interest, intercompare the information about data, and retrieve selected data sets or portions of data sets. The SPASE Data Model (see http://www.igpp.ucla.edu/spase/) has been developed to provide a common metadata language for searching across the multitude of disparate space physics data archives for data of interest. The group is working to make the data set description process more automated for data providers. SPASE is intended to facilitate intercomparison of search results by displaying results using common time or location formats. The SPASE model supports data descriptions at multiple levels of detail allowing providers to describe their holdings in a way that supports access of selected parts of data sets if that is enabled for the user. We are working with the Virtual Space Physics Observatory and other Virtual Observatories and data centers relevant to space physics to provide a common approach to data searching, access, and retrieval across multiple disciplines. We will provide examples of the application of the SPASE model to data of interest and show some of the problems and practices associated with this process. Development of an effective data model and data retrieval process is challenging and requires feedback from all sectors of the community. We welcome new participants and feedback from the scientific and technical data community on the best approaches to assuring preservation and continued usage of our data repositories into the future.
Earth and I. Space Science
Towards a Virtual Heliospheric Observatory: Data Querying, Processing and Science Applications T. W. Narock and A. Szabo Conference: Joint Assembly, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 23—27 May, 2005
Ongoing efforts among the L1 data providers and the Virtual Heliospheric Observatory (VHO) team have led to combined data sets as well as more efficient processing and calibrations. Ultimately, this leads to higher quality data products for the community. Additionally, the VHO provides prototype software for advanced querying and also data processing applications. We present an overview of the VHO efforts including currently available data sets, processing and querying applications as well as specific science examples enabled by the VHO. Further, future efforts of the VHO will be discussed which include the addition of new data sets as well as collaborative efforts with the CoSEC and SPASE communities
S. P. A. Solar and P. Heliospheric
The Virtual Great Observatory: Do We Know How to Make It Real? R. E. McGuire and D. A. Roberts Conference: Joint Assembly, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 23—27 May, 2005
The goal of the SSSC Great Observatory (GO), to use "simultaneous measurements in multiple locations ... to resolve temporal and spatial changes and to understand the interactions of complex systems of regimes", demands a future data environment where users can see data resources as an integrated set. Where data from solar and space physics missions, models and services may be highly distributed, such an integrated view is the paradigm of a Virtual Observatory (VO) or inter-connected Virtual discipline Observatories (VxOs). A first concern to achieving an effective VO/VxO environment must always be that the maximum of potentially useful data and models are openly accessible and made readily findable, with appropriate keywords for search engines and registries of products and services for rapid and uniform access to data from geographically distributed sources in a range of formats and described by different sets of terms. But beyond this, there is no agreed and prioritized list of issues and most critical user requirements for the new data environment. The level of community commitment required to develop consensus on the most urgent needs and to make investigation data usefully accessible to the larger environment will be much deeper than has been seen in the past. At the highest level, we believe that science users want easy-to-use interfaces with reasonable functionality across different types of data and robust performance over a wide range of high resolution, high quality and current data. The skills of both solar/space physics investigators and technologists will be required to build and sustain effective coordination and overall data content. There has been some recent success in providing access to files and some basic services from many distributed sources (e.g., VSO, VSPO, and EGSO). But a possible next level of integration, in which variables are labeled and can be subsetted and supplied in standard ways for use by universal tools and in higher-order queries, will be more difficult and remains today the province of services such as CDAWeb that operate through the backend ingest of data to a common server. Initial experience with the SPASE Data Model is showing that the uniform adoption of terms is likely to be imperfect, and that it is difficult to arrive at clear common goals for the overall "data system." Long-term evolution to a working VO environment will require: (1) a flexible approach to the working architecture where not all elements may make technical sense to distribute; and (2) an effort persisting for some time to give people a chance to try out various partial solutions. An extended effort will also allow time for the large number of products available to be described and made available in uniform ways, although this process is often tedious and not of high priority to data providers. It remains to be seen the extent to which generic tools can significantly supplement individual researchers tool sets, and how robust a system based on many independently maintained interacting parts will be. We will need to encourage long-term financial commitments from supporting agencies and for work across agency boundaries to get past sometimes-awkward initial steps. While the data environment may well be efficient, the results will not be free, and we must develop paradigms for support for efforts that are neither initial research efforts nor developed infrastructure.
S. P. A. Solar and P. Heliospheric
The Buzzword Puzzle: Finding the Right Technology for the Problem T. A. King, R. J. Walker and S. P. Joy Conference: Joint Assembly, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 23—27 May, 2005
What is the best way to move data from point A to point B? That all depends on what connects the two points and what kind of data you are trying to move. Selecting the right technology requires a careful consideration of the problem, an awareness of existing solutions and knowledge of appropriate standards. When moving a solution through the design, implementation and deployment stages there are a variety of development methods. Matching the development method to the scale of the task is important. Some of the technology challenges that the science community must address overlap with our commercial counterparts. However, there are some technology challenges which are unique to science and require new and innovative approaches. Based on our experience developing solutions for NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS), Dawn Science Center, and the Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) project we have considerable experience in what does and does not work. We present an assessment of the adoption threshold of selected standards, technology and development methods. We will discuss how changing expectations and evolving requirements impact the effectiveness of chosen solutions.
Earth and I. Space Science
The Self-Organized Archive: SPASE, PDS and Archive Cooperatives T. A. King, J. S. Hughes, D. A. Roberts, R. J. Walker and S. P. Joy Conference: Joint Assembly, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 23—27 May, 2005
Information systems with high quality metadata enable uses and services which often go beyond the original purpose. There are two types of metadata: annotations which are items that comment on or describe the content of a resource and identification attributes which describe the external properties of the resource itself. For example, annotations may indicate which columns are present in a table of data, whereas an identification attribute would indicate source of the table, such as the observatory, instrument, organization, and data type. When the identification attributes are collected and used as the basis of a search engine, a user can constrain on an attribute, the archive can then self-organize around the constraint, presenting the user with a particular view of the archive. In an archive cooperative where each participating data system or archive may have its own metadata standards, providing a multi-system search engine requires that individual archive metadata be mapped to a broad based standard. To explore how cooperative archives can form a larger self-organized archive we will show how the Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) data model will allow different systems to create a cooperative and will use Planetary Data System (PDS) plus existing space physics activities as a demonstration.
S. P. A. Solar and P. Heliospheric
The Semantic SPASE S. Hughes, D. Crichton, J. Thieman, P. Ramirez, T. King and M. Weiss Conference: Joint Assembly, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 23—27 May, 2005
The Semantic SPASE (Space Physics Archive Search and Extract) prototype demonstrates the use of semantic web technologies to capture, document, and manage the SPASE data model, support facet- and text-based search, and provide flexible and intuitive user interfaces. The SPASE data model, under development since late 2003 by a consortium of space physics domain experts, is intended to serve as the basis for interoperability between independent data systems. To develop the Semantic SPASE prototype, the data model was first analyzed to determine the inherit object classes and their attributes. These were entered into Stanford Medical Informatics' Protege ontology tool and annotated using definitions from the SPASE documentation. Further analysis of the data model resulted in the addition of class relationships. Finally attributes and relationships that support broad-scope interoperability were added from research associated with the Object-Oriented Data Technology task. To validate the ontology and produce a knowledge base, example data products were ingested. The capture of the data model as an ontology results in a more formal specification of the model. The Protege software is also a powerful management tool and supports plug-ins that produce several graphical notations as output. The stated purpose of the semantic web is to support machine understanding of web-based information. Protege provides an export capability to RDF/XML and RDFS/XML for this purpose. Several research efforts use RDF/XML knowledge bases to provide semantic search. MIT's Simile/Longwell project provides both facet- and text-based search using a suite of metadata browsers and the text-based search engine Lucene. Using the Protege generated RDF knowledge-base a semantic search application was easily built and deployed to run as a web application. Configuration files specify the object attributes and values to be designated as facets (i.e. search) constraints. Semantic web technologies provide the means to easily implement semantic search for science data archives using space science data models and metadata. It also suggests the means to support correlative search across science disciplines, missions, and instruments since multiple ontologies can be gathered together for processing . Finally broad scope interoperability can be envisioned where semantically aware software agents reason about and process distributed science data repositories.
Earth and I. Space Science
A SOAP Web Services Interface to ACE Data A. J. Davis and G. R. Hamell Conference: Joint Assembly, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 23—27 May, 2005
Since early in 1998, NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft has provided continuous measurements of solar wind and energetic particle activity from L1, located approximately 0.01 AU sunward of Earth. ACE data from nine instruments are being used to measure and compare the elemental and isotopic composition of the solar corona, the nearby interstellar medium, and the Galaxy, and to study particle acceleration processes that occur in a wide range of environments. The spacecraft has enough fuel to stay in orbit about L1 until at least 2020. The ACE Science Center (ASC) provides access to ACE data, and performs level 1 and browse data processing for the science instruments. Available on-line are solar wind, solar energetic particle, and galactic cosmic ray intensity and composition data, as well as solar wind and magnetic field parameters on a variety of time scales. We describe our recent efforts to provide enhanced access to ACE data via a SOAP Web Services interface. The interface utilizes the Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) dictionary, and will be compatible with emerging virtual observatories.
S. P. A. Solar and P. Heliospheric
Space Physics Metadata Searching Using Space Physics Data Markup Language (SPDML) and Scientific Resource Access System (SRAS) M. B. Weiss, D. D. Morrison, M. R. Hashemian, R. A. Daley, E. A. Immer, B. I. Fortner, J. Jen and J. Steele Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 13-17 December, 2004
The Space Physics Data Markup Language (SPDML) is a prototype system that provides a standard method of data querying enabling multi-instrument comparison to TIMED data and tracing the Sun-Earth connection. It facilitates the development of an extensible standard for next generation multi-mission catalog searching capabilities such as those proposed for use in Virtual Observatories. SPDML defines a metadata-rich standard method for expressing Space Physics datasets utilizing XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and describes the structure, semantics and content of any space physics data set in any data format. SPDMLs extensibility has been demonstrated, both through its data dictionary that is compatible with the developing Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) data dictionary, and by integrating it with another prototype system for accessing Space Physics Metadata - SRAS (Scientific Resource Access System). A testbed has been developed and deployed using data from the NASA TIMED spacecraft and ground-based SuperDARN radars to demonstrate the multi-mission search capabilities (http://sd-www.jhuapl.edu/SPDML) and will be used to demonstrate Virtual Observatory concepts in action.
S. P. A. Aeronomy
The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) System for Space Physics Data J. Thieman, A. Roberts and T. King Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 13-17 December, 2004
The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) system is a collaborative development effort among multi-institution, international, space physics data holding organizations intended to provide a common ground for science users to find space physics data of interest, intercompare the data, and retrieve selected data sets or portions of data sets. SPASE has developed a data model that serves as a bridge among the many space physics data archives that have data stored in multiple formats and offer access via multiple search methodologies. Our goal is to create a framework that will allow searches to be done across multiple data centers through a single mechanism. Development of an intermediate level of software will translate queries into the search mechanisms specific to each of the data centers. The results of the search are then to be put into a common format for presentation of the search results. Metadata entry tools are planned to ease the translation of the metadata to be found at the archive locations to the common metadata format needed for SPASE searching. Recent meetings among the data archive representatives and the progress of the space physics virtual observatories toward a unified space physics data environment will be discussed.
S. P. A. Aeronomy
SPASE – Space Physics Archive Search and Extract. C. C. Harvey, J. R. Thieman, T. King and A. Roberts Conference: Ensuring the long term preservation and adding value to the scientific and technical data, , Frascati, 5-7 October 2004
E. E. WPP-232
Space Physics Metadata Searching Using Space Physics Data Markup Language (SPDML) M. B. Weiss, D. D. Morrison, R. J. Barnes and L. J. Paxton Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 8-12 December 2003
The Space Physics Data Markup Language (SPDML) defines an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) for expressing Space Physics Metadata. The purpose is to develop an extensible standard for next generation multi-mission catalog searching capabilities such as those proposed for use in Virtual Observatories. SPDML provides a standard method for expressing Space Physics metadata and is being utilized in a prototype system that provides a standard method of data querying enabling multi-instrument comparison to TIMED data and tracing the Sun-Earth connection. SPDML is using a data dictionary that is compatible with the developing Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) data dictionary. A testbed is being developed using data from the NASA TIMED spacecraft and ground-based SuperDARN radars to demonstrate the multi-mission search capabilities (http://sd-www.jhuapl.edu/SPDML). Examples from this testbed will be presented.
SPASE - The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract - Status and Plans J. R. Thieman, T. King, A. Roberts and R. Walker Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 8-12 December 2003
The Space Physics Archive Search and Exctract (SPASE) is a collaborative development effort among multi-institution, international, space physics data holding organizations intended to allow science users to find space physics data of interest, intercompare the data, and retrieve selected data sets or portions of data sets. The search would be done across multiple data centers through a single search initiated through a network accessible interface. The effort involves creation of a common space physics data dictionary and development of an intermediate level of software that will translate queries into the search mechanisms specific to each of the data centers. The results of the search are then put in a common format to present to the user. Thus, there is no need to change the software and search procedures used at the individual institutions. Data set intercomparisons will enable determination of which data sets or portions of data sets are useful for the purposes of the scientist/user and need to be requested from the data provider. The present status of the efforts and plans for the future will be discussed. We welcome discussion of the needs of the community and how to assure fulfillment of those needs.
Building a Virtual Space Physics Observatory for Easy Access to and Novel Visualization of Distributed Data V. Rezapkin, D. A. Roberts, J. Coleman and R. Boller Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 8-12 December 2003
Progress in space physics has become strongly dependent on the simultaneous analysis of data from multiple spacecraft, each with many instruments. Historically, these data have been stored by different investigators in a variety of formats and with widely varying metadata describing the datasets. We are working on many fronts to integrate this ``data universe" such that a researcher will ultimately be able to obtain data using a uniform terminology through a variety of interfaces, obtaining either specifically formatted files or a direct stream into an application. Our main accomplishments to date include a general data dictionary (working with the SPASE group), a well-developed front-end visualization tool, and the beginnings of a simpler interface and ``middleware" to access the data directly from various repositories. We are working with as many other groups as we can to assure that the resulting system is made useful through the incorporation and coordination of many applications and ideas. This talk will give an overview of our status and plans.
SPASE prototype : an example application for the interoperability in Space Physics T. Levoir, C. C. Harvey, J. R. Thieman, E. V. Bell and C. Huc Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 8-12 December 2003
With the development of numerous independent data access systems across the world, a new need has recently appeared: the ability to query several systems simultaneously. This is interoperability, the ability to access multiple sites as if they were part of the local site. An international consortium, Space Physics Archive Search and Extract, is studying issues regarding interoperability for Space Physics. A prototype query system was developed two years ago, using XML technology. The concept is to implement interoperability between "participating data centers", via a unified interface. The use scenario then is: - The user defines a query. - The user's center contacts all other participating data centers, using a URL (and dictionaries to convert keywords). - Participating data centers each query their services(s) and generate a reply in XML in conformity with a given "results" DTD (Document Type Definition). - The user's center then parses all responses and produces a homogeneous presentation of the results. The present prototype implements basic, but important, search criteria: (1) Spacecraft, Instrument keywords; and, (2) Start/stop date and time. The result is a list of compliant data sets with a name, description (in HTML, with links to further information), and a URL to request each data set (or, at least, the data center relevant home page). This prototype uses a very simple protocol based on http and XML. It manages for each participating center a "resource description" which describes the services available (data set query, data granules query, ...), how (Protocol, Format, Parameter), and the format of the response. All descriptions are written in XML and are shared using http. The prototype will be presented with its probable evolution: the use of Web Services.
A Data Grid Framework for Sharing Data Across Distributed Heterogeneous Repositories J. Hughes, D. J. Crichton, S. C. Kelly, S. K. Lavoie and R. J. Walker Conference: AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, 8-12 December 2003
As the volume and diversity of science data sets continues to expand, the ability to share and correlate data across distributed heterogeneous repositories remains a serious challenge. An architectural data grid framework has been developed by the Object Oriented Data Technology (OODT) project to address this challenge and has been successfully deployed in several diverse scientific domains. Characterized by separate technology and data architectures, this framework was used by NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS) to develop the PDS-D distribution infrastructure to provide timely delivery of 2001 Mars Odyssey data to the science community as soon as the data were released from the Odyssey project. PDS-D is now being extended to address the huge data volume increases expected for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Based on the success of PDS-D, the Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) effort is considering the framework to support a data search and retrieval system for the Space Physics science community. Further demonstrating its flexibility, the framework is also currently being used by the National Cancer Institute's Early Detection Research Network to establish a virtual specimen database by connecting together data from multiple cancer research centers across the country. This paper will highlight achievements and lessons learned from several of the deployments, identify new scientific, technical, and programmatic challenges, and describe how the OODT architectural framework is evolving to meet those challenges.
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