Consortium for Space Physics Archive Search & Exchange (SPASE)
Steering Committee Charter
-Draft-

Context

The diversity of space physics data and services available electronically has become so great that it is difficult to keep track of what exists. No single data center can ingest, store, and distribute all space physics data and therefore data, when archived, will exist in a globally distributed heterogeneous ensemble of data distribution and archiving centers. With current technology it should be possible to determine, via a relatively simple user interface, the existence and location of data of interest, and then request and retrieve that data. An international group of Space Physics data centers is collaborating to develop such an interface system within the Consortium called "Space Physics Archive Search & Exchange" (SPASE).

There are many places on the World Wide Web to find lists of URL's that lead to the space physics data holdings of many different institutions. However, it is currently not possible to ask a simple question such as "Where can I obtain observations near the polar cusp in 1993 ?" without doing extensive, manual searches on separate data centers. The only hope for a comprehensive, automated search and retrieval service is to have data centers each make their own information available in a manner that will facilitate multi-archive data searching, comparing, and ordering.

These problems apply to the entire Internet, and indeed many organizations are working to propose solutions. But the problems are of both a scientific and a technical nature, and while international technical organizations may propose technical solutions, each community of users must study their own scientific questions. The intent is to come to a solution that will serve the entire community and be compatible with other related communities if possible. The first step to a solution is a description of the data and the services offered. This can be done in either a homogeneous way across the entire network, or by developing techniques for "translating" information exchanged between data centers. For reasons which concern as much past history as future developments, "translation" seems to be the best approach.

In summary, the SPASE Consortium endeavors to create a common search and retrieve capability based on a common data dictionary and common search criteria. This will allow users to locate data of interest within the participating archives ; the search result will be a list of data sets, and perhaps data granules within these data sets. The next step would be to allow intercomparison of search results to find, for example, time-overlapping data intervals for differing data sets or parts of data sets. In parallel, the Consortium will study similar simplification of the procedure for data selection and retrieval. And, ultimately, the user should be able to obtain data in a format adapted to his analysis requirements.

Objectives

The primary objective of the Consortium is to promote collaboration and coordination of archiving activity for the Space Plasma Physics community. This global objective envelopes a variety of narrower objectives :

1. Build a system that identifies and meets the global Space Physics User Requirements.
2. Facilitate the circulation of Space Physics scientific and technical information.
3. Facilitate the (two-way) interface with international organizations responsible for technical standards and developments.
4. Avoid duplication of effort between geographically distant space physics archiving centers.
5. Ensure the compatibility of the architectures used for the global distributed system and as many of the individual data centers as possible.
6. Minimize costs by development of a system that:
   
   • uses widely approved technical standards,
   • is easy to maintain (both globally, and in each archiving center),
   • can easily evolve so as to profit from likely future technological developments,
   • can be interfaced with the systems of adjacent disciplines and, hopefully one day, with a global system.

Management

The overall activity of the Consortium is monitored regularly by the Steering Committee. This committee convenes regular teleconferences, and such meetings as the chairman deems reasonable and necessary.

All participating data centers are represented on the Steering Committee by a person capable of committing (or requesting with reasonable chance of obtaining) the resources necessary to undertake tasks related to that data center's contribution. Data centers which are run as a collaboration between two separate funding agencies should have representatives of both agencies on the Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee is responsible for:

• periodically reviewing and updating this Statement of Objectives as required;
• mandating working groups to fulfill specific tasks, then following and reviewing their progress;
• maintaining the SPASE User Requirements in accordance with the wishes of the User Community.

Membership

The Consortium is open to any data center that can make its data holdings available according to the agreed standards and offer a constructive contribution towards the objectives set out in the above paragraphs.

The Consortium operates on the principle of "No Exchange of Funds". Members of the consortium are responsible for obtaining the resources necessary to support their own contribution, although it is hoped that membership of the consortium will be advantageous in this respect.

The sharing of manpower resources by short or long-term sojourns in other data centers is strongly encouraged. The financial arrangements are then the subject of bilateral agreements.

Centre de Données de la Physique des Plasmas
Christopher C. Harvey, CNRS/CESR
Claude Huc, CNES/CST

NASA - Living with a Star
David Sibeck, NASA/GSFC

National Space Science Data Center
James R. Thieman

Planetary Data System
Ray Walker, UCLA/IGPP
Steve Hughes, JPL

Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory
Christopher H. Perry

Southwest Research Institute
J. David Winningham