# Presentation: 514190

## The Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory VMO/U

- Ray Walker
- Todd King
- Steven Joy

## Our Proposed Goals

- Provide a single request point (portal) for all data repositories needed for magnetospheric research.
- Provide tools for preparing data archives.
- Provide services or access to existing services to reformat, manipulate, analyze and display data.
- Identify and register magnetospheric resources.
- Expand data model to support data processing (services) and data quality.

## Approach

- Community-wide standards are essential.
- Data Model
- Core Functions
- Archive Content (documentation, ancillary data, etc.)
- We will use the SPASE data model and XML representation for metadata.
- Work through the SPASE consortium to expand the model to support:
- Services
- Resource details (structure)

## Science Constituency Served

- Providers
- Data Centers
- Missions
- Resident Archives
- Individual Researchers with Data to Share
- Consumers
- Graduate Students
- Professional Researchers
- Types of Studies
- Statistical
- Case
- Engineering

## Who's Doing What

**Raymond J Walker  – P.I. **
- VMO Project Manager
- Services and simulations domain expert.
**Christopher T. Russell – Co-I. **
- Magnetospheres domain expert.
- Direct ITM and ground activities
- Secure access to Polar, Geotail and FAST resources.
**Robert L. McPherron – Co-I.**
- Space weather domain expert.
- Direct magnetospheric / solar wind coupling activities
**Peter Chi – Co-I.**
- Liaison to ITM community.
- Identify and document ground data sets (magnetic field, radar, ionosonde, event lists, magnetic activity indices)
**James Weygand – Co-I.**
- Liaison to solar and heliospheric community.
- Identify and document solar and heliospheric data sets.
**Lee Bargatze – Co-I.**
- Identify and document magnetospheric observations (Assist Russell and McPherron)

**Todd A. King**
- System engineering and development expert.
- Develop tools, web services and VMO framework.
- Manage day-to-day operations of the VMO.
**Steven P. Joy**
- Data modeling and database expert.
- Assist mission and resident archives (lead)
**Joe Mafi**
- Data engineering expert.
- Provide operational support to missions and resident archives in generating metadata.
**Science Steering Committee**
- Community experts.
- Guidance to the VMO.

## Datasets to be Made Available

- Existing (and stable) repositories
- Repositories held at UCLA
- Weygand/McPherron database (ACE, Geotail, IMP8, Interball, ISEE1, ISEE2, ISEE3, Wind)
- Ground Station Chain data (McMac and others)
- IMP8
- FAST
- Geotail
- Polar MFE
- ISEE Magnetometer
- Active Missions
- Cluster
- THEMIS (soon)
- ST-5
- Resident Archives
- SAMPEX
- Polar (soon to be)
- other repositories identified by our team of experts.

## Emerging Repositories

- Expectation that repositories funded as data services would register with VMO.
- SwRI (Joey Mukherjee)
- Geotail (Joseph King)
- Energetic Particles (Jon Vandergriff)
- Expectation that the VMO "holdings" would grow voluntary additions.
- VMO liaisons encourage community participation.

## Infrastructure Tools and Services

- The VMO will redeploy existing tools and services to build the infrastructure.
- Tools to enable repositories to participate in the VMO
- Repository
- Re-engineer the PDS metadata generation tools to generate SPASE XML descriptions.
- SPASE XML description validation tool (new)
- Resource inventory tool (prototype)
- Registry
- Database Schema (prototype)
- Metadata collection - harvesting (prototype + enhancements)
- Web interface (new)
- Portal (search and services interface)
- Search (single “point of question”) – (prototype)
- Resource Retrieval and Packaging – (prototype + new)
- Concurrency tools (system synchronization) – (new)
- Announcement (RSS, subscription) – (prototype)
- Accounting (metrics on usage) – (new)

## Value Added Services

- Leverage existing services
- Format translation
- Tables: flatfile, CDF, HDF, FITS table to ASCII
- Images: to and from FITS, JPEG, GIF, PNG and TIFF
- Resetting
- Subsetting: Extract a part of resource.
- Coordinate Transformation
- Tsygenenko rotations.

## Overall Architecture(building block)

**Resource**: An object (document, data, etc.) or service available for use.
**Repository**: A facility for storing and maintaining digital information in accessible form
**Registry**: A collection point for metadata about resources.
**Access Point**: An interface to the registries and resources.
- The glue that binds:
**Data Model**: Describes in an abstract way how data is represented. This includes semantics (meaning of terms) and ontology (relationships).
**Access Methods**: Mechanisms to search for, use and distribute resources.

- Resource

- Repository

- Registry

- Access point

- Model and Methods

## Overall Architecture(big picture)

- Components can be combined in multiple ways to build a VxO

- VMO

- VxO

**Resident****Archive**

**Individual**
**Researcher**

## Overall Architecture

- REST (Representational State Transfer)
- Fancy acronym for the current web.
- URLs to reference a resource and streams (bytes or XML documents) as response.
- Services and "document" resources are analogous.
- Resource descriptions are represented in SPASE XML.
- Basic Registry
- Resource description (individual SPASE XML descriptions)
- Resource manifest (list of resource descriptions)
- Advanced Registry
- Searchable resource descriptions
- Retrieval services
- Implementation: Use OAI? Develop VxO methods? Let SPASE define?

## Milestones/Timeline

- Year 1
- Register resources and ...
- Q1
- Steering Committee review
- Operational  portal
- Registry services
- Description generation/validation tools
- Package and retrieve
- Q2
- Format translation (tables)
- Community training
- Register services (struct. ind.)
- Pick the low laying resources.
- Q3
- Format translation (images)
- Add resources to system
- Q4
- Subsetting
- Add resources to system

- Year 2
- Register resources and operational improvement and ...
- Q1
- Steering Committee review
- Coordinate system transformation.
- Add resources to system
- Q2
- Community Training
- Register services
- Add resources to system
- Q3
- Register services (struc. dep.)
- Add resources to system
- Year 3
- Register resources and operational improvement
- Q1
- Steering Committee review
- Add resources to system
- Q2
- Community training
- Add resources to system

## Methodology for user Feedback

- Comments and suggestions through VMO.
- Science Steering committee.
- VxO workshops
- Person-to-Person contacts (our experts)
- Presentations at conferences.