# Presentation: 372556

## The Virtual Heliospheric ObservatoryVHO

**The Virtual Heliospheric Observatory****VHO**
**A Data Provider Speaks Out**
- Adam Szabo, Tom Narock, Jan Merka,Aaron Roberts, Jon Vandegriff, George Ho,Jim Raines, _Peter Schroeder_, Andrew Davis,and Justin Kasper

**SM21A-08**

**May 27, 2008**

## The VHO Team

**The VHO Team**

- Adam Szabo (lead)	NASA/GSFC
- Andrew Davis		Caltech
- George Ho		JHU/APL
- Justin Kasper		MIT
- Jan Merka		U. Maryland, Baltimore County
- Thomas Narock		U. Maryland, Baltimore County
- Jim Raines		U. Michigan
- Kathryn Rash		NASA/GSFC
- D. Aaron Roberts		NASA/GSFC
- Peter Schroeder		U. California, Berkeley
- Jon Vandegriff		JHU/APL
*Collaborators*:
- Paul Gazis	SETI Institute		Richard Keller	NASA/ARC
- Neal Hurlburt	Lockheed Martin SAL	Shawn Wolfe	NASA/ARC

*Team membership is dynamic as new data products and services will be added.*

## Current VHO Data Sets

- Spacecraft  Instrument	Description			Max Resolution	Time Span
- WIND	MFI	Magnetic field		        3 sec		1994-Present
- 	SWE	Thermal plasma (p, Alpha, anisotropy)	      92 sec 		1995-Present
- 	SWE	e distribution functions		      92 sec		1995-Present
- 	3DP	Proton moments		        3 sec		1995-Present
- 	3DP	Electron Moments		        3 sec		1995-Present
- 	3DP	p low energy spectra		      24 sec		1995-Present
- 	3DP	p high energy spectra		      92 sec		1995-Present
- 	3DP	e pitch angle distributions		      92 sec		1995-Present
- 	3DP	e low energy spectra		      92 sec		1995-Present
- 	STICS	Suprathermal ion distribution functions	        1 day		2005
- 	EPACT	Low energy particle sectored counts	        1 hour		Events
- ACE	MAG	Magnetic field		      16 sec / 1 sec	1997-Present
- 	SWEPAM	Solar wind ions		      64 sec		1998-Present
- 	CRIS	Galactic cosmic rays		        1 hour		1998-Present
- 	SIS	SEP, GCR and ACR intensities	        1 hour		1998-Present
- 	SWICS/SWIMS  Solar wind composition		      12 min		1998-Present
- 	EPAM	Solar energetic particles		      10 sec		1998-Present
- SoHO	CELIAS/PM	Solar wind ions		      30 sec		1996-Present
- Genesis	GIM	Solar wind ions		     2.5 min		2001-2004
- 	BPROXY	Magnetic field direction		     2.5 min		2001-2004
- IMP 8	MAG	Magnetic field		     15 sec		1973-2000
- 	PLS	Solar wind ions		       1 min		1973-2000
- Helios 1	E1/E2	Mag field + solar wind ions		      40 sec		1974-1985
- Helios 2	E1/E2	Mag field + solar wind ions		      40 sec		1976-1980
- STEREO A/B  MAG	Magnetic field		     0.125 sec		2006-Present
- 	PLASTIC	Solar Wind ions		      60 sec		2006-Present
- Ulysses	VHM	Magnetic field		       1 sec		1990-Present
- 	BAI	Solar wind ions		       4 min		1990-Present
- MGS	MAG	Solar wind pressure estimate	       2 hour		1999-2004

**Current VHO Data Sets**

## VHO Development PhasesFull VHO

**VHO Development Phases****Full VHO**

-  Connection  to processing  services.
-  Connection  to other VxOs

## Data Preparation for a Recently Launched Mission

**STEREO/IMPACT** – Data products designed knowing it would need to meet much higher metadata standards from the start so much easier to deal with (we learned from the Wind experience). Still can be a bit of a struggle convincing earlier generation of scientists they really, really need to give us this information.
**Lesson learned** for data providers: if you haven’t already captured this information, do it now. The process only gets harder (and more expensive) with time.

## “Heritage” Data Product Preparation

**Wind/3DP**, an older mission
- Many poorly documented higher level 3DP products which were **not** originally meant as widely distributed archive-quality data
- But over the years, these products have become most used by the public and eventually we were requested to make them all accessible
- So a problem: effort required to fill in the documentation holes
- Typical questions: what assumptions and/or calibrations were used to derive, for example, electron moments, etc.? File formats? Versions?
- Ongoing project: great need to capture this information before relevant personnel “move on” to other institutions, fields, retirement, etc.

## Problem Providers

- What is a “problem provider”?
- An example: scientist fears misuse of data
- Argument: if I make it difficult for people to find my data, only “true” experts will use it
- Rebuttals:
- Do you really have time to deal with all these data inquiries?
- Our funding agency is exerting pressure to make these data widely available
- What if you get hit by a bus, retire or otherwise disappear? How will this data be useful?
- Make the value-added argument

## Why Should Data Providers Bother?

- “Virtually” guaranteed wider dissemination of my data. The more my data is used the happier I am, my PI is, my funding agency is....
- Describing the data in these terms captures the knowledge before it disappears (or becomes very difficult to get). We want our data sets to live a long, long time.
- Oh, and then there are the **services. **Immediate gratification:
- One-stop shopping website (_[http://vho.nasa.gov](http://vho.nasa.gov/)_)
- Queries that are more powerful than any single data provider could provide. Cross-mission searches based on actual scientific measurements.
- Talking with other VxO’s. Bridge the disciplinary divide. Sun-Earth connection, anyone?
- 3rd party services: The sky’s the limit....

## So What Does a Data Provider Need to Do?

- Of course, quality data products need to be reliably available online
- Create SPASE-compliant metadata
- VHO solution: do some test cases. Use the Wind, ACE and STEREO data sets as guinea pigs.
- Most significant difficulty I’ve faced (other than gathering the metadata): creation of these XML files
- There are several “solutions” out there. Web-based and downloadable SPASE metadata creation tools. However, in my experience, none of them did everything I needed.
- So I started with one of these tools, then ended up editing the output XML files until I had what was needed
- The Good News: From ACE, Wind and STEREO, we now have templates for almost every other potential VHO participant (present and future). Just take one or more of our metadata files, tweak, and you’re there.

## Instrument Metadata

- Human readable, formatted metadata

- Links to SPASE XML files

## Product Metadata

**Product Metadata**

## Parameter Information

- Detailed information providedfor all parameters inside thereturned data files.

- Granule Metadata

- Information provided oneach data granule andchecksum for downloadintegrity.

## Web Interface

**Web Interface**

-  Professional web  design
-  Update/News info
-  Collaboration tools

## VHO Web Interface – Query Builder

**VHO Web Interface – Query Builder**

*Searches by:*

- Time
-  Date/Time
- S/C Location
-  GSE/GSM/HCI
- Measurement Type
-  e.g., magnetic field,  thermal plasma,  energetic particles
- Parameter Values

- Selecttime period

- Selectquery parameters

- Selectlogical operation

## Query Results

- Time periods satisfying the query are returned

- Matching product identified

- Links to the data granules provided

- Links to the SPASE metadata provided

## Joining the Party

- Visit _[http://vho.nasa.gov](http://vho.nasa.gov/)_
- Talk to anyone involved to get started:
**Adam Szabo** VHO Principal Investigator adam.szabo@nasa.gov
**Tom Narock** VHO software developer thomas.w.narock@nasa.gov
**Jan Merka** VHO Team Member jan.merka@nasa.gov
**Peter Schroeder** VHO Data Provider peters@ssl.berkeley.edu

## VHO API

**VHO API**

-  Working CoSEC actor for VHO

## VHO API

**VHO API**

-  IDL VM Demo  software
-  Library
-  Perl
-  Java
-  CoSEC
-  IDL (soon)

-  Downloadable IDL VM application demonstrating the   use of the VHO API.

## VHO API

**VHO API**

- VSPO usingthe VHO API todeliver Helios 1,2data