# Presentation: 815222

## NASA/LWS Workshop:Virtual Observatories in Space and Solar PhysicsOctober 27-29, 2004; Greenbelt, Maryland 

**Dan Baker, Charlie Barton, Brian Fraser,**
**Volodya Papitashvili, Alan Rodger,**
**Barbara Thompson, and IAGA/IUGG**
**Task Force**
**http://www.eGY.org**

**VIRTUAL OBSERVATORIES AND ELECTRONIC GEOPHYSICAL YEAR*****Concept and Realization***

## IGY Objectives:

**IGY Objectives:**
- Allowed scientists from different countries to participate in global observations of geophysical phenomena using common instruments and data processing schemes
- Gathered data on various geophysical phenomena from around the World
- Established the World Data Center System

**International Geophysical Year****1957 - 1958**

## IGY + 50Planning for New International Programs

**International Heliophysical Year 2007:**** IHY will be sponsored by ICSU, with the goal of fostering international cooperation in the study of heliophysical phenomena now and in the future**

**International Polar Year 2007 – 2008:**** IPY is sponsored by ICSU and WMO, and it will expand understanding of the key roles of the polar regions in the globally-linked environment**

**Electronic Geophysical Year 2007 – 2008:**** Sponsored by the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and endorsed by ICSU, the eGY is to ****promote a revolution in geoscientific data availability and access worldwide. This coordinated international initiative will make full use of the capabilities offered by modern information management and digital communications****. **

**IGY + 50****Planning for New International Programs**

## To get scientific data from various, mostly distributed sources, a scientist may have to:

_**Increasing Requirements**_
**Geospace and Earth Systems Science **
**Higher Resolution in space and time**
**Assimilation into Models**

- Finally, do some science...

- Process collected data using mostly proprietary codes, run models...
-     and...

- Then ingest retrieved data into a local database...

- Get data via snail-mail, air-mail, e-mail, Web...

- Search through a number of data centers, various              institutions,    observatories, contact colleagues..

## Current Forms of Sharing Geoscience Data

- Require continuous support for the data acquisition, storage, and distribution
- Submission of data remains voluntary
- Collected data are often not suitable for submission; e.g., the WDCs only accept absolute geomagnetic measurements

- “Push Data” Concept

**Centralized distribution schemes – World Data Centers (WDC):**

## Sharing Distributed Geoscience Data

**Publishing and sharing data through World Wide Web:**
- Allows to avoid additional steps in data preparation for submission to WDC
- Achieves greater visibility amongst scientific and user communities
- A GRID (“Fabric”) of many inter-connected data nodes is a new vision of distributed, self-populating data repositories and centers
- World Data Centers become an integral part of the worldwide data “fabric”, serving as “clearing houses” for the permanent data preservation

- “Pull Data” Concept

## Virtual Observatory Components

- Distributed databases accessed through the World Wide Web portals (GRID nodes):

- Data Visualization

- Format Conversion

- Data Acquisition

- Location Discovery

- A base concept for the *electronic Geophysical Year* (eGY) initiative  - IUGG/IAGA, ICSU/WDC Panel

## VGMO.NET is a middleware architecture that provides a new way for the worldwide geomagnetic community to share data and functionality in a platform-independent and location-neutral environment 
Design Goals
Identify prospective data repositories and provide transparent access to these remote databases through a common interface
Perform online processing of acquired datasets add construct self-populated databases on individual machines
Self-populated sub-repositories can be made available to other users through future request chains, building a GRID-type access and computing

- Design Goals
- Identify prospective data repositories and provide transparent access to these remote databases through a common interface
- Perform online processing of acquired datasets add construct self-populated databases on individual machines
- Self-populated sub-repositories can be made available to other users through future request chains, building a GRID-type access and computing

**FFMN**

**A four-tier architecture of VGMO.NET**

**LOCATION DISCOVERY (GeoMaC)**

**IDL**

**Matlab**

**Simulink**

**Lowest layer - Location Discovery Module **
**Data Acquisition via Internet**
**ASCII to Flat File module converts downloaded data into a Flat-File database **
**Integrated Visualization Layer**

**DATA ACQUISITION (HTTP/FTP/OPeNDAP/....)**

- FORMAT CONVERSION (A2F)

**VGMO.NET - Virtual Global Magnetic Observatory Network**

## VGMO.NET - Architecture UnleashedTwo Implementations:

**Web-Based Portal** – **http://maggy.engin.umich.edu/mist/vgmo.html**
- A secure, scalable, platform independent, and user-friendly software framework for remote access to the VGMO’s **Flat File Manager**
- The **Flat File Manager Client** is written to the Java 2 platform that requires a Java Web Start (Java Network Launching Protocol)

**Self-Populating Standalone Version** - **available for download from above site **
- An alternate version to create, manage, and populate local geomagnetic databases from INTERNET; aims on building geomagnetic GRID access

## Virtual Radiation Belt Observatory

**Assembles data from all available sources:**
- Data from NOAA satellites (POES, GOES and NPOESS)
- Data from EUMETSAT satellites (MetOp)
- Data from NASA satellites (SAMPEX, POLAR)
- Data from DoD satellites (HEO, etc.)
**Data Management System:**
- Local data servers provide data to global data servers which provide data in a standard data model to the applications software, the data assimilation model and to the physical models in response to requests
- This approach takes advantage of the SPIDR,  ESG, OMNIWeb, and CDAWeb systems operating at NGDC, AFCCC, and NASA
**Merge with data assimilation models and physical models:**
- Center for Integrated Space weather Models (CISM) funded by NSF

## User Interface

**Climatology model for designing satellites**
**Nowcasts/forecasts that provide situational awareness for satellite operators.**
**Long term archives of simulated and observed data for testing scientific theory**

**User Interface**
**and Displays**

**Near Real **
**Time Data**

**Climatology**
**Models**

**Nowcast/**
**Forecast**
**Models**

**GOES**
**       ****POES**

**CISM End-to-End Models**
**Assimilation of Extreme-Event Data**

**VRBO - Architecture Unleashed**

**Data system that meets engineering, operational, and scientific needs for: **

## A Concept of Carbon Cycle Virtual Observatory

**Dust from MODIS**

**Fires and smoke plumes**

**Distributed fossil fuel aerosols from nighttime lights**

- Authoritative descriptions of radiative forcing by aerosols for climate studies requires disparate data sets to drive numerical models

## eGY Objectives

- Embrace and extend the IGY principles of data sharing and scientific involvement
- Make existing and newly accrued datasets available – “free access to all”
- Digitize or convert to digital images analog geoscience records making data available electronically
- Develop a World Wide System of Virtual Geoscience and Geospace Observatories

## eGY: Initial Timeline

- 2003
- July: IUGG General Assembly, Sapporo, endorsed eGY
- December: eGY planning discussion at AGU
- 2004
- March: Paper describing eGY in Eos
- April – May: Presentations at EGU and AGU
- July: eGY at IAGA Executive meeting at COSPAR (Parris)
- September: eGY at IUGG Executive meeting (Boulder)
- 		    Web site: http://www.eGY.org
- 2005
- Presentations at IUGG Associations meetings
- eGY planning workshop

## International bodies:
AOGS
CODATA
FAGS
ICSU
IUGG
IAGA
PAA Data & Information
SCOSTEP
SCAR / IPY
SEG
WDC Panel

- AOGS
- CODATA
- FAGS
- ICSU
- IUGG
- IAGA
- PAA Data & Information
- SCOSTEP
- SCAR / IPY
- SEG
- WDC Panel

**eGY Participants**

**National organizations:**
- Australia – ANU, UNSW
- Russia – IZMIRAN
- UK - BAS
- USA:
-   NASA / IHY
-   NOAA / NGDC
-   NOAA / SEC
-   NSF / NCAR
-   U. Colorado - LASP
-   U. Michigan - SPRL

## eGY Characteristics

**Timeliness:** Virtual Observatories middleware is becoming widely available
**Interdisciplinary:** Data sharing and data accessibility are common issues in all fields of geosciences
**Affordable:** Simple networking technology
**Cost Effective:** More/better science for money
**Inclusive:** Opportunities for developed and developing countries
**Capacity Building:** Provides relevant research experience for young scientists
- Complementary to IPY, IHY, IYPE, and other international initiatives like CAWSES, ILWS, etc.

## eGY Working Group on Virtual Observatories

**WG Mission: **
- Stimulate, facilitate, and promote the establishment of Virtual Observatories in Geosciences
- Promote the sharing of VxO “know-how” and standards
- Inform the science community, decision-makers, students, and the public about available VxO
**WG Activities: **
- Run specialist VxO meetings
- Organize VxO sessions/talks/posters at other meetings
- Use http://www.egy.org as a portal for VxO
- Run a VxO section of the eGY Newsletter
- Publish articles and press releases on VxO
- Run outreach & education programs: produce education resources, CD-ROMs, etc.

## During and after IGY about 50 permanent observatories were set up in the Arctic and Antarctic, and the World Data Center System was established 
The eGY is an “umbrella” initiative which envisions massive deployment of Virtual Geoscience Observatories in “cyberspace”
eGY four major themes:
      -   data access
      -   data release 
      -   data preservation
      -   science discovery 
      +  capacity building and outreach
Are YOU interested in eGY?  Visit  http://www.eGY.org

- The eGY is an “umbrella” initiative which envisions massive deployment of Virtual Geoscience Observatories in “cyberspace”
- eGY four major themes:
-       -   data access
-       -   data release
-       -   data preservation
-       -   science discovery
-       +  capacity building and outreach
- Are YOU interested in eGY?  Visit  http://www.eGY.org

**Summary**