Towards a Virtual Solar- Terrestrial...

CEDAR Workshop 2004 - Towards an Integrated Data Environment, July 2, 2004

Towards a Virtual Solar-Terrestrial Observatory

Peter Fox ([email protected])HAO/NCAR

(with Jose Garcia, Patrick West, Don Middleton and Stan Solomon)Work partially funded by NSF


Outline� Concept and user needs� What’s new about a VSTO?� Integration with existing systems� Functionality� Technology� Building on experience� Status


Concept and user needsGoal - find the right balance of data/model

holdings, portals and client software that aresearchers can use without effort orinterference as if all the materials wereavailable on his/her local computer.

The Virtual Solar-Terrestrial Observatory (VSTO) is proposed to be:• a distributed, scalable education and research environment for

searching, integrating, and analyzing observational, experimental andmodel databases in the fields of solar, solar-terrestrial and spacephysics

VSTO would comprise:• a system which provides virtual access to specific data, model, tool

and material archives containing items from a variety of space- andground-based instruments and experiments, as well as individual andcommunity modeling and software efforts bridging research andeducational use


Concept and user needsIn discussions with data providers and users, the needs are clear:

``Fast access to `portable' data, in a way that workswith the tools we have; information must be easyto access, retrieve and work with.'’

Too often users (and data providers) have to deal with theorganizational structure of the data sets which variessignificantly --- data may be stored at one site in a small numberof large files while similar data may be stored at another site in alarge number of relatively smaller files. There is an equally largeproblem with the range of metadata descriptions for the data.Users often only want subsets of the data and struggle withgetting it efficiently. One user expresses it as:

``(Please) solve the interface problem.''


What’s new in the VSTO?

• Datasets alone are not sufficient to build a virtualobservatory

• VSTO must address the interface problem to bringdata to the users' tools, and to the tools within theVSTO, effectively and scalably

• VSTO will leverage the development of schema (e.gEarth System Grid, VSO/VHO) that adequatelydescribe the syntax (name of a variable, its type,dimensions, etc. or the procedure name andargument list, etc.) and semantics (what the variablephysically is, its units, etc. or what the proceduredoes and returns, etc.) of the datasets and tools.


What’s new in the VSTO?• A Grid-enabled (http://www.globus.org) virtual

observatory minimizes the time to make dataavailable and usable. Data does not have to bemoved or reformatted, only registered with thecatalog. It is then available from the VSTO webportal or the user's preferred application which hasaccess to the VSTO interfaces

• VSTO will address the interdisciplinary metadataand ontology problem - bridging terminology and useof data across disciplines

• Aims to integrate tools, models, and data• A basis for a framework for building and distributing

advanced data assimilation tools


Integration: MLSO

Near real-timedata fromHawaii from avariety of solarinstruments, asa valuablesource forspace weather,solar variabilityand basic solarphysics


Integration: CEDARWEB

Communitydata archive,documents,andsupport.


Integration: VSO query schema

Forms abasis toorganizethecataloginterfacesfor alltypes ofdata,images,etc.


Functionality


Technology: Community Data Portal

Free text search

Applications

Live Access

News

Authentication

THREDDS catalog



THREDDScatalogsare formedinto alogicalhierarchywithsimpletext



Access tometadata ofvarious levels,e.g. DublinCore (shown) inan easy to readand retrieveformat


Technology: Earth System GridDOE/SciDACproject toaddress a verysimilar needin the climatemodelingcommunity;one discipline,model data,one format,many accessinterfaces.


Experience: CEDARWEB

Data query,selection andretrievalinterface,withintegratedtools, e.g.ability to plot(preview) databeforeretrieving it.


Experience: CEDARWEB

Ability to quickly plotdata to assesssuitability, quality,and produce a quickcopy with somecustomization for apreliminary study.


Experience: CEDARWEBCEDARWEB has been developed and improved overmore than 10 years of interaction with users, dataproviders, and a community steering committee. Eachof these elements has directly contributed to changes inwhat services are provided, what information andmaterials are made available via the web site and whatlevels of authorization and authentication are required.

Biggest lesson: we have plenty of technology, so getclose to the people and listen to them to buildsomething that is useful and that will have the longevitywe all seek.


Experience: CEDARWEBDon’t justprovide data,but also buildin communityinformationand ancillaryinformationthat is ofvalue.


Status� Seeking community involvement in:

– Steering committee– User working group– Development of detailed requirements

� Collaborating with ESG to leverage efforts withinthat project

� Collaborating with computer scientists todevelop the ontologies includinginterdisciplinary dictionaries

� Collaborating on efforts in data assimilation toguide the development of data/model interfaces

� Please make contact ([email protected]) for moreinformation

Towards a Virtual Solar- Terrestrial...

Documents

Transcript of Towards a Virtual Solar- Terrestrial...