The Virtual Radiation Belt Observatory (ViRBO) and the

Future of the VxO Environment

R.S. WeigelDepartment of Computational and

Data SciencesGeorge Mason University, Fairfax, VA

AbstractViRBO (http://virbo.org/) is one of the domain-specific virtual observatories that began operations in Fall, 2006 and is funded under the NASA Heliophysics Data Environment program. This presentation will cover three topics: (1) the data products available or exposed through ViRBO, (2) our experience in developing a VxO over the past three years, and (3) our perspectives and predictions about the future of the VxO Environment based on this experience. Data available through ViRBO include measurements from the SAMPEX, GOES, POES, LANL GEO, Polar, and GPS satellites. A number of new data sets, not previously openly available, include measurements from the HEO-1, HEO-3, CRRES, SCATHA, OV1-19, OV3-3, ICO, and S3-3 spacecraft along with scientist-contributed model and simulation data. Data are served in a number of ways, including a basic FTP site and an OPeNDAP server. As part of this project, we have developed or extended a number of existing software codebases. These codebases have cross-VxO uses, and we are developing them to be usable by other virtual observatories.

Outline

•Goal of VO effort•Motivation for VO approach•What needs to be done•Keys to success•ViRBO data and status•ViRBO projects

Goal of VO effort• “VOs should make ‘standard’ scientific research

much more efficient.”  [Roberts et al., 2005]

• Rate of science output must keep up with rate of potential science output given amount of available data

• The framework which is used must allow for this

• Requires improvements in:search interfacesanalysis visualizationaccess communication

• … all parts of the chain from instrument or model output to end user must continuously improve.

More ambitious goal

• Ultimately VOs and associated services should enable us to answer “higher-order” queries such as “Show me the data from cases where a large CME and its effects that was observed by SOHO was also observed in situ in the heliosphere, in the Earth's magnetotail, and in responses in the magnetospheres and ionospheres of any planets.” 

Roberts et al, 2005 [http://hpde.gsfc.nasa.gov/VO_Framework_7_Jan_05.html]

Other goals

• … “If the new paradigm is successful, even the PI teams should be tempted to use VOs for looking at their own data.” 

Required Steps

1. Describe the data in a standard format (SPASE)

2. Create services3. Connect services

Introduction: Motivation

•The modern web at home•The modern web at work now•The modern web at work

soon–Brought to you by VO activities

The modern web at home

•Key points–Finding data from many sources

–Finding associated “metadata”–Browsing data–Saving data–Few limitations

The modern web at work

• Key points– It is easy to create a basic interface to

your data base.– Not many well-developed tools exist that

allow you to put your data into a more generally useful form or to serve your data in a more standard way.

– Such tools need to be easier to implement than creating your own basic interface.

Example

The modern web at work soon

Specialization is needed

Keys to success

•Everything should be viewed as a service

•Importance of the Open Source Development Model–How does it evolve?

• Allow for incremental and continuous improvements?

• Leveraging community resources?

Needed Services, Tools, and Roles

• Metadata– Creators– Standard– Query– Edit– Management

• Data– Creators– Ingestion service (with

versioning!)

• Data Base– API– General– Mass store and backup– Fast Cache (Content

delivery service)– Filter service

• Visualization– Pre-computed– Static and on demand– Interactive and

dynamic

• http://groups.google.com/group/vxo-developer/web/discussion-of-mcpherrons-2008-agu-talk?hl=en

How it (should?) work

BasicDB

MassStore &Backup

API

Service

Data base

LoggingService

DataAPI

Filter Service

ContentDeliveryService

IngestService &API

Softwareinterface

How it (should?) work

BasicDB

MassStore &Backup

API and software

Service

Data base

LoggingService

DataAPI

Filter Service

ContentDeliveryService

IngestService &API

Softwareinterface

How it (should?) work

BasicDB

MassStore &Backup

API

Service

Data base

LoggingService

DataAPI

Filter Service

ContentDeliveryService

IngestService &API

Softwareinterface

How it (should?) work

BasicDB

MassStore &Backup

API

Service

Data base

LoggingService

DataAPI

Filter Service

ContentDeliveryService

IngestService &API

Softwareinterface

How it (should?) work

BasicDB

MassStore &Backup

API

Service

Data base

LoggingService

DataAPI

Filter Service

ContentDeliveryService

IngestService &API

Softwareinterface

How it (should?) work

BasicDB

MassStore &Backup

API

Service

Data base

LoggingService

DataAPI

Filter Service

ContentDeliveryService

IngestService &API

Softwareinterface

How it (should?) work

BasicDB

MassStore &Backup

API

Service

Data base

LoggingService

DataAPI

Filter Service

ContentDeliveryService

IngestService &API

Softwareinterface

How it (should?) work

BasicDB

MassStore &Backup

API

Service

Data base

LoggingService

DataAPI

Filter Service

ContentDeliveryService

IngestService &API

Softwareinterface

How it (should?) work

BasicDB

MassStore &Backup

API

Service

Data base

LoggingService

DataAPI

Filter Service

ContentDeliveryService

IngestService &API

Softwareinterface

Role of the VO PI• Squeeze: Work with their community

(“x”) to squeeze out more data (instrument and model)

• Teach: Work with their community to improve metadata

• Plumb: Connect existing services to meet their communities modern research needs

• Request: Make requests to existing services to meet new community needs

ViRBO Data

•Breaking the VxO paradigm in many ways

•Improved high-level tools and services are fine, but first– Increase data accessibility– Increase in available data

ViRBO Projects

•VxOware•Autoplot•Time Series Server

VxOware

Motivation

(GIT)

Proposed Solution

Role of VxOware

(GIT)

Autoplot

Has three parts that will be separated into three stand-alone libraries

1. AggregatorKnows how to ingest data from many data bases into an intermediate form.

2. Java API3. User interface

BasicDB

MassStore &Backup

API

Service

Data base

LoggingService

DataAPI

Filter Service

ContentDeliveryService

IngestService &API

SoftwareinterfaceAggregator

Java API

Autoplot

• User Interface– Servlet– Applet– WebStart

• Aggregator– Knows how to ingest data from many

data bases into an intermediate form.

Aggregation

Time Series Server

BasicDB

MassStore &Backup

API

Service

Data base

LoggingService

DataAPI

Filter Service

ContentDeliveryService

IngestService &API

Softwareinterface

Time Series Server

• Leverages OPeNDAP software and protocols.

• Typical data types– Time series– Image– 3-D simulation output

Future development

• Identify redundancies• Take best or combine• Propose new software projects that

solve a clearly defined problem and have several VxOs interested in its use

• Propose new data products that have a clear demand from a VxO’s community

Some missing pieces

• Attribution service• Connect SPASE to NASA/ADS• Usage service• Filter service• Ingest service• 3-D plotting service and software• 3-D interpolation service and

software• Others?

Questions?

Example 1