What’s Inside The Small Box? The Virtual Solar Observatory
Jan 10, 2016
What’s Inside The Small Box?
The Virtual Solar Observatory
The Virtual Solar Observatory
• Goals• Current Status• The “Small Box”
– Data model– Registry & data services schema– Query construction & results engines– API
• Outside the box– Data delivery – shopping cart– Adopter’s kit– Compute services– Interface
Goals
• Make life easier for the solar needle hunters
• Enable large-scale correlative studies – discover new relationships
1. Local helioseismology at a coronal hole boundary
3. Location in an EUV image
4. Solar wind velocity
5. Correlation with stock market (!?)
2. Subsurface flow map
Current data sources
• NASA/GSFC SDAC– SOHO (x. MDI)
• SHA– SOHO/MDI– GONG– TON– MOTH– Mt. Wilson
• NSO– KPVT– SOLIS– FTS
• HAO/MLSO• OVRO• MSU
– Yohkoh
Status
• Version Beta 0.7 available
• About 1000 uses as of June 2004
The Original Small Box
Data Model
• Deliberately simple
• Only 17 elements
• Push complexity into query translators
• Use “nicknames” for common shorthand
Data model elements
• Time– Observation_Time– Duration– Time_Step
• Wavelength– Wave_Type– Wave_Bands– Wave_Minimum– Wave_Maximum – Wave_Step
• Data source– Observatory– Instrument
• Helioseismology– Degree_Minimum– Degree_Maximum– Degree_Step
• Physical_Observable• Space
– Observation_Center_West
– Observation_Center_North
– Bounding_Radius
Some Nicknames
• Images– White-light– Coronagraph– H-alpha– Ca K– He 10830– Na D– Soft X-ray– Hard X-ray– EUV– UV– 10.7 cm– Continuum– Line-Depth
• Magnetograms– Full-disk– LOS– Vector
• Dopplergrams– Full-disk– Na D– Ni 6768– K xxxx
• Synoptic maps– Magnetic– Doppler– Intensity
Registry & Data Services Schema
• In XML
• VSO Registry describes data providers and their holdings at high level
• Data services schema fully detail contents of the local archive
Query Construction & Results Engines
• In Perl
• Driven from web interface:– Creates new web table with further selection
capability
• Or driven via API:– Returns URL of data locations
Now includes HAO/MLSO as well
The API
• Three paths currently available:– Perl with SOAP:Lite– Java using Axis– C or C++ using gSOAP
• Plus a WSDL document describing the API
Outside the box
• Shopping Cart
• Adopter’s kit
• Compute services
• Advanced interface
Data Delivery
• Currently done with existing data provider systems
• Shopping Cart will unify data delivery
• See poster by Suárez-Solá
Adopter’s Kit
• Designed for easy addition of archives
• Lightweight
• Uses Perl
• Requires data service schema
Compute services
• Will be future development path
• Integrate with CoSEC, EGSO, etc.
• Needed to fully realize the potential of VxOs
Interface
• Users want to query data via graphics– Calendars, clocks and movies for time– Drawing tools on images for space– Drawing tools on line plots for wavelength and
time
• No typing!– Pull-down menus– Check boxes, radio buttons, etc.
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Next generation VSO interface mock-up?
Select Date
The people
• Rick Bogart• Alisdair Davey• George Dimitoglou• Joe Gurman• Frank Hill• Joe Hourclé
• Piet Martens• Igor Suárez-Solá• Karen Tian• Steve Wampler• Keiji Yoshimura