The Virtual Solar Observatory - Status and Plans
Abstract
The Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO) is a software environment for searching, obtaining and analyzing data from archives of solar data that are distributed at many different observatories around the world. This "observatory" is virtual since it exists only on the Internet, not as a physical structure. As a research tool, the VSO would enable a new field of correlative statistical solar physics in which large-scale comparative studies spanning many dimensions and data sources could be carried out. Several groups with solar archives have indicated their willingness to particpate as a VSO component. These include NSO (KPVT GONG, and SOLIS); NASA/GSFC SDAC; SOHO; Stanford (SOI/MDI, TON, WSO); Lockheed (TRACE); MSU (Yohkoh); UCLA (Mt. Wilson 150-ft Tower); USC (Mt. Wilson 60-ft Tower); BBSO/NJIT; Arcetri (ARTHEMIS); Meudon; HAO; and CSUN/SFO. The VSO will be implemented so that additional systems can be easily incorporated. The VSO technical concept includes the federation of distributed solar archives, an adaptive metadata thesaurus, a single unified intuitive GUI, context-based searches, and distributed computing. The underlying structure would most likely be constructed using platform-independent tools such as XML and JavaScript. There are several technical challenges facing the VSO development. Issues of security, bandwidth, metadata, and load balancing must be faced. While the VSO is currently in the concept phase, a number of funding opportunities are bing pursued. The status of these proposals and plans for the future will be updated at the meeting.
- Publication:
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AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2001
- Bibcode:
- 2001AGUSM..SP21B02H
- Keywords:
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- 7594 Instruments and techniques