The Science Centered Approach of the Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory

The Virtual Magnetospheric Observatory (VMO) has been established to aid the magnetospheric research community. To fulfill this charge: 1) The VMO must locate, describe and register resources pertinent to magnetospheric research. 2) The VMO must make it as easy as possible to discover and extract those resources which can used to answer a research question. To accomplish the first task the VMO has enlisted active magnetospheric researchers to indentify existing resources and set priorities for their inclusion. These same researchers aid in describing the resources and registering them with the VMO. The VMO uses the Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) standards as a core technology. To accomplish the second task we are engaging researchers to use the system and solicit their feedback. This feedback is used to guide the development of the system and the design of desired improvements. This dialog has been extremely useful in determining the science drivers for the VMO. We discuss the current state of the VMO, data registration schedule, planned improvements, and how the researcher's perspective influences our direction. Current activities related to the addition of value-added services and interaction with resident archives also will be addressed.