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.

BB Hα

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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