Engineering topics

Bogart, R.

Publications and source records attributed to Bogart, R..

6 records

NASA NTRS2012

The Virtual Solar Observatory: What Are We Up To Now?

In the nearly ten years of a functional Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO), http://virtualsolar.org/ we have made it possible to query and access sixty-seven distinct solar data products and several event lists from nine spacecraft and fifteen observatories or observing networks. We have used existing VSO technology, and developed new software, for a distributed network of sites caching and serving SDO HMI and/ or AlA data. We have also developed an application programming interface (API) that has enabled VSO search and data access capabilities in IDL, Python, and Java. We also have quite a bit of work yet to do, including completion of the implementation of access to SDO EVE data, and access to some nineteen other data sets from space- and ground-based observatories. In addition, we have been developing a new graphic user interface that will enable the saving of user interface and search preferences. We solicit advice from the community input prioritizing our task list, and adding to it

Gurman, J. B.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Virtual Solar Observatory Distributed Query Construction

Through a prototype implementation (Tian et al., this meeting) the VSO has already demonstrated the capability of unifying geographically distributed data sources following the Web Services paradigm and utilizing mechanisms such as the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). So far, four participating sites (Stanford, Montana State University, National Solar Observatory and the Solar Data Analysis Center) permit Web-accessible, time-based searches that allow browse access to a number of diverse data sets. Our latest work includes the extension of the simple, time-based queries to include numerous other searchable observation parameters. For VSO users, this extended functionality enables more refined searches. For the VSO, it is a proof of concept that more complex, distributed queries can be effectively constructed and that results from heterogeneous, remote sources can be synthesized and presented to users as a single, virtual data product.

Gurman, J. B.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Building a Virtual Solar Observatory: I Look Around and There's a Petabyte Following Me

The 2001 July NASA Senior Review of Sun-Earth Connections missions and data centers directed the Solar Data Analysis Center (SDAC) to proceed in studying and implementing a Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO) to ease the identification of and access to distributed archives of solar data. Any such design (cf. the National Virtual Observatory and NASA's Planetary Data System) consists of three elements: the distributed archives, a "broker" facility that translates metadata from all partner archives into a single standard for searches, and a user interface to allow searching, browsing, and download of data. Three groups are now engaged in a six-month study that will produce a candidate design and implementation roadmap for the VSO. We hope to proceed with the construction of a prototype VSO in US fiscal year 2003, with fuller deployment dependent on community reaction to and use of the capability. We therefore invite as broad as possible public comment and involvement, and invite interested parties to a "birds of a feather" session at this meeting. VSO is partnered with the European Grid of Solar Observations (EGSO), and if successful, we hope to be able to offer the VSO as the basis for the solar component of a Living With a Star data system.

Gurman, J. B.↗

NASA NTRS2002

The Right Amount of Glue: Technologies and Standards Relevant to a Future Solar-Terrestrial Data Environment

In order to meet the challenge of developing a new system science, we will need to employ technology that enables researchers to access data from fields with which they are at least initially unfamiliar as well as from sources they use more regularly. At the same time, the quantity of data to be obtained by missions such as the Solar Dynamics Observatory demands ease and simplicity of data access. These competing demands must in turn fit within severely constrained funding for data analysis in such projects. Based on experience in only a single discipline but with a diversity of data types and sources, we will give examples of technology that have made a significant difference in the way people do science. Similarly, we will show how adoption of a well-documented data format has made it easier for one community to search, reduce, and analyze data. We will also describe a community-supported data reduction and analysis software tree with useful features. We will attempt to generalize the lessons learned in these instances to features the broader, solar-terrestrial community might find compelling, while avoiding overdesign of a common data environment.

Gurman, J. B.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Automated recognition and characterization of solar active regions based on the SOHO/MDI images

The first results of a new method to identify and characterize the various surface structures on the sun, which may contribute to the changes in solar total and spectral irradiance, are shown. The full disk magnetograms (1024 x 1024 pixels) of the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) experiment onboard SOHO are analyzed. Use of a Bayesian inference scheme allows objective, uniform, automated processing of a long sequence of images. The main goal is to identify the solar magnetic features causing irradiance changes. The results presented are based on a pilot time interval of August 1996.

Pap, J. M.↗

NASA NTRS1985

The detection of global convective wave flows on the Sun

Global convective flows in the solar convection zone have been predicted by theoretical interpretations of the global-scale ordering of magnetic fields and activity centers and by theoretical analyses of rotating convection zones. Direct evidence of these flows in the photosphere has not previously been found despite several long-term efforts. The signatures of such flows have now been detected by analyzing the daily series of low-resolution Dopplergrams obtained at the Wilcox Solar Observatory at Stanford University. The signatures are patterns of alternating east and west flows with amplitudes on the order of 25 m/s and longitudinal extent of about 30 degrees. The patterns move across the disc at approximately the solar rotation rate and have lifetimes of at least several rotations. Boundaries of the fast and slow flows are often associated with large magnetic active regions.

Scherrer, P. H.↗