SPDF Science Advisory Group - September 29-30, 2005

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Services of the Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) / Sun-Earth Connection Active Archive (SECAA)

and the THEMIS Mission

Robert E. McGuireSPDF/Code 612.4, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt MD 20771

SPDF Science Advisory Group - September 29-30, 2005

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Major SECAA Services Today Relevant to THEMIS Science - 1

• Common Data Format (CDF)- Built on multi-dimensional conceptual view of data

> Highly flexible, efficient file storage, high-performance data retrieval (hyperputs/gets), > Supports various modes of internal compression

- Data Translation Web Service (DTWS) now available

• SSCWeb- Multi-mission orbits for coordinated science planning and retrospective analysis

> Listing & display in mapped coordinates and by regions of geophysical space– Plus 3-D interactive displays

> Time spans of region and magnetic conjunctions– Both spacecraft-spacecraft and with ground stations

- Includes all recent satellites of S3C interest (33+) and many ground stations

• CDAWeb- Simultaneous data from most instruments on most current (non-solar) S3C NASA and

related missions 1992-2005> Plus various ground-based experiments, selected holdings from some older missions

- Easy data browse and display, user-specified time and parameter subsets with graphics, listings, file downloads

SPDF Science Advisory Group - September 29-30, 2005

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TIMED data on CDAWeb

SPDF Science Advisory Group - September 29-30, 2005

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Major SECAA Services Today Relevant to THEMIS Science -2

• Web Service Interfaces- API for Internet access to our working services from other software packages

> Query capability to determine valid inputs and receive status messages- Foundation for our capability to serve middleware such as VxOs and new applications

• CDAWeb Plus- CDAWeb-like Java client built on extended CDAS web services- Enables unified view of SECAA’s data and services to the level of each service

> Pointers, combined file downloads, graphics and subsets

• Software- CDF- CDAWLib and CDFX, CDAWeb - Translators - SkeletonEditor, MakeCDF

• CDF and essentially all the above codes are Open Source under NOSA license

SPDF Science Advisory Group - September 29-30, 2005

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CDF Current Status (details for breakout)

• CDF 3.1 - Development underway. Schedule for release in January 2006- Main features

> Easy-to-use Standard Interface C & Fortran routines for zVariables (instead of Internal Interface)> Option for CDFs compatible with CDF 2.7 or earlier releases (via environment variable or API)

• 64-bit CDF included in IDL 6.2 for AMD64 is not working properly- Fix will be included in the next IDL release (6.3), currently scheduled for late 1Q, 2006- Working 64-bit CDF available at http://cdf/html/idl62_amd64_problems.html

• CDF News- Next IDL release (6.3) scheduled for release in late 1Q, 2006

> Will include the latest CDF library (Version 3.1)- Matlab will support CDF 3.1 in about 6 months

• Data Translation Web Service (DTWS)- Web client available at http://translators.gsfc.nasa.gov- Allows to translate one or more local and/or remote files (up to 10 files at a time)- Can be called within applications (see http://cdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/html/dtws.html for details)- Individual data translators (both source and binary) are available at

http://cdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/html/dtws.html

SPDF Science Advisory Group - September 29-30, 2005

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SPDF/SECAA Services are Used by the Community

• Figure represents system executions (not just web “hits”)

• Another metric is the number of distinct users (or distinct IP addresses) executing services- Most easily available for CDAWeb, e.g. period July 1, 2004- June 30, 2005- ~290 distinct addresses made >100 requests during the year, ~1300 distinct addresses made >10 requests

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How Can SECAA Contribute to the THEMIS Science Effort?

• THEMIS is using CDF as a base for its ground processing- I hope to talk about details, progress, needs in the afternoon breakouts- Is CDF support needed for other format translations, in other s/w packages?

• We plan to add the THEMIS spacecraft orbits to SSCWeb when launched- I hope to talk about mechanics of getting orbit data in the afternoon breakouts- Are there new orbit graphics or models needed for THEMIS support?- Are there predictive orbits that would be useful or interesting in SSCWeb sooner?

• Data we now serve via Web Services is available for THEMIS to build from

• We would be pleased to serve appropriate THEMIS in e.g. CDAWeb- To add complementary value and increase usefulness of THEMIS data

> Make data available through web services (SOAP, REST) as well as FTP, HTTP> To better enable science use of THEMIS data in context of data from other missions> THEMIS adds to the science utility of the combined data collection

- Work with THEMIS group to set up appropriate/complementary graphics (cf. TIMED)- Are there other housekeeping (cf. IMAGE), ground or other data needs?

• Open to discuss alternative/different approaches and other needs- E.g. more distributed technical solutions and other partnering