AAS 204: 52.04

The Virtual Solar Observatory

Richard S. Bogart

Stanford University

Abstract

The Virtual Solar Observatory is a lightweight system integrating the search and request functions of multiple solar data archives. It includes a data registry with which archives describe their capabilities and data holdings in very general terms; a prescribed protocol for communicating queries to and query results from each archive; a data model and API for construction of generalized searches and data requests (still to be refined); and sample user interfaces. With the exception of the small data registry, all VSO functions and services are designed to be fully distributed. The VSO has been implemented initially with four archives: the Solar Data Analysis Center at NASA-GSFC, the Digital Library of the National Solar Observatory, the Stanford Helioseismology Archive, and the Yohkoh data archive of Montana State University. It is designed to be easily extensible, with no special database requirements on the servers. Incorporation of additional data archives is now underway.

Monday, 24-May-2004 15:21:42 PDT