Use of Statistical Estimators as Virtual Observatory Search ParametersEnabling Access to Solar and Planetary Resources through the Virtual Observatory

Abstract:

Finding and retrieving space physics data is often a complicated task
even for publicly available data sets: Thousands of relatively
small and many large data sets are stored in various formats and, in
the better case, accompanied by at least some documentation. Virtual
Heliospheric and Magnetospheric Observatories (VHO and VMO)
help researches by creating a single point of uniform
discovery, access, and use of heliospheric (VHO) and magnetospheric
(VMO) data.

The VMO and VHO functionality relies on metadata expressed using the
SPASE data model. This data model is developed by the SPASE Working
Group which is currently the only international group supporting global
data management for Solar and Space Physics. The two Virtual Observatories
(VxOs) have initiated and lead a development of a SPASE-related standard
named SPASE Query Language for provided a standard way of submitting
queries and receiving results.

The VMO and VHO use SPASE and SPASEQL for searches based on various criteria
such as, for example, spatial location, time of observation, measurement type, parameter values, etc. The parameter values are represented by their statistical
estimators calculated typically over 10-minute intervals: mean, median, 
standard deviation, minimum, and maximum. The use of statistical estimators
enables science driven data queries that simplify and shorten the effort to
find where and/or how often the sought phenomenon is observed,
as we will present.