Enabling Scientific Research using an Interdisciplinary Virtual Observatory: The Virtual Solar-Terrestrial Observatory Example

ital form in high volumes by many research groups. The need for access to and interoperability between these repositories is growing. Research groups need to access their own increasingly diverse data collections. As investigations begin to include results from many different experiments, researchers also need to access and utilize other research groups’ data repositories in a single discipline or, more interestingly, in multiple disciplines. Also, it is not simply trained scientists who are interested in accessing scientific data; lay people are becoming interested in looking at trends in scientific data as well, for example, when they become engaged in climate discussions. The promise of the true virtual interconnected heterogeneous distributed international data repository is starting to be realized. Many challenges still exist including interoperability and integration between data collections. We are exploring ways of technologically enabling scientific virtual observatories—distributed resources that may contain vast amounts of scientific observational data, theoretical models, and analysis programs and results from a broad range of disciplines. Our goal is to make these repositories appear as if they are one integrated local resource, while realizing that the information is collected by many research groups, using a multitude of instruments with varying instrument settings in multiple experiments with different goals, and captured in a wide range of formats. Initially our focus is on trained scientists. Our ultimate goal is to proArticles