Global Auroral Imaging Access GAIA

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Global Auroral Imaging Access(GAIA)?
Steve Marple with thanks to Eric Donovan, Mikko
Syrjaesuo, Emma Spanswick, Brian Jackel and
Farideh Honary
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Aims of GAIA

• Quick and scientifically meaningful access to
  data
• Integrate data from worldwide networks of optical
  instruments and riometers
• Ion and electron precipitation measurements
• Contribute to the evolving geospace data
  environment
• Allow other services (SuperVOs) to interact with
  GAIA

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GAIA Datasets?

• All-sky camera data
• MIRACLE, NORSTAR, OMTI, THEMIS
• Meridian-scanning photometer data
• NORSTAR
• Riometer data
• Lancaster University, University of Maryland,
  CANOPUS, NRCAN
• Satellite data
• IMAGE, Polar UVI
• Significant proportion of all camera and riometer
  data

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GAIA Philospohy

• Well defined (limited) set of data types
• REST (Representational State Transfer) used to
  access GAIA services
• Simple, low level access
• Based on well-known HTTP GET / POST actions

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GAIA Implementation

• Web user interface
• A database containing details of what data is
  available and how it is to be accessed
• A number of distributed GAIA nodes contain the
  actual summary data
• Nodes provide access/information to client and
  other virtual observatories via web services

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GAIA Database

• Source of all knowledge for data with GAIA
• Datasets
• Data locations / access methods
• Contact details for people
• Rules of the road for datasets
• Details on GAIA nodes
• ...

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Mirror vs. Node

• A mirror would be a complete copy, including both
  the database and summary data sets
• Unrealistic to assume everyone has the facilities
  (or inclination) to store all datasets
• GAIA uses nodes where only the database is
  mirrored
• The databases are identical at all nodes
• The summary datasets can/will be different, the
  database indicates where to look for the data

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Data is accessed from the closest source
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Use of mirrored data sets
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Database replication?

• All nodes require an up to date copy of the
  database
• Assumptions
• Only the master node modifies the database
• Nodes are located over slow and unreliable
  network connections
• GAIA administrators will not have access to other
  nodes
• May need to change which node is the designated
  master
• OTS solutions unsuitable, our custom
  implementation uses pg_dump and rsync

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Overview mode
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Detailed view
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GAIA Features (1)

• Web services, defines public access to data
• Enables other systems to use GAIA
• Client-side processing
• Scales better for many users
• Enables offline browser (experimental)
• Multiple nodes (not mirrors!)?
• More tolerant of network failures
• Capability to support mirrored datasets
• Viewer uses redundancy to work around network
  failures

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GAIA Features (2)?

• Viewer has builtin movie player
• No plugins required for the viewer, only HTML,
  CSS and JavaScript
• Image orientation options
• Data availability maps
• Database replication tools
• Installation scripts
• Maintenance tools

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Off-line Browsing Mode

• Standard GAIA browser requires network access
• Not convenient when travelling
• Off-line browser provides access to most features
• Requires summary data to be stored locally
• Made possible by client-side processing

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GAIAGlobal Auroral Imaging Access

• http//gaia-vxo.org
• Experimental v2 system
• http//calgary.canada.gaia-vxo.org