The following article includes these sections:
Introduction
Ulysses Science Investigations
The Prime and Extended Missions
Data Availability and Accessibility
Related References
Table 1: Ulysses Experiments and Principal Investigators
Table 2: NSSDC Data System Access for Ulysses Interplanetary Data Sets
Figure 1: Data Coverage of Ulysses Interplanetary Data Sets
Appendix A: Ulysses Data and Information Sites on the Internet
Appendix B: Ulysses Data Archiving - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The 36th Ulysses Science Working Team meeting was held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, on November 11-14, 1996. Because of the international scope of the Ulysses mission, two such meetings are held each year, one in the U.S. and the other in Europe. Attendees include the Ulysses principal investigators (PIs), various other investigators affiliated with one or more experiments, the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA project scientists and managers, NASA Headquarters staff, and representatives from mission support elements including spacecraft operations, JPL's Deep Space Network (DSN), the Ulysses Data Management Team (DMT), and the NASA and ESA data archives (including NSSDC). The project scientist and management staff normally meet just prior to the general science meeting to set the meeting agenda and to discuss critical issues to be addressed with the investigation teams.
The purpose of the SWT meetings, held now over 12 years including six years since the Ulysses launch on October 6, 1990, has been to provide periodic updates to the science teams on the operational status of the spacecraft, to allow the investigators to report the individual status of their own instruments, science results, and data archiving activities, to define and report results of any action items needed to satisfy current or future needs of the project or individual science teams, and to plan future joint activities such as workshops associated with special mission events (e.g., pass over solar pole), special publications, and Ulysses-related sessions at conferences.
A representative of NSSDC has usually been invited to such meetings by project management to report on the status of Ulysses data archiving, which is a requirement jointly made by NASA and ESA on all Ulysses principal investigators for reduced and analyzed data from their respective experiments. Increased importance is now assigned by NASA management to archiving as a criterion for selection of and continued support for science investigations teams on NASA space science missions. As described below, the NSSDC report summarized archival data submissions to date from each investigation and also provided details on how to access the data through NSSDC's various on-line, near-line, and off-line data systems. A complete list (see Appendix A) of current Ulysses-related Web sites for access to Ulysses data and information was also provided along with answers to frequently asked questions (see Appendix B) about NASA data archiving for Ulysses. In general the progress of most Ulysses science teams in archiving has been excellent with most having already submitted data to NSSDC through September 1995 or later, the end of the first six-year orbit and, therefore, of the prime mission. As discussed below, NASA and ESA have already approved an extended mission for the next six-year solar orbit through 2001, and the feasibility of further extension to a third orbit is now under discussion.
Ulysses Science Investigations
The names and principal investigators of the Ulysses science experiments are listed in Table 1; the "NSSDC ID" indicates how each experiment is indexed in the NSSDC Master Catalog with respect to information on the experiment and data sets archived at NSSDC. Changes of PIs in recent years include Dave McComas replacing John Phillips (who has now joined the NASA astronaut corps) of Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Solar Wind Observations Over the Poles (SWOOPS), Bruce McKibben replacing John Simpson of the University of Chicago for the Cosmic Ray and Solar Particle Investigation (COSPIN), and Bob MacDowall replacing Bob Stone of NASA GSFC for the Unified Radio and Plasma Wave Experiment (URAP). Ed Massey of JPL also recently replaced Willis Weeks as NASA project manager for Ulysses, and Joe Springer has replaced John Johnson as head of the Ulysses Data Management Team at JPL. A few years ago John F. Cooper replaced Susan Kayser at NSSDC as Ulysses acquisition scientist; she had previously been active for many years in pre- and post-launch planning of Ulysses data archiving activities and played a key role in development and implementation of Ulysses data archiving plans.
Principal science objectives of the primary Ulysses mission have been to provide a full latitude scan of in-situ measurements for solar wind magnetic fields, plasma flows and composition, energetic particles, and radio and plasma wave emissions during the descending phase of solar activity (1992-1995) after the Jupiter flyby in February 1992, which swung the spacecraft out of the Ecliptic into its present heliocentric, high-inclination polar orbit with a period of 6.2 years. En route to Jupiter Ulysses experiments measured the interplanetary environment near the Ecliptic during maximum solar activity. At Jupiter most of the on-board experiments returned highly useful science data on the magnetospheric environment, though some experiments could not be fully operated because of the intense trapped radiation near closest approach to Jupiter near the planetocentric orbit of the Jovian satellite Io. Unlike previous Jovian flybys by the Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, Ulysses high inclination departure trajectory afforded a unique opportunity to explore the high latitude region of Jupiter's magnetosphere. Overview papers for collections of science papers published for various phases of the Ulysses mission thus far are listed in the "Related References" section below.
Because of the unique nature of the Ulysses solar orbit and many years of observations of the Sun's complex magnetic field and coronal plasma (e.g., coronal holes) structures, the Ulysses solar wind magnetic field and plasma data observations were expected to be of high interest. With increasing heliolatitude towards the south and north poles the observed solar wind magnetic field departed significantly from the classical "Parker spiral" configuration with more tightly wound spiral directions at high latitudes and relative constancy of the radial component at all latitudes, perhaps indicative of increasing importance of strong tranverse (Alfvenic) field fluctuations found over the polar coronal holes. The solar wind flows measured by the SWOOPS and the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) experiments (see Table 1) were found to be well-ordered with relatively slow flow speeds (400 km/s) near the Ecliptic, highly variable corotating flow streams at 400-800 km/s in the mid-latitude coronal streamer region up to 35 degrees heliolatitude, and fast but constant flows near 800 km/s at higher latitudes including over the solar poles above 70 degrees. Composition ratios ions of different nuclear and atomic charge states for solar wind plasma ions measured by SWICS were consistent with higher "freezing-in" electron temperatures in the solar corona (i.e., the site of solar wind acceleration) as measured in the low to mid-latitude coronal streamer region and compared to lower such temperatures in the quiet solar wind flows at higher latitudes from the polar coronal holes.
Prior to the Ulysses solar passes many cosmic ray theorists generally expected that the fluxes of galactic cosmic ray nuclei entering the solar system from outside the heliosphere would be considerably enhanced over the poles, where solar magnetic field lines were thought to extend straight out, such that cosmic rays would not need to diffuse far across the field lines as would otherwise be required near the Ecliptic, to enter the inner solar system and reach Ulysses but instead follow shorter and faster paths along the polar field lines. However, high energy cosmic ray nuclei, accelerated either in the outer heliosphere up to ~ 100 MeV/nucleon or at higher energies by galactic sources outside the solar system, were measured by COSPIN and showed much less overall variation with latitude as compared to theory-based predictions. Another highly surprising result was that the cosmic ray particles, observed by all the particle experiments at keV to GeV energies, continued to show 26-day variations even after the corresponding magnetic field and plasma variations, always present below 35 degrees, disappeared completely at higher latitudes above 55 degrees, perhaps indicative of latitude-dependent modulation effects associated with enhanced magnetic turbulence, or connection along non-Parker-aligned magnetic field lines "drooping" during outward motion towards corotating interaction regions at lower latitudes. The Heliosphere Instrument for Spectra, Composition, and Anisotropy at Low Energies (HISCALE) investigation reported significant periodic variations at multiple frequencies in energetic particle intensities, challenging the assumption that coronal structures convecting away from the Sun evolve stochastically with little memory of granular motions and other large scale oscillations of emerging magnetic flux at the solar surface.
Other experiments included measurements of interplanetary dust, solar X-rays and celestial gamma ray bursts, and interstellar neutral gas. Radio science experiments have been used to measure electron densities in the solar corona and to search for gravitational waves. Various interdisciplinary investigations have been in progress to model data from one or more Ulysses experiments and to coordinate observations with other missions such as SPARTAN, YOHKOH, WIND, and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).
The Prime and Extended Missions
The prime Ulysses mission concluded last September and consisted of in-ecliptic measurements of the interplanetary space from 1 A.U. out to Jupiter, encountered in late January to mid-February of 1992, after which the spacecraft was swung by Jupiter gravity assist into its present, highly-inclined heliocentric orbit. A total of 234 days has been spent in polar passes, defined to be above 70 degrees heliographic latitude. The first polar pass occurred over the southern solar pole from June 26, 1994, to November 5, 1994 (maximum heliolatitude of 80.2 degrees in mid-September), followed by a fast latitude scan through the Ecliptic toward northern solar latitudes. The northern polar pass began on about June 20, 1995, nearly one year after the southern pass and ended with the conclusion of the first solar orbit and the prime mission on September 29, 1995.
Mission operations are planned to continue at least through the second solar orbit with polar passes in September 2000 to January 2001 (south) and September to December 2001 (north). A principal justification for extension beyond the prime mission is that solar wind and energetic particles could be observed again at high heliolatitudes during the solar maximum and reversal of polar magnetic fields at that time; the polar passes of 1994-1995 took place during minimum activity in Solar Cycle 22, when the coronal fields and plasma near the poles had much simpler structures than would be expected near solar maximum. Current availability of solar corona and in-situ plasma and energetic particle data from the WIND, SOHO and Interplanetary Monitoring Platform (IMP) spacecraft, followed in August 1997 by the launch of the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), also into an L1 orbit, will provide the opportunity for coordinated observations relevant to Sun-Earth connections, solar-terrestrial physics, and space weather modeling.
Although on-board electrical power for spacecraft systems and experiments from the Radioisotope Thermal Generator (RTG) units decline slowly over time, past experience indicates that these units can have operational lifetimes in space exceeding 20 years (e.g., Pioneer and Voyager missions to the outer heliosphere) and projected for Voyager 1 and 2 to be at least 35 years. A greater concern is conservation of hydrazine gas for continued usage of attitude control thrusters, needed to maintain proper spacecraft attitude for communications with Earth, but reports at the SWT meeting projected more than enough gas for the second orbit with plenty left over for possible (but not yet operationally approved) continuation to a full third orbit. After 2001 the ever declining RTG power would eventually require on-off cycling of some non-critical spacecraft systems and selected experiments to maintain safe operation margins.
Interestingly, the NASA project scientist for Ulysses, Ed Smith of JPL, reported at the SWT meeting that the third orbit would take Ulysses again just within 1700 Jupiter radii (0.8 A.U.) of Jupiter during aphelion crossing of the Ecliptic, close enough to once again monitor the ten-hour (planetary rotation period) variations of energetic electrons escaping from the huge magnetosphere into nearby interplanetary space. As discussed by Bob MacDowall of Goddard Space Flight Center, PI for the Unified Radio and Plasma Wave (URAP) experiment (see Table 1), the high latitude approach and departure in jovicentric coordinates would enable unique measurements to be made of radio emissions from the polar auroral zone. Solar polar passes during 2006 - 2007 would have the advantage for fields and particles investigations of occurring during a different phase of the Sun's 22-year magnetic cycle, during which coronal magnetic fields, imbedded into out-going solar wind plasma from the solar poles, reverse polarity every 11 years during solar maximum.
Kevin Hurley of UC-Berkeley, PI for the Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) experiment, also noted that continued operations into the next decade would provide long baselines in the solar system for timing of celestial gamma ray bursts, times of burst arrival at widely separated multiple (e.g., Ulysses vs. Earth-orbiting) spacecraft being used to determine the approximate celestial directions of arrival for correlation to known sources. The recent loss of the Russian Mars-96 spacecraft, which carried another of Hurley's gamma ray experiments meant to expand the present solar system network for burst studies, may provide a further argument for continuation of Ulysses to a third solar orbit. Such an instrument is not carried by either of the two NASA spacecraft now en route to Mars.
Data Availability and Accessibility
For Ulysses the archiving requirement has been defined in the Ulysses Science Data Management Plan, approved by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) in November 1994. This plan grants first publication rights to PIs for one year after receipt of processed telemetry data for their experiments and further specifies that data are to be submitted within two years to the appropriate archive. The current general goal of the Ulysses project is to complete submissions of data sets already defined by each investigation up through at least the end of the first solar orbit, and this has now been almost or fully achieved (see Figure 1) for many of the interplanetary data sets extending through June to December 1995, well within the one-to-two-year nominal window for submission of initial science data to NSSDC. Ulysses data will of course continue to be archived as received throughout the remainder of the extended mission and beyond.
Ulysses data are received at NSSDC, archived, and staged to users by a wide variety of on-line and near-line data systems and via various off-line media (e.g., magnetic and digital tape, diskettes, compact disk, paper listings and and documents, microfiche, etc.). Table 2 lists the experiments, data set title descriptions, and accessible data systems corresponding to the data set coverages shown in Figure 1. The data system designations are as follows: FTP -- Coordinated Heliospheric Observatory (COHO) directory at NSSDC Anonymous FTP site, COHOWeb -- graphical browse and retrieval of selected hourly solar wind data via service on the World Wide Web, SPyCAT -- Space Physics Catalog for selection of high (and some lower) resolution data on the near-line NASA Data Archive and Distribution Service (NDADS), and "off-line," which requires manual request via telephone, E-mail, or regular mail to NSSDC's Coordinated Request User Support Office (CRUSO). On-line access locations for these on-line and near-line archives are defined in Appendix A, and the CRUSO address information is given in Appendix B.
On the Web the primary contact point at NSSDC for information and data from Ulysses is the Ulysses flight project home page listed in Appendix A. This site links the user to all on-line information about the spacecraft, experiments, and archived data sets in the NSSDC Master Catalog, also including names and addresses for key people working on Ulysses at NASA Headquarters, the ESA and NASA Ulysses project offices, and with the investigator teams as PIs or Co-Investigators (Co-Is). All NSSDC data systems providing direct access, on-line or near-line, to Ulysses data can be reached through this page, which also includes links to most of the project and investigation team sites in Appendix A.
Highly abbreviated information on Ulysses data sets and their locations may also be found at the new Space Physics Data Availability site (Appendix A) maintained by the Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF), a Goddard organization closely affiliated to NSSDC as part of the Space Science Data Operations Office (SSDOO) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). This data base is used by NSSDC staff and data providers to update information to the space physics community and to NASA management, on data holdings at NSSDC, at other archives, and at investigator sites for experiments on (mostly) active missions of high interest to that community. Data set information is entered initially either by NSSDC staff or data providers, and the PIs from each experiment are requested to certify their own information on line.
Another important new resource for those interested in Ulysses and other interplanetary data is the NSSDC-developed Cosmic and Heliospheric (C&H) pages and services node of the Space Physics Data System (SPDS). The C&H node is intended to link users to all principal Web sites in the discipline. These sites are sorted into four general categories including subdiscipline, site name, institution, and spacecraft. The user can also elect to look for a site by a general keyword search.
An artist's conception of Ulysses in a polar orbit around the Sun
An artist's conception of Ulysses passing Jupiter
Wenzel, K.-P., R. G. Marsden, D. E. Page, and E. J. Smith, "The Ulysses Mission," Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 92, 207 (1992).
Wenzel, K.-P., and E. J. Smith, "The Ulysses Mission: In-Ecliptic Phase," Geophys. Res. Lett. 19, 1235 (1992).
Smith, E. J., and K.-P. Wenzel, "Introduction to the Ulysses Encounter with Jupiter," J. Geophys. Res. 98, 21, 111 (1993).
Marsden, R. G. (ed.), "The High Latitude Heliosphere, Proc. of the 28th ESLAB Symposium," Space Sci. Rev. 72 (1995).
Smith, E. J., R. G. Marsden, and D. E. Page, "Ulysses Above the Sun's South Pole: An Introduction," Science, 268, 19 May (1995).
Cooper, J. F., J. H. King, G. J. Mathews, R. E. McGuire, N. E. Papitashvili, R. Parthasarathy, and S. S. Towheed, "Internet Access to NASA's OMNI and COHO Data Bases for Interplanetary Missions," Proceedings of 24th Intern. Cosmic Ray Conf., Rome, 4, 1295, 1995.
Marsden, R. G., E. J. Smith, J. F. Cooper, and C. Tranquille, "Ulysses at High Heliographic Latitudes: An Introduction," Astron. Astrophys., 316(2), Dec. (II), in press, 1996.
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Table 1: Ulysses Experiments and Principal Investigators
NSSDC ID # Experiment Name (Abbreviation) Principal Investigator
(Institution)
90-090B-01 Solar X-Ray/Cosmic Gamma Ray K. C. Hurley
Burst Experiment (GRB) (University of California-Berkeley)
90-090B-02 Cosmic Ray and Solar Particle R. B. McKibben
Investigation (COSPIN) (University of Chicago)
90-090B-03 Heliosphere Instrument for L. J. Lanzerotti
Spectra, Composition, and (Bell Laboratories)
Anisotropy at Low Energies
(HISCALE)
90-090B-04 Solar Wind Ion Composition J. Geiss
Spectrometer (SWICS) (University of Bern)
G. Gloeckler
(University of Maryland)
90-090B-05 Solar Wind Observations Over D. J. McComas
the Poles (SWOOPS) Experiment (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
90-090B-06 Unified Radio and Plasma Wave R. J. MacDowall
Experiment (URAP) (NASA GSFC)
90-090B-07 Dust Experiment (DUST) E. Gruen
(MPI-Kernphysik, Germany)
90-090B-08 Magnetometer Experiment A. Balogh
(VHM/FGM) (Imperial College-London, UK)
90-090B-10 Coronal Sounding Experiment M. Bird
(SCE) (University of Bonn, Germany)
90-090B-11 Gravitational Wave Experiment B. Bertotti
(GWE) (University of Pavia, Italy)
90-090B-12 Energetic Particle Composition E. Keppler
Experiment (EPAC) and the (IMP-Aeronomie, Germany)
Interstellar Neutral Gas
Experiment (GAS)
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Table 2: NSSDC Data System Access for Ulysses Interplanetary Data Sets
Experiment Data Set Description Data System
VHM/FGM 1-Min. Avg. Magnetic Field - RTN Coord. SPyCAT/FTP
VHM/FGM 1-Hour Avg. Magnetic Field - RTN Coord. COHOWeb/SPyCAT/FTP
SWOOPS 1-Hour Avg. Solar Wind Ions COHOWeb/SPyCAT/FTP
SWOOPS High Resolution Solar Wind Ions SPyCAT/FTP
SWOOPS High Resolution Solar Wind Electrons SpyCAT/FTP
SWICS 3.5-Hour Avg. Solar Wind Composition FTP
COSPIN 10-Min. Avg. Fluxes or Counting Rates
Anisotropy Telescope (AT) FTP
High Energy Telescope (HET) FTP
High Flux Telescope (HFT) FTP
Electron Telescope (KET) FTP
Low Energy Telescope (LET) FTP
EPAC 1-Hour Avg. Energetic Particle Fluxes FTP
HISCALE 1-Hour Avg. Spin-Averaged Rates FTP
HISCALE 1-Hour Avg. Sectored Rates FTP
HISCALE Ion and Electron Anisotropy Plots Off-line
HISCALE HISCALE Data Analysis Handbook Off-line
URAP 3-Hour Summary Plots on Microfiche Off-line
URAP Daily Summary Plots - PostScript Files SPyCAT/FTP
URAP 10-Min. Avg. and Peak Intensity - PFR, SPyCAT/FTP
RAR, WFA-B, and WFA-B
URAP 144-Sec. Average Intensity - RAR SPyCAT/FTP
GRB 0.5-Sec. Integral Omnidir. Count Rates Off-line
DUST Dust Particle Detections: 1990-1992 FTP
PROJECT SEDR Spacecraft Ephemeris Coord. FTP
NSSDC Satellite Situation Center (SSC)
Daily Heliocentric Spacecraft Coord. FTP
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Figure 1. Date Coverage of Ulysses Interplanetary Data Sets
Click to view chart.
VHM-FGM_1-MIN_RTN 1990-10-25 1995-06-30 1990 298 1995 181
VHM-FGM_1-HOUR_RTN 1990-10-25 1995-06-30 1990 298 1995 181
SWOOPS/ION_1-HOUR 1990-11-18 1995-07-01 1990 322 1995 182
SWOOPS/ION_HI-RES 1990-11-18 1995-07-01 1990 322 1995 182
SWOOPS/ELE_HI-RES 1990-11-18 1995-07-02 1990 322 1995 183
SWICS_3.5-HOUR 1990-12-07 1995-12-31 1990 341 1995 365
COSPIN/AT_10-MIN 1991-01-01 1993-12-31 1991 001 1995 365
COSPIN/HET_10-MIN 1990-10-23 1995-12-31 1990 296 1995 365
COSPIN/HFT_10-MIN 1990-10-23 1994-08-31 1990 296 1994 243
COSPIN/KET_10-MIN 1990-10-23 1994-12-31 1990 296 1994 365
COSPIN/LET_10-MIN 1990-10-23 1995-12-31 1990 296 1995 365
EPAC_1-HOUR 1990-10-19 1994-12-31 1990 292 1994 365
HISCALE_1-HOUR 1990-11-14 1995-12-31 1990 318 1995 365
HISCALE_Plots 1990-10-29 1994-09-02 1990 302 1994 245
URAP_FICHE_PLOTS 1990-11-05 1995-11-30 1990 309 1995 334
URAP_PS_PLOTS 1990-11-03 1995-12-31 1990 307 1995 365
URAP_10-MIN 1990-11-03 1995-12-31 1990 307 1995 365
URAP/RAR_144-SEC 1990-11-03 1995-12-31 1990 307 1995 365
GRB_0.5-SEC 1990-10-29 1995-06-30 1990 302 1995 181
DUST_PARTICLE_LIST 1990-10-28 1992-12-29 1990 301 1992 364
ULYSSES_SEDR_TRAJ 1990-10-19 1996-07-31 1990 292 1996 213
SSC_TRAJ_24-HOUR 1990-10-19 2005-12-31 1990 292 2005 365
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Appendix A: Ulysses Data and Information Sites on the Internet
Ulysses home page at NSSDC -- catalog information and links to Ulysses data sites
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/database/www-nmc?90-090B
NASA Master Directory at NSSDC -- general catalog for NASA space science data
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmd/nmd.html
NSSDC COHOWeb service -- plotting and retrieval of selected hourly COHO data
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cohoweb/cw.html
NSSDC SPyCAT service -- NSSDC near-line archive for Ulysses and other data
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/space/ndads/spycat.html
NSSDC Anonymous FTP site -- on-line interplanetary data in COHO directory
http://nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov/htbin/htdir/anon_dir/coho/
anonymous@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov, anon_dir:[coho]
NSSDC's Satellite Situation Center -- Ulysses heliocentric coordinates
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/space/helios/heli.html
HISCALE home page (University of Kansas) -- information and access to data
http://kuspa1.phsx.ukans.edu:8000/~ulysses/index.html
COSPIN/HET home page (University of Chicago) -- information and access to data
file://odysseus.uchicago.edu/WWW/Simpson/Ulysses.html
SWICS home page (University of Maryland) - information and access to quick-look data
http://space.umd.edu/UMD_sensors/uls_swics.html
URAP home page (NASA GSFC) -- information and sample data plots
http://urap.gsfc.nasa.gov/www/urap_homepage.html
PPI/PDS home page -- Ulysses data from Jupiter at PDS Planetary Plasma Interactions Node
http://www.igpp.ucla.edu/ssc/pdsppi/Welcome.html
DSN/SBN/PDS home page -- cosmic dust data at Dust SubNode of PDS Small Bodies Node
http://dorothy.as.arizona.edu/DSN/
ESA Archive for Ulysses Data (EAUD) -- ESA's on-line data archive for Ulysses
http://helio.estec.esa.nl/ulysses/archive/welcome.html anonymous@helio.estec.esa.nl
Ulysses Data System (UDS) -- proprietary data exchange site for Ulysses investigators
http://helio.estec.esa.nl/ulysses/uds/30176::dka500:[uds]
ESA Ulysses project page -- Ulysses project information and ESTEC data archive
http://helio.estec.esa.nl/ulysses/
NASA Ulysses project page -- NASA information on the Ulysses project
Space Physics Data Availability (SPDA) page -- NSSDC forms for survey of data holdings
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/space/spdf/SPD.html
Cosmic/Heliospheric home page, Space Physics Data System -- links to C&H Web sites
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spds/coshel/coshel.html
Of what does NASA data archiving generally consist?
Timely acquisition, permanent storage on durable media with multiple copies and routine and cost-effective processing for requesters, of valuable and validated scientific data, along with sufficiently comprehensive documentation-related information to make such data independently usable, for immediate or eventual distribution to and usage by other scientists and the general public, domestic and international.
Why should Ulysses (and other NASA/ESA) data be archived?
NASA obligations to U.S. taxpayers and their elected representatives in CongressWhen should Ulysses data be archived?ESA obligations to member states in Europe
Ulysses project and investigator commitments as defined under Ulysses SDMP
Correlative studies with other missions and campaigns (e.g., ISTP/GGS, IACG)
Space weather applications
Resource for training of future space scientists
Resource for science education of general public
Finite coherence lifetimes of investigation teams
Evolution of computer hardware and software at data provider sites
"All data are to be submitted for archiving in a timely fashion and should be received at the appropriate archive within two years of receipt by the PI of the data," pages 5-3, Section 5.1, Ulysses Science Data Management Plan (SDMP), November 1994.What types of Ulysses data and related items should be archived?Note that the Ulysses SDMP also grants principal investigators first publication rights for up to one year "within receipt of processed data and necessary spacecraft information... Following the period of first publication rights, records, or copies of reduced data will be deposited in the U.S. National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC), ..."
Therefore, data should be submitted to an archive within one to two years.
Where should Ulysses data be archived?Validated and usable data sets with generally understandable and comprehensive documentation based on flight data processing and analysis
Low to high resolution digital data sets in science units (e.g., velocity, flux, etc.)
Full resolution data supported by usable calibration data and portable software
Graphical data in science units at any resolution
Well-documented software in standard languages that can be easily ported to other user systems
Information about missions, experiments, and data sets for the NSSDC Master Catalog (NMC), the NASA Master Directory (NMD), and other information systems at NSSDC
Unpublished reports and citations for published work (e.g., books, conference proceedings, journal publications), for the NSSDC Technical Reference File (TRF) -- Copyright restrictions generally preclude archiving and distribution of published articles, but please send article reprints anyway as sources for citations in the TRF index.
National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) interplanetary data at any resolutionWhat are the procedures for archiving Ulysses data?Planetary Data System (PDS) nodes of subnodes Jovian planetary encounter data at any resolution
ESA Archive for Ulysses Data (EAUD) interplanetary data at various resolutions
How may data be physically submitted for archiving?
How can data providers validate information about archived and other Ulysses data?
See Appendix A for complete list of Ulysses-related sites.How can Ulysses archive data be electronically accessed and retrieved?
Whom do I contact at the Ulysses archives for more information?
Erin D. Gardner, gardner@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov, (301)
286-0163
Hughes STX, Code 633, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771,
U.S.A.
NASA
home page
GSFC home
page
GSFC organizational page
Author:Miranda Beall