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Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society
RECOMMENDATIONS
83
BOX 4.2 NASA FUNDING FOR MISSION DATA ANALYSIS
The hard decisions that have to be made in response to budget limitations have too often resulted in cuts
in the mission operations and data analysis (MO&DA) and guest investigator (GI) portions of missions, compromising the scientific potential of the mission. Example 1: The general GI program (supported from MO&DA
funds) was completely cut in 2010, with impacts that cascaded through the other Research and Analysis (R&A)
programs, causing the Solar and Heliospheric Supporting Research and Technology (SR&T) program to be oversubscribed by a factor of 6.7 (40 percent higher than the previous year). As a result, 36 percent of top-ranked
(selectable) proposals were not funded. Example 2: Limited Phase-E funding for data analysis was included in
the original mission funding profile of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Even less was allocated to the
instrument teams after the first 2 years because science funding was planned to come from a mission-specific
GI program. The GI program was subsequently scaled back because of budget pressures and little was available
in the first year for data analysis for the SDO, a mission that cost around $850 million to build and launch and
that is producing unprecedented volumes of data.
BOX 4.1 DATA EXPLOITATION
Significant progress has been made over the past decade in establishing the essential components of the
solar and space physics data environment. However, to achieve key national research and applications goals
requires a data environment that draws together new and archived satellite and ground-based solar and space
physics data sets and computational results from the research and operations communities. As discussed in
more detail in Appendix B, such an environment would include:
• Coordinated development of a data systems infrastructure that includes data systems software, data
analysis tools, and training of personnel;
• Community oversight of emerging, integrated data systems and interagency coordination of data
policies;
• Exploitation of emerging information technologies without investment in their initial development;
• Virtual observatories as a specific component of the solar and space physics research-supporting infrastructure, rather than as a direct competitor for research funds;
• Community-based development of software tools, including tools for data mining and assimilation; and
• Semantic technologies to enable cross-discipline data access.
required to exploit the opportunities created by the HSO, especially considering the importance of broad
and extended data sets for exploring space weather and space climatology. Moreover, the survey committee
concluded that annual competition for support via a stable general GI program is essential. The general GI
program is the only funding source for research utilizing data from missions beyond their prime mission
phase. Thus, for example, when the data-rich SDO mission finishes its prime phase in 2015, the enormous
research potential of this mission should be supported by the general GI program.
Recommendation: NASA should permanently augment MO&DA support by $10 million per year plus
annual increases for inflation, in order to take advantage of new opportunities yielded by the increasingly
rich Heliophysics Systems Observatory assets and data.
Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society
RECOMMENDATIONS
83
BOX 4.2 NASA FUNDING FOR MISSION DATA ANALYSIS
The hard decisions that have to be made in response to budget limitations have too often resulted in cuts
in the mission operations and data analysis (MO&DA) and guest investigator (GI) portions of missions, compromising the scientific potential of the mission. Example 1: The general GI program (supported from MO&DA
funds) was completely cut in 2010, with impacts that cascaded through the other Research and Analysis (R&A)
programs, causing the Solar and Heliospheric Supporting Research and Technology (SR&T) program to be oversubscribed by a factor of 6.7 (40 percent higher than the previous year). As a result, 36 percent of top-ranked
(selectable) proposals were not funded. Example 2: Limited Phase-E funding for data analysis was included in
the original mission funding profile of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Even less was allocated to the
instrument teams after the first 2 years because science funding was planned to come from a mission-specific
GI program. The GI program was subsequently scaled back because of budget pressures and little was available
in the first year for data analysis for the SDO, a mission that cost around $850 million to build and launch and
that is producing unprecedented volumes of data.
BOX 4.1 DATA EXPLOITATION
Significant progress has been made over the past decade in establishing the essential components of the
solar and space physics data environment. However, to achieve key national research and applications goals
requires a data environment that draws together new and archived satellite and ground-based solar and space
physics data sets and computational results from the research and operations communities. As discussed in
more detail in Appendix B, such an environment would include:
• Coordinated development of a data systems infrastructure that includes data systems software, data
analysis tools, and training of personnel;
• Community oversight of emerging, integrated data systems and interagency coordination of data
policies;
• Exploitation of emerging information technologies without investment in their initial development;
• Virtual observatories as a specific component of the solar and space physics research-supporting infrastructure, rather than as a direct competitor for research funds;
• Community-based development of software tools, including tools for data mining and assimilation; and
• Semantic technologies to enable cross-discipline data access.
required to exploit the opportunities created by the HSO, especially considering the importance of broad
and extended data sets for exploring space weather and space climatology. Moreover, the survey committee
concluded that annual competition for support via a stable general GI program is essential. The general GI
program is the only funding source for research utilizing data from missions beyond their prime mission
phase. Thus, for example, when the data-rich SDO mission finishes its prime phase in 2015, the enormous
research potential of this mission should be supported by the general GI program.
Recommendation: NASA should permanently augment MO&DA support by $10 million per year plus
annual increases for inflation, in order to take advantage of new opportunities yielded by the increasingly
rich Heliophysics Systems Observatory assets and data.