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AVE Houston2 Data Protocol

Data Exchange Protocol for Aura Validation Experiments
(2003-12-18)


       The Aura satellite is scheduled for launch in 2004, and NASA is sponsoring a sequence of aircraft field experiments to gather measurements of atmospheric trace gases and aerosols, and use those data to validate measurements from the Aura satellite. Each Aura Validation Experiment (AVE) will utilize a particular set of instrument and theory teams, although some teams will participate in several of the AVEs. The Science Team (ST) for each AVE will be composed of the participating instrument and theory team Principal Investigators (PIs), Project Scientists, Program Managers and Project Managers, and Aura instrument PIs.

       The rapid exchange of data assists in-field collaborations, identifies instrument problems via inter-comparisons, and helps flight planning by identifying new and interesting geophysical problems, and whether or not flight objectives are realized. AVE data acquired during the field deployments will be submitted to a central archive within 12 hours after each flight and will constitute a preliminary archive. Some exceptions for unique operation may be granted on a case-by-case basis by the project management.

       The central archive machine is espoarchive.nasa.gov, and the procedures and file formats for that archive are described at http://espoarchive.nasa.gov/archive/. For some AVE missions there may also be an in-field archive to which data can be submitted.

       A separate archive account will be setup for each AVE and all members of the ST for that AVE will have free access to and use of all data in that account. All data products in a particular AVE account will be made available to the public six months after the end of that AVE, so final data should be submitted before that time. Prior to the public release of each data set, it will not be provided to persons outside of the ST without the expressed approval of that data set's PI.

       Likewise, the AVE ST members will have access to Aura data products from the NASA DAACs at GSFC and LaRC, or other mechanisms defined by the Aura instrument teams for distributing preliminary data products. Since AVE data products will be used to validate Aura measurements, early versions of Aura data products are expected to be preliminary and improved upon in subsequent releases.

       Publication schedules and ST meetings for each AVE will be announced. Manuscripts submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals should involve all ST members involved in the preparation of the measurements and interpretation of the manuscript. In particular, ST members responsible for generating a measurement or a data product must be offered the right of co-authorship. This right should be used only if the contribution is essential. Presentations of unpublished manuscripts in public meetings are subject to approval by the co-authors.