Virtual Solar Observatory

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We are currently in the process of moving all of our documentation to a centralized location. Please excuse the inconvenience while we rearrange, and if you have an immediate issue, please feel free to contact the site admin.

News

Someone Finally Fixed This Site

2010 Sept 16

Joe finally fixed this install (I hope), and moved it to a new server so people can actually contribute.

Hinode XRT Now Available Through VSO

2007 May 30

The ​XRT data from ​Hinode is now available from the ​Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. EIS and SOT data should be available soon.

STEREO Now Available Through VSO

2007 Jan 18

The ​STEREO Science Center is now serving ​PLASTIC and ​SECCHI data through the VSO.

VSO 1.4

2006 Mar 08

The new version makes a number of subtle changes to try to make searching for data easier. You can still search using all of the previous search methods, as well as selecting instruments or observatories without needing to know the name of the repository that has the data.

Please ​try it and ​let us know what you think.

Note: In keeping with the virtual nature of the VSO, clicking on any of the ​VSO search links above can take you to any working, public instance of the VSO. All should work the same, however, and all have the same access to the metadata from all the current data services.

Mt. Wilson Historical Data Available

2006 Feb 14

The ​Mount Wilson Solar Archive Digitization Project is now serving ​Calcium K images from as far back at 1915.

O-SPAN Now Available Through VSO

2006 Jan 25

The NSO is now serving ​O-SPAN (formerly ISOON) data through the VSO.

VSO IDL Client

2006 Jan 11

A VSO client in IDL is now available through ​SolarSoft.

API

Applications programming interfaces for the VSO 1.2 are available in Perl, Java, and C/C++ at our API documentation page. Check there for our WSDL description as well.

Recent Meetings

Presentations at the 2006 Fall AGU meeting

VSO talks and posters at the San Francisco meeting (PDF format):

• Davey et al., The current and future roles of virtual observatories serving (​abstract)

• Gurman et al., ​The Virtual Solar Observatory and the Heliospheric Meta-Virtual Observatory

• Hourclé et al., ​Enhancements to the Virtual Solar Observatory

Presentations at the 2006 Summer SPD Meeting

VSO poster at the Durham meeting (PDF format):

• Gurman et al. "​The Virtual Solar Observatory and the Heliophysics Meta-Virtual Observatory"

Past Meetings

Data Model

The current version of the data model is Version 1.8 (updated 2005 May 20).

Frequently Asked Questions

User Questions

1. How do I search for data using the VSO?
2. How do I get the data?
3. What are the holdings of each data provider?
4. How can I get a URL to the data products that I've found?
5. How can I make a movie?
6. Why do I get records I wasn't expecting when I search?
7. Why do I get fewer records than I was expecting when I search?
8. How do I search for data using catalogs?

Data Provider Questions

1. How can I become a data provider?

Application Programmer Questions

1. How can I access the VSO through my own interface?
2. How can I get the browse images (jpeg, png, gif, etc) for observations?
3. How can I get a URL to the data products?

Also see our infrequently asked questions list.

Bug Reports

VSO Participants can select New Ticket from the menu. Unauthenticated users will need to contact us.