About ViSBARD

The current and next generation of space physics missions require a means to display from tens to hundreds of time series of data in such a way that the mind can comprehend them for the purposes of browsing data, retrieving them in directly useful form, and analyzing them in a global context. Sets of many spacecraft, each carrying many instruments yielding nearly continuous data at high time resolution have become one of the most effective ways to make progress in understanding the extended, ionized (plasma) atmosphere of the Earth and the Sun.

ViSBARD provides a way of visualizing multiple vector and scalar quantities as measured by many spacecraft at once. The data are displayed three-dimesionally along the orbits which may be displayed either as connected lines or as points. The data display allows the rapid determination of vector configurations, correlations between many measurements at multiple points, and global relationships. Things such as vector field rotations and dozens of simultaneous variables are very difficult to see in (complementary) panel plot represtations.

With the addition of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model data, this environment can also be used to 1) validate simulation results with observed data, 2) use simulated data to provide a global context for the sparse, observed data, and 3), apply feature detection techniques to the simulated data.

Supported Data

Data can be loaded locally, retrieved remotely from within the application via the Virtual Space Physics Observatory, CDAWeb, or SSCWeb. Alternatively, data can be “pushed” from the VSPO to ViSBARD via the “View in 3-D” button available for supported data products.

ASCII or CDF formats are supported, with either a header or a simple “resource description file” that specifies how the file is formatted. This RDF can be automatically generated when loading a new CDF file via a built-in interface that allows the user to select which variables to import.

Visbard comes prepackaged with RDFs for the following data products:\

   MHD models:

OpenGGCM: Open Geospace General Circulation Model

BATS-R-US: Block-Adaptive-Tree-Solarwind-Roe-Upwind-Scheme

Spacecraft data:\

AC_K1_MFI: ACE MAG 16-s Key Parameters

AC_K0_MFI: ACE MAG 5-min Key Parameters

AC_K0_SWE: ACE SWEPAM 5-min Key Parameter

CL_SP_CIS: Cluster CIS Summary/Prime Parameters

CL_SP_FGM: Cluster FGM Summary/Prime Parameters

CL_SP_PEA: Cluster PEACE Summary/Prime Parameters

GE_K0_MGF: Geotail MGF 3-sec data, Editor B

GE_K0_CPI: Geotail CPI SWA and HPA 64-sec Key Parameters

GE_H0_CPI: Geotail CPI SWA 48-sec solar wind data

G0_K0_EP8: GOES 10 EPS, 5-min KP Electron, Proton Fluxes

G0_K0_MAG: GOES 10 MAG 1-Min Key Parameters

I8_K0_MAG: IMP-8 Magnetic Field

I8_H0_MAG: IMP-8 Magnetic Field High Time Resolution

I8_K0_PLA: IMP-8 Interplanetary Plasma Data

IT_K0_EPI: Interball Tail energetic particle 2-min Key Parameters

IT_K0_ELE: Interball Tail Plasma Electron 2-min Key Parameters

IT_H0_MFI: Interball Tail 6-sec magnetic field data

IT_K0_MFI: Interball Tail Magnetic Field 2-min Key Parameters

OMNI2_H0_MRG1HR: OMNI hourly solar wind field, plasma data etc.

L0_K0_MPA: LANL1990 MPA 86-s Key Parameters

L0_K0_SPA: LANL1990 SPA 1-min Key Parameters

PO_H0_HYD: Polar HYDRA 13.8 sec Ion and Electron Fluxes

PO_K0_HYD: Polar HYDRA 55-s Key Parameters

PO_K0_MFE: Polar Magnetic Field Key Parameters

PO_H1_TID: Polar TIDE 6-s Z-unresolved Data

SO_K0_CEL: SOHO CELIAS Key Parameters

THA_L2_FGM: THEMIS-A Fluxgate Magnetometer Measurements 1/128s

THB_L2_FGM: THEMIS-B Fluxgate Magnetometer Measurements 1/128s

THC_L2_FGM: THEMIS-C Fluxgate Magnetometer Measurements 1/128s

THD_L2_FGM: THEMIS-D Fluxgate Magnetometer Measurements 1/128s

THE_L2_FGM: THEMIS-E Fluxgate Magnetometer Measurements 1/128s

THA_L2_ESA: THEMIS-A ESA electron/ion energy fluxes and moments

THB_L2_ESA: THEMIS-B ESA electron/ion energy fluxes and moments

THC_L2_ESA: THEMIS-C ESA electron/ion energy fluxes and moments

THD_L2_ESA: THEMIS-D ESA electron/ion energy fluxes and moments

THE_L2_ESA: THEMIS-E ESA electron/ion energy fluxes and moments

WI_K0_MFI: Wind MFI 92-s Key Parameters

WI_H0_MFI: Wind MFI 3-s, 1-m, 1-h data

WI_K0_SWE: WIND Solar Wind Key Parameters

WI_H0_SWE: WIND Solar Wind Definitive Parameters

Acknowledgements

PI:  D. Aaron Roberts
Developed by:  Ryan Boller, NASA/GSFC, and Aquilent team
Other Collaborators:  V. Rezapkin, J. Coleman, R. McGuire, M. Goldstein, V. Kalb, R. Kulkarni, M. Luckyanova, J. Byrnes, U. Kerbel, R. Candey, C. Holmes, R. Chimiak, B. Harris
Supported by NASA’s Applied Information Systems Research Program
Special thanks to Joe Bredekamp for continued support\