The NVAO would collect high-resolution survey spectra of optical emissions from excited atoms and molecules in the Earth's night atmosphere. Astronomers' echelle spectrographs are already recording these sky spectra during every hour of every night at numerous locations. These data would be made available to atmospheric scientists and astronomers through the World Wide Web, in standardized formats, with appropriate access and inquiry tools. Students and researchers would be able to perform "observations" on the "real atmosphere" from their desktops, either as educational exercises, as publishable research, or as "dry run" experiments before taking the field.
The NVAO concept is founded on research at SRI (supported by NSF's Atmospheric Sciences Division), that since 1997 has been finding atmospheric surprises in a small subset of the potentially available sky spectra, collected (mostly by Don Osterbrock) from a few collaborating astronomers using the Keck telescopes.
The NVAO concept builds on the broader theme of a National Virtual Observatory (NVO) that was ranked by the recent National Academy of Science report, Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium, as the most important small initiative in astronomy for the 2001-2010 timeframe. The NVO would provide a seamless digital sky in all wavelengths based on the massive data sets being created now and the even more massive data sets yet to come with future surveys and observatories, plus develop new tools to explore the data base.
SRI solicits participation in the NVAO project of (1) young researchers as postdoctoral fellows, visiting graduate students, or REU summer students and (2) senior atmospheric science and astronomy researchers as collaborators, users, data donors, or members of the NVAO Scientific Advisory Group. International collaborations are especially welcome.
Take a look at the following Web pages and talk with us at upcoming AGU, AAS, and CEDAR meetings.
David L. Huestis,
NVAO Director
Tom G. Slanger, NVAO Chief Scientist
Philip C. Cosby, NVAO Archivist
National Virtual Aeronomical Observatory
Molecular Physics Laboratory
SRI International,
Menlo Park, CA 94025 USA
mailto:david.huestis@sri.com
Phone: (650) 859-3464, FAX: (650) 859-6196
Copyright (c) 2002 SRI International. All rights reserved. (05/25/02)