CC*DNI Instrument: High Performance Reliable Network Access to Mauna Loa Observatory Science Instruments

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

The project, "CC*DNI Instrument: High Performance Reliable Network Access to MLO Science Instruments", addresses the problem of network limitations at the Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO) located on the island of Hawaii in the Pacific ocean. The site is owned and operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth System Research Laboratory Global Monitoring Division and cooperatively used by the National Center for Atmospheric Research's High Altitude Observatory and the Institute for Astronomy, a research organization of the University of Hawaii (UH). A wide range of important science observation data is produced by the various instruments located at MLO. Among this data is a widely-used, 50+ year continuous record of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at Mauna Loa. Less well known are data that measure ozone levels in the upper atmosphere, solar activity such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, young variable stars and mid-size, potentially hazardous asteroids. This data is of national and global significance for policy and public safety and welfare decisions in areas related to measuring and predicting global warming, forecasting disruptions to communications and navigation caused by solar transient events and detecting and predicting Earth impacts of mid-sized asteroids. Improvements to telescopes and instruments cause volumes of science data produced to increase exponentially over time. Commercial grade, licensed-spectrum wireless radio point-to-point network links are used to solve the critical "last mile" problem of connecting the science instruments located at MLO to the robust University of Hawaii (UH) network for transmission to researchers in Hawaii, the United States and across the globe. The MLO network supports a rapidly growing volume of data (>1.5TB/day) originating from instruments such as COSMO K- Coronagraph (KCor), Coronal Multi-channel Polarimeter (CoMP), Precision Solar Photometric Telescope (PSPT), Very Young Stellar Objects Survey (VYSOS), Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) and COSMO Chromospheric Magnetometer (ChroMag). Expected science results made possible by these MLO network improvements include follow up observations of Near Earth Objects, supernovae, gamma ray bursts, and young variable stars; solar observations in real time for space weather forecasts and real-time atmospheric monitoring. The broader impact of the science enabled is to build and support global awareness of environmental and astronomy research, to enable collaborative research with global partners and support the dissemination of unique data sets of immense value to research communities, policy and decision makers and the lay public.