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4. COSMIC AND HELIOSPHERIC SPDS ANNOUNCEMENT
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From: Tom Garrard (tlg@citsrl.srl.caltech.edu)

The Cosmic and Heliospheric Discipline Coordination Team (C & H DCT)
of the Space Physics Data System (SPDS) met at Caltech on 12 and 13
September, followed by a Space Physics Division Coordinator's Working
Group (CWG) Meeting at GSFC on 28-30 September.  The C & H DCT is 
pursuing (as are the other SP Disciplines) an SPDS which will connect
and serve the C & H community based on a grass roots, very low cost
approach of distributed servers providing locally maintained data 
sets.  The envisaged system will use the existing, evolving 
capabilities of Internet, ftp, World Wide Web, and Mosaic to connect
the community to these distributed sites, as well as to central 
archives such as NSSDC.  The DCT recommended to NASA Headquarters 
funding of three initial prototype projects -- neutron monitor count 
rates, higher time-resolution plasma parameters, and nuclear 
interaction cross sections.  Details are available from the SPDS 
home page on the WWW  (http://nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov/spds/spds.html).

The DCT is seeking to widen C & H community participation in SPDS
activities, including identification and prioritization of 
"endangered" data sets for rescue and restoration.  Comments on our
prototype projects will be gratefully reviewed.  The DCT is also 
soliciting advice on procedures for spending our extremely meager 
budget in a fashion that the community agrees is fair, while 
eventually moving to a formal peer reviewing process.  The current 
procedure is to use informal review by the DCT with NASA Headquarters
making the final decision.

The DCT will evaluate and forward suggestions for NASA funding of
C & H data restoration projects, data distribution projects, and data
prioritization studies, as well as offering advice/coordination on
volunteer projects.  Please do not expend a large effort on a 
proposal, but instead communicate your plans informally (1 to 2 pages
via email to Tom Garrard, C & H Coordinator, 
tlg@citsrl.srl.caltech.edu) and we will proceed from there.  
Leveraged or seed-money plans are particularly welcome due to our 
limited funding.  The DCT will also tend to prefer funding more small
projects rather than fewer large projects.  The next CWG meeting is
February 7; the next C & H DCT meeting is March 2.  Funding MAY be
available for FY95 as well as FY96.  Names and addresses of
Coordinators and Coordination Team members, and other such 
information, are available via the SPDS home page.