The Upper Atmospheric Research Collaboratory (UARC)
Gary M. Olson, Daniel E. Atkins, R. Clauer, Thomas A. Finholt, Farnam Jahanian, T. L. Killeen, Atul Prakash, Terry E. Weymouth · interactions · 1998
o n s . . .m a y + j u n e 1 9 9 8Upper atmospheric physics focuses on the study of the earth's ionosphere, looking particularly at the interactions of the solar wind, the earth's magnetic field, and the characteristics of the upper atmosphere.Observations of these phenomena are made with ground-based instruments, satellites, and rockets.In recent years, a series of computational models of the entire upper atmospheric system has emerged, aided by progress in supercomputing. Although observations of upper atmospheric phenomena are made at all latitudes, because of the characteristics of the earth's magnetic field, most ground-based instruments are concentrated at high latitudes, particularly in the Arctic.Many of these facilities are in remote areas and are relatively difficult to reach.With the ending of the Cold War in the early 1990s, inexpensive military flights to many of these remote areas ended, making access more difficult and more expensive.Fortunately, these changing circumstances coincided with the emergence of the Internet.It occurred to a number of scientists in the field that network connections to these remote facilities could improve access and have a beneficial effect on the practice of science.Obviously network access to remote facilities would ameliorate the transportation difficulties, but in addition, it would provide greater access to such facilities for scientists and students at all kinds of institutions and would offer great flexibility for the scheduling of observations to coincide with scientifically important events.For instance, spontaneous coordinated scientific campaigns in response to events such as solar flares would be possible.These problems and opportunities fit very nicely the vision of a collaboratory [1].In 1992, a group of space scientists, computer scientists, and behavioral scientists at the University of Michigan obtained funding from the National Science Foundation to launch the Upper Atmospheric Research Collaboratory (UARC).UARC is a 6-year project to design, develop, deploy, and evaluate a testbed collaboratory.