IHDEA | Working Groups

Working Groups

To achieve its goals (see IHDEA Charter), a handful of working groups have been setup.

JOIN US! If you're interested in participating in any of the working groups listed below, please contact any of working groups lead(s) by following this link. The Heliophysics community at large (e.g., scientists and research software engineers) are encouraged to actively participate to any of these working groups.

...or propose a new working group! The Heliophysics community is also encouraged to propose new working groups to the IHDEA executive commmittee by sending an email to this email address. A new working group should be proposed by at least two members of the community with clear objectives to be achieved over the first two years of its existence. Progress shall be reported at the annual IHDEA meeting and can be extended in time if needed. Approval of its creation will be communicated to the proposers within 2-3 weeks. For more information on creating a new working group, we kindly invite you to read the IHDEA Bylaws.

Coordinate Systems Standardisation: Lead: Bob Weigel (George Mason University), join; Goal is to describe coordinate systems in unambiguous terms, especially where reference models differ over time [e.g. GSM (IGRF-12 vs IGRF-13)].

Data Access Layer: Leads: Jon VandeGriff (John Hopkins University) for HAPI, Jon Cook (Starion for ESA) for IVOA data access protocols, Jack Ireland (NASA/GSFC) for VSO; join; Goal is to improve the Heliophysics API (HAPI), International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) data access protocols (e.g. Table Access Protocol or TAP) and Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO) services and to expand adoption of supporting servers at more data centers.

DOI for Science: Leads: Joana Oliveira (TPZ for ESA) and Rebecca Ringuette (ADNET for NASA); join; Goal is to define the process for obtaining datasets' DOI and the coordination of the task amoung the data centers.

Heliophysics Semantics and Capabilities: Leads: Ryan McGranaghan (NASA/JPL) and Baptiste Cecconi (Observatoire de Paris); join; The purpose of this working group is to align, converge, and accelerate ongoing efforts to represent Heliophysics knowledge in ways that strengthen both our data ecosystem and our community. Goals include creation of a glossary/dictionary for Heliophysics, establishment of processes for harmonization across vocabularies including crosswalks from Heliophysics data and information models to other community semantic resources, to foster the creation of semantic tools for Heliophysics, and to serve as a forum for more sustained and cross-group and -domain exchange. It will be a venue for bringing scholarship around knowledge commons into the Heliophysics community and creating the foundation for our own knowledge commons.

Python Adoption: Lead: Julie Barnum (LASP, Boulder); join; Goal is to survey the use of Python in the Heliophysics domain and report on tools, services and web sites, especially through the Python in Heliophysics Community (PyHC) initiative, see PyHC website

Science Platforms Coordination: Leads: Shawn Polson (LASP, Boulder) and Jan Reerink (ESA); join; Goal is to develop international standard software computing environments for Heliophysics.

SPASE Information Model: Leads: Brian Thomas (NASA/GSFC) and Arnaud Masson (ESA); join; Goal is the improvement of the SPASE Information Model for describing observational and derived data, and for describing simulation models, simulations runs, and simulation output (inc. NASA Community Coordinated Modeling Center or CCMC, ESA Virtual Space Weather Modelling Centre, VSWMC and European Union supported Integrated Medium for Planetary Exploration or IMPEx). In particular, defining metadata for simulation models and generated data, as well as defining a standard for an execution interface.

Standards process: Leads: Brian Thomas (NASA/GSFC) and Arnaud Masson (ESA); join; The purpose of this working group is to define a way for our community to publish official technical documents. This includes recommendations (or standards) but also the ability to adopt and endorse existing standards from other communities which we use (ex. CDF, FITS-WCS, TAP, etc).We are looking for members of our community to participate in defining these processes. We will begin our WG by examining current best practices (IVOA, W3C) and lessons learned to create a draft document which defines these activities for our community. The goal will be to draft a document that can be presented to the IDHEA community at the October 2026 Dublin meeting.