The Solar-Terrestrial data Analysis and Reference System Designed Based on Web Service

Ken T. MURATA 1 , Satoshi ISHIKURA 3, Eizen KIMURA 3, Kazunori YAMAMOTO 2
and Takuya KUBO 2

1 Center for Information Technology, Ehime University
2 Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ehime University
3 Department of Medical Informatics Social Medicine and Medical Informatics Medical School of Ehime University

In the STP (Solar-Terrestrial Physics) fields, science data observed by satellites and ground-based observatories are managed in many organizations. Policies to provide the data are independent from each other. Researchers have had difficulty in searching and analyzing multiple datasets from different observations. To support the cross-over searches and analyses of data, we have developed the STARS (Solar-Terrestrial data Analysis and Reference System). The meta-database (the STARS-DB) of the STARS consists of data file directory information, access permission, protocol information, and hierarchy information of mission/team/user. The STARS client application uses such meta-information so that the STARS users download data files without knowing locations and other properties of data files.

So far the STARS application accesses to the STARS-DB by sending SQL query messages and gets meta-information. It then downloads data files with FTP or other protocols from data sites. However, in these days, there shows up security problems in the way of accessing to the STARS-DB. Especially SQL servers came to be attacked by the worms such as “SQL Slammer”, which abuses the vulnerability of SQL servers. For that reason, restrictions by a firewall are so strict that SQL client could not access to the STARS-DB via the Internet.

We attempt to solve the security issue by introducing a Web service to the STARS. We first implement the Portal-WS which provides programming interface to the STARS-DB. The STARS receives meta-data by accessing to Portal-WS. The Portal-WS uses SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) over HTTP as a communication protocol. The STARS accesses to the Portal-WS by sending a SOAP request and receives meta-data as a SOAP Response. By using the present Web service, one can prevent communication with the STARS-DB from exposing to the Internet.

Keywords: STARS, solar-terrestrial physics, Web service, download agent, meta-data, SOAP