YLA resident archive services

The Yohkoh Legacy data Archive project was kicked off in July, 2002, which was about 7 months after the termination of the Yohkoh scientific operation. Our founding philosophy is as follows:

Provide a fully-calibrated archive of the Yohkoh mission data, with easy access, so that any scientist can perform reliable analysis even when remoted by distance and time from the core team of "Yohkoh experts".

In other words, we ambitiously aim to ensure the usefulness of the Yohkoh data over decades or even centuries, similar in spirit to the enduring accessibility and utility of the sunspot data recorded by Galileo Galilei in the 17th century. From this motivation, our project was initially named the "Yohkoh Galileo Project", but later altered to "Yohkoh Legacy data Archive" as more descriptive of the project.

The major part of the work has been achieved at Montana State University(MSU), with technical support from Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL). We have received data contributions from the former Yohkoh teams in Japan and the UK, and in some cases from individual researchers. The main feature of YLA is in the improved quality of the soft X-ray images and unsurpassed level of accumulation of Yohkoh products and documentation:

Providing corrected data set : not only regular intensity calibration, but also the effect of instrumental problem, such as straylight light and satellite's attitue control is corrected.
Providing FITS files as well as the Yohkoh origianl format : FITS format is commonly used in the field of astrophysics, including many solar projects after Yohkoh, and it is readable by a wider variety of software packages. Moving to FITS makes the data more widely accessible.
Development of the user-friendly web interface : check out our web products, SXT Movie Maker, Quick Look, Data Search, etc.
Accumlation of highly processed data products : Flare catalogs, Synoptic archives, etc.
Satisfactory documentation : daily Operation Reports, Yohkoh Science Nuggets, Calibration notes, etc.
Refinement of the data set and database : resuscitation of the missing entries and removal of the corruption, duplication and junks.
Improvement of the software : many of the "traditional" IDL procedures and functions now work with FITS, too.

In 2008, the YLA was selected as one of the resident archives (RAs) supported by the Virtual Observatories for Heliophysics Data Program approved in NASA Research Announcement (ROSES-2007). Since then until 2015, the YLA served as an RA to promote the use of Yohkoh data by scientists, educators, and all kinds of creators (see our six years of RA services).

In November 2017, Loren Acton was honored with the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government. Loren was recognized for his extraordinary leadership demonstrated as the US-side PI of the Yohkoh mission, which made a significant contribution to the development of solar physics, and strengthened the relations between Japan and US in the field of space science. (c.f., a photo of Loren and Evelyn after the conferment ceremony)

YLA project team (November, 2017)

Aki Takeda (MSU)
Loren Acton (MSU)
David McKenzie (NASA-MSFC/MSU)
Keiji Yoshimura (MSU)
Samuel Freeland (LMSAL)

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