The National Academies’ Committee on Solar and Space Physics issued a request on November 11, 2026, seeking users’ and providers’ experience with NASA’s heliophysics data and modeling services. The committee is preparing a short report at NASA’s request on how the Heliophysics Digital Resource Library and Community Coordinated Modeling Center can support research over the next decade.
The request for information asks for initial responses by November 18 and states that the response form will remain open through November 30, 2026. The assessment is explicitly organized around the user’s perspective.
The two services support related parts of scientific work. Researchers need access to measurements made by spacecraft and other instruments, and they need models that represent the physical processes producing those observations. The review concerns the services through which that information and computational capability reach the research community.
Finding and Preserving Measurements
NASA’s Heliophysics Digital Resource Library, commonly called HDRL, brings together data, documentation, tools, and services associated with the agency’s heliophysics observations. Heliophysics studies the Sun and its interactions with the surrounding space environment, including the plasma and magnetic conditions around planets.
The library supports access to observations from a distributed set of archives. Its data portal allows searches by time, measurement type, observed region, resolution, and observatory. Shared descriptive information, known as metadata, allows researchers to identify comparable products even when their files reside in different systems.
Long-term preservation is part of that arrangement. NASA’s data guidance places solar observations in the Solar Data Analysis Center and space-physics observations in the Space Physics Data Facility. These archives maintain scientific records beyond the operating lives of individual missions.
The library also connects users with analysis software and methods for citing datasets. Its services extend beyond storing files: they help researchers identify the appropriate observations, understand their documentation, and obtain them for analysis.
Archive Services and Spacecraft Positions
The Space Physics Data Facility provides several specific access methods. Coordinated Data Analysis Web, or CDAWeb, lets users browse and download science datasets and obtain data through software interfaces. This supports both interactive work in a browser and automated retrieval within a research workflow.
The facility’s Satellite Situation Center supplies spacecraft-orbit listings and visualizations. Researchers can search by geophysical region, magnetic-field relationships, and ground stations. Position information helps establish where a spacecraft was when it recorded a measurement.
These services address different parts of interpreting an observation. A file contains measured values, accompanying documentation describes their meaning, and orbital information establishes the spacecraft’s location. NASA makes the services available through connected archive and analysis systems.
Running and Evaluating Models
The Community Coordinated Modeling Center, or CCMC, is a multi-agency partnership located at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. It provides free access to space-science models and tools for analyzing their outputs.
Its Runs-on-Request service accepts submissions for simulations that take longer to execute and notifies users when results are ready. Other services provide continuously updated model calculations or models that run immediately through a browser interface.
CCMC also evaluates models against observations using defined metrics, event studies, and real-time calculations. This gives researchers a way to compare calculated behavior with measured conditions. Its forecasting-support activities include evaluating models and helping transfer research capabilities into operational use.
HDRL documentation describes collaboration with CCMC on descriptions of simulation software and model output. Common descriptions help users identify relevant calculations and connect them with observational datasets. The services support both obtaining evidence and testing explanations of that evidence.
The National Academies committee advises the federal government on solar and space physics and the implementation of decadal-survey recommendations. New Space Economy’s National Academies report guide describes the broader role of those assessments in science planning. For the present review, the committee is gathering experience directly from the people supplying and using the two services, with initial responses requested by November 18.
