Analysis software for upper atmospheric data developed by the IUGONET project and its application to polar science

To comprehensively understand the Arctic and Antarctic upper atmosphere, it is often crucial to analyze various data that are obtained from many regions. Infrastructure that promotes such interdisciplinary studies on the upper atmosphere has been developed by a Japanese inter-university project called the Inter-university Upper atmosphere Global Observation Network （1UGONET）. The objective of this paper is to describe the infrastructure and tools developed by IUGONET. We focus on the data analysis software. It is written in Interactive Data Language （IDL） and is a plug-in for the THEMIS Data Analysis Software suite （TDAS）, which is a set of IDL libraries used to visualize and analyze satellite- and ground-based data. We present plots of upper atmospheric data provided by IUGONET as examples of applications, and verify the usefulness of the software in the study of polar science. We discuss IUGONET＇s new and unique developments, i.e., an executable file of TDAS that can run on the IDL Virtual Machine, IDL routines to retrieve metadata from the IUGONET database, and an archive of 3-D simulation data that uses the Common Data Format so that it can easily be used with TDAS.

Thirty-two essential questions for understanding the social-ecological system of forage fish:the case of pacific herring

Forage fishes are ecologically and economically important low trophic level species,and in recent years interest in their biology and management has intensified.Pacific Herring are emblemat-ic of the management issues facing forage species-they are central components of the Northeast Pacific pelagic food web and support important commercial fisheries.In addition,the importance of Herring to indigenous peoples have made them cultural keystone species.We employed a participatory process to promote collaborative priority-setting for this critical forage species.Working with managers,the fisher-ies industry,indigenous peoples,and scientists,we co-constructed a conceptual model of the Pacific Her-ring social-ecological system(SES)in the Northeast Pacific.We then identified a set of questions,that,if answered,would significantly increase our ability to sustainably manage the Herring SES.Our objective was to generate a road map for scientists who wish to conduct useful forage fish research,for resource managers who wish to develop new research efforts that could fill critical gaps,and for public agencies and private foundations seeking to prioritize funding on forage fish issues in the Pacific.With this socio-cultural centrality comes complexity for fisheries management.Our participatory process highlighted the value of conceptualizing the full SES,overcame disciplinary differences in scientific approaches,research philos-ophy,and language,and charted a path forward for future research and management for forage species.