Data Analysis Working Group Charter

Adopted: [DRAFT]

Last Amended: [n/a]

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Acronyms

• DAWG: Data Analysis Working Group
• DSWG: Data Standards Working Group
• WG: Working Group
• RST: Radar Software Toolkit
• PI: Principal investigator

Definitions

1. Primary SuperDARN data products: Power (signal-to-noise ratio), Doppler velocity, spectral width, and elevation angle

2. Primary analysis software: Components of the RST which:

   • Determine the primary SuperDARN data products and their errors by fitting autocorrelation functions (FITACF);
   • Determine global plasma convection by fitting velocity measurements provided by FITACF to a statistical model (MAKE_GRID, MAP_FIT etc);
   • Are essential to the functionality of the above components (e.g. mapping the SuperDARN data into geographic and geomagnetic coordinates, file input/output routines, convection models, virtual height models).

3. Secondary software:

   • Components of the RST which do not fall within the scope of the primary analysis software (e.g. data visualisation packages such as TIME_PLOT, SuperDARN data simulator package, routines for checking file integrity)
   • Other software developed by various users to support scientific analysis (e.g. the pyDARN package)

Mandate

To maintain, improve, document and distribute software for analysing and visualising SuperDARN radar data for use by scientists and students.

Scope

The scope of the Data Analysis Working Group is to provide oversight of the primary analysis software, as well as any secondary analysis software specifically identified in this charter.

The WG has autonomy in relation to normal development activities. However, the following types of changes require formal approval before implementation in the software:

• Changes that could affect the scientific interpretation of the radar data, which require approval from the Executive Council
• Changes that require approval from the DSWG, as defined in the DSWG Charter

Responsibilities

The DAWG is responsible for maintaining, developing, documenting and distributing all software within its scope. The primary analysis software, as defined above, shall be the DAWG’s primary responsibility, and all other software shall be regarded as a secondary responsibility.

Software currently under the DAWG’s responsibility

Package name	Types of Software	Software Package Lead(s)	Date Added	Notes
RST	Primary and Secondary Software	DAWG Chairs	2013, start of RST	Initial DAWG software package
pyDARN	Secondary Software	Marina Schmidt	May 2020	Python package for SuperDARN plotting

Addition and removal of secondary software

Secondary software may be added to the DAWG’s scope as a secondary responsibility upon recommendation of this WG and approval by the Executive Council. The following conditions must also be satisfied:

• A member of the DAWG has agreed to oversee the package development
• The package complies with all of the DAWG’s requirements for software listed in this charter

Secondary software needs to have DAWG member interest to ensure the software’s scope and maintenance are upheld. If a DAWG member cannot be identified or if the software is severely interfering with the WG’s primary responsibilities, then the secondary software can be removed from the DAWG’s scope by mutual agreement between the DAWG Chairs and the Executive Council. The DAWG chairs should ensure that the software has been archived in an open-access repository before it is removed from the WG’s scope.

Demarcation of responsibilities with other WGs

The DAWG’s scope does not extend to the following:

• Supporting or maintaining the on-site software that controls the radar hardware and generates the primary radar data format files (rawacf, iqdat) for download to the PI institution.
• Supporting or maintaining the on-site software that produces secondary data products (such as fit-level data) although this WG can help to interpret this software for radar operators.
• Supporting or documenting the primary and secondary radar data formats, or maintaining the radar metadata (e.g. hardware files), which are the responsibility of the DSWG. However, this does not preclude such documentation from being added to DAWG-managed software
• Providing documentation on the radar control programs
• Distributing data products or plots produced by DAWG-managed software packages (e.g. fitacf/grid/map files, convection maps)
• Secondary software which is not specifically identified in this charter

Requirements for DAWG-managed software

All software under the DAWG’s responsibility should:

• Include user-friendly documentation on installation and usage of the package;
• Be structured in a way that is accessible to scientist- and student-developers;
• Ensure best practices are met in software development, including testing and code quality checks;
• Be released with a citable DOI and announced on the SuperDARN-user mailing list;
• Install on common platforms;
• Provide guidelines for future developers;
• Offer technical assistance to users.

Membership

There should be at least two permanent members of the WG: a Scientific Chair and a Software Development Chair, who share responsibilities in running the group. WG chairs shall be appointed by the Executive Council

The WG can be joined by any members of the SuperDARN community willing to participate in these activities:

• Attend at least one teleconference meeting or the DAWG meeting at the SuperDARN Workshop
• Provide input to discussions on Github (issues and pull requests)
• Provide assistance with developing, testing or documenting any software within the DAWG’s scope

The DAWG welcomes code contributions, suggestions and feedback from all members of the SuperDARN community. There is no requirement to join the WG in order to contribute. Note that the above membership definition is distinct from the DAWG’s criteria for software authorship.

Amendments to the WG Charter

The DAWG may propose changes to this charter at any time. All proposed changes must be approved by the Executive Council before being formally adopted. Changes of a non-substantial nature (e.g. typing errors, formatting changes, adding/updating hyperlinks) do not require Executive Council approval.

Any approved changes to the list of software under DAWG’s scope should be noted in this charter.

Links to other documents

• RST release guidelines
• Procedure for implementing major changes to the software
• Guidelines for software authorship (under development)
• RST Developers Guide (under development)
• DAWG Communication Guidelines
• DSWG Charter