sz Goddard Automailer
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Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory (Code 614)

For Our Colleagues
Scientific/Technical Information

Goddard Automailer

Our group runs an email autoresponder to provide access to certain data, plots, and model runs to our colleagues. You send your specially-formatted email request to a certain address, and your results will be emailed back to you automatically. We call this system "the Goddard automailer."

This service runs on an under-powered computer, and we are consequently unable to provide this service unrestricted to the general public. Proceeding to the automailer web page requires a username and a password. The user name is the last name of the man after whom a widely-used form of potential vorticity is named. (Capitalize appropriately.) The password is the name of the common approximation in atmospheric dynamics in which the pressure force exactly balances the Coriolis force (all lowercase). If you know enough about atmospheric dynamics to identify the user name and password, then you are welcome to use our automailer. (And if you don't know the answers, but you go out and look them up, well at least that shows a bit of initiative, so go ahead.)

Remember, though, that the reason we require the password is to avoid having the facilities described here swamped by over-use with too many requests. If you try to submit too many requests, or if you send a request or requests that bring our system down, then we will have to tighten our access requirements.

And if you are just poking around here out of curiosity, don't waste your time---there is no secret, confidential, or classified data on these pages or available via the automailer. Unless you are an atmospheric scientist, there is not much that will be of interest to you here. The air parcel trajectory models, for example, are useful only at high altitudes and would be completely inadequate for people trying to trace pollution sources (or for terrorists planning an attack)!

Nevertheless, we are aware of the risks of putting functions like this on the world-wide web. We keep and inspect log files in accordance with NASA policy, and we monitor automailer usage. Attempts to abuse the service will be noted and reported to NASA IT security officials. The agency's standard warning banner applies here as it does throughout all NASA web pages: 

U.S. Government Public Information Exchange Resource

You have accessed an U.S. Government Resource.
This site is intended to be used by the public for information exchange.

Any attempt to modify or exploit this resource or associated
information other than for instructed use is strictly prohibited and
may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986.

The government may monitor and audit the usage of this resource. All
persons are hereby notified that use of this resource constitutes
consent for monitoring, keystroke recording, or auditing.

So, after all of that explanation and warning, you can proceed to the automailer page if you like.

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U.S. Government Public Information Exchange Resource. You have accessed a U.S. Government Resource. This site is intended to be used by the public for information exchange. Any attempt to modify or exploit this resource or associated information other than for instructed use is strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 The government may monitor and audit the usage of this resource. All persons are hereby notified that use of this resource constitutes consent for monitoring, keystroke recording, or auditing