Introduction to the VO Christophe.Arviset@esa.int ESAVO ESA/ESAC Madrid, Spain
The way Astronomy works Telescopes (ground- and space-based, covering the full electromagnetic spectrum) Observatories Instruments (telescope/band dependent) Observatories/Consortia Data analysis software (instrument dependent) Observatories/Consortia/Researchers Active Archives Observatories/Agencies Publications Journals Data curation (metadata + tables & catalogues) Data curators and Public Outreach Observatories/Agencies Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 2
Data Headers Processed Data Outreach Products Observatories Calibrations Raw Data Software Logs Instruments Analysis Data Products Telescope control Publications Catalogues Tables Papers Figures Computing Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 3
The VO Concept for Astronomy WEB : all documents in the world virtually on your computer VO : all astronomical data in the world virtually on your computer What the VO is NOT: A centralized database of all astronomical data A monolith software system A peer-to-peer system The VO framework Agreed standards Inter-operable data collections Inter-operable software modules Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 4
VO : What is needed? Global standards Transparent inter-operability for the end users Well funded data centres Space agencies, Ground based telescope, Labs Working data services Data remains the key! Purpose of this Workshop! VO aware client tools and portals Bring the data to the users VO aware data mining services New way of making science Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 5
IVOA : International Virtual Observatory Alliance including 17* National & International Partners Projects *Brazil just joined Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 6
IVOA IVOA Mission: To facilitate the international coordination and collaboration necessary for the development and deployment of the tools, systems and organizational structures necessary to enable the international utilization of astronomical archives as an integrated and interoperating virtual observatory Mainly about defining Interoperability standards Links to Data Centres Links to other communities IVOA Newsletter 2 interoperability meetings per year Mailing lists Wiki www.ivoa.net Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 7
Structure of IVOA Working Groups Data Access Layer Data Modeling Semantics Registry VOEvent VO Query Language VOTable Web & Grid Services Applications IVOA Executive Committee Technical Coordination Group Interest Groups Theory Data Curation and Preservation OGF Astro-RG IVOA exec Reps from each project Chair rotating every 18 months WGs Produces IVOA standards IGs Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 8
EURO-VO : www.euro-vo.org ESA ESO France UK Italy Spain Germany The Netherlands VO Outreach (web, helpdesk, ) Science Advisory Committee VO Research Initiatives Science and Tech. Workshops User Support Registry of VO Resources Network of Data Centres in Europe VO technology take-up Publish data and metadata through VO services VO R&D Technologies for new projects and facilities Participation in IVOA WG/IGs Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 9
Euro-VO AIDA Project The Astronomical Infrastructure for Data Access (AIDA) project is funded by the EC FP7 through the Infrastructure call INFRA-2007-1.2.1 Scientific Digital Repositories Same partners as the EURO-VO 2.7M from EC Started Feb 2008 up to July 2010 http://cds.u-strasbg.fr/twikiaida/bin/view/eurovoaida/webhome Euro-VO AIDA aims at unifying the digital data collection of European astronomy, integrating their access mechanisms with evolving e- technologies and enhancing the science extracted from these data-sets Combination of DCA, VOTC, and FC activities One of Euro-VO AIDA goals is to support the European Data Centres in publishing their data through the VO framework Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 10
Publishing Data on the Internet Publish Document WEB SERVER Create document Robots makes Inventory Server Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 11
Publishing Data in the VO SSA SERVER S Create VO Service DALToolKit Produce Data Find List of VO Services Register VO Service Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 12
Data Providers in the VO Era The VO needs data Astronomical data providers lie at its foundation Data quality is the responsibility of the data providers The VO is more than a system; it s also a frame of mind Common access to more and heterogeneous data The VO also bring added value for data providers: Broadens data user base as data available through VO tools Allows cross correlation with similar data Allows remote computing, analysis and storage of data Foster new science Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 13
VO-compliant Archives The VO cannot (and does not) dictate how to manage an archive Data centres still need to produce data Data centres still require their own archive and access tools The VO requires data centres to have a VO layer to: translate their own model into the VO common language translate any locally defined metadata to the standard (IVOA compliant) ones (e.g., RA can be called in many different ways) hide any observatory/telescope/instrument specific detail and work in astronomical units: e.g., wavelength range/band (not grism or filter name), spectral resolution, signal-to-noise ratio, field of view, limiting magnitude Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 14