Introduction to the VO

Christophe.Arviset@esa.int

ESAVO

ESA/ESAC – Madrid, Spain

Christophe ARVISETEuro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 2

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

Christophe ARVISETEuro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 3

Instruments

Data Headers

Telescopecontrol

Logs

Observatories

Outreach

Products

Calibrations

Raw Data

Processed Data

AnalysisData

Products

Catalogues

Software

Computing

Publications

Papers

TablesFigures

Christophe ARVISETEuro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 4

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

Christophe ARVISETEuro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 5

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 !

VO aware client tools and portals Bring the data to the users

VO aware data mining services New way of making science

Purpose of thisWorkshop !

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IVOA : International Virtual Observatory Alliance

17* National & International Partners Projects

including

*Brazil just joined

Christophe ARVISETEuro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 7

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

Christophe ARVISETEuro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 8

Structure of IVOA

IVOA exec Reps from each project Chair rotating every 18

months

WGs Produces IVOA

standards IGs

IVOA Executive Committee

Working GroupsData Access LayerData ModelingSemanticsRegistryVOEventVO Query LanguageVOTableWeb & Grid ServicesApplications

Interest GroupsTheoryData Curation and PreservationOGF Astro-RG

Technical CoordinationGroup

Christophe ARVISETEuro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 9

EURO-VO : www.euro-vo.org

ESA ESO France UK Italy Spain Germany The Netherlands

VO R&DTechnologies for new projectsand facilitiesParticipation in IVOA WG/IGs

Network of Data Centres in EuropeVO technology take-upPublish data and metadata throughVO services

VO Outreach (web, helpdesk, …)Science Advisory CommitteeVO Research InitiativesScience and Tech. WorkshopsUser SupportRegistry of VO Resources

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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

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Publishing Data on the Internet

Createdocument

WEB SERVER

Robots makesInventory Server

PublishDocument

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Publishing Data in the VO

SSA SERVER

ProduceData

CreateVO Service

DALToolKit

RegisterVO Service

Find List ofVO Services

S

Christophe ARVISETEuro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 13

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

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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