Introduction to the VO ESAVO ESA/ESAC – Madrid, Spain

Christophe ARVISET Euro-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 ARVISET Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 3 Instruments Data Headers Telescope control Logs Observatories Outreach Products Calibrations Raw Data Processed Data Analysis Data Products Catalogues Software Computing Publications Papers Tables Figures

Christophe ARVISET Euro-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 ARVISET Euro-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 this Workshop !

Christophe ARVISET Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 6 IVOA : International Virtual Observatory Alliance 17* National & International Partners Projects including *Brazil just joined

Christophe ARVISET Euro-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

Christophe ARVISET Euro-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 Groups Data Access Layer Data Modeling Semantics Registry VOEvent VO Query Language VOTable Web & Grid Services Applications Interest Groups Theory Data Curation and Preservation OGF Astro-RG Technical Coordination Group

Christophe ARVISET Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 9 EURO-VO :  ESA  ESO  France  UK  Italy  Spain  Germany  The Netherlands VO R&D Technologies for new projects and facilities Participation in IVOA WG/IGs Network of Data Centres in Europe VO technology take-up Publish data and metadata through VO services VO Outreach (web, helpdesk, …) Science Advisory Committee VO Research Initiatives Science and Tech. Workshops User Support Registry of VO Resources

Christophe ARVISET Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 10 Euro-VO AIDA Project  The “Astronomical Infrastructure for Data Access (AIDA)” project is funded by the EC FP7 through the Infrastructure call INFRA “Scientific Digital Repositories”  Same partners as the EURO-VO  2.7M€ from EC  Started Feb 2008 up to July 2010   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

Christophe ARVISET Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 11 Publishing Data on the Internet Create document WEB SERVER Robots makes Inventory Server Publish Document

Christophe ARVISET Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 12 Publishing Data in the VO SSA SERVER Produce Data Create VO Service DALToolKit Register VO Service Find List of VO Services S

Christophe ARVISET Euro-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

Christophe ARVISET Euro-VO AIDA Workshop, 22/06/2009, page 14 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