The Astrophysical Virtual Observatory to EURO-VO

transition

Paolo Padovani

ESO Virtual Observatory Systems

Department

EURO-VO Facility Centre Scientist

October 5, 2005 P. Padovani, ADASS XV 2

The Virtual Observatory

An innovative, evolving system, which takes advantage of astronomical data explosion

It will allow users to interrogate multiple data centres in a seamless and transparent way and to utilize at best astronomical data

Data analysis tools (in-situ) and models will be made more accessible

It will allow new SCIENCE by moving Astronomy beyond era of “classical” identification by combining all available information: data mining (increase obs. efficiency) + statistical identification (less need for spectra)

Good communication common language! Definition and adoption of VO standards and protocols within the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA: http://ivoa.net)

October 5, 2005 P. Padovani, ADASS XV 3

AVO

Astrophysical Virtual Observatory Project: 5 M€, R&D on scientific requirements and technology for building the VO in Europe, 50% funded by European Community (Fifth Framework Programme [FP5])

Phase A, 2001 - 2004/5 (http://www.euro-vo.org) Driven by strategy of scientific VO annual demonstrations Science Working Group established to provide scientific advice to AVO project Project completed

October 5, 2005 P. Padovani, ADASS XV 4

AVO’s Main Achievements

Three science demonstrations First refereed astronomical paper enabled via end-to-end use of VO tools

and systems: “Discovery of optically faint obscured quasars with Virtual Observatory tools”, Padovani, Allen, Rosati, & Walton, 2004, A&A, 424, 545

ESA/ESO press release May 28 2004

A Science Reference Mission New VO tools: distributed workflows (MySpace); the AVO prototype can be used NOW

for the day-to-day work of astronomers: Java application

(http://www.euro-vo.org/twiki/bin/view/Avo/SwgDownload)

October 5, 2005 P. Padovani, ADASS XV 5

AVO’s Main Achievements

(conts.) Founding member of IVOA Input for development of VO standards: VOTable, Data Access Layer, Data Model,

Uniform Content Descriptors, Web Services Usage of VO standards for interoperability between services (e.g., VOSpec -

Aladin - Specview)

October 5, 2005 P. Padovani, ADASS XV 6

The Next Step

European Virtual Observatory (EURO-VO) Project: a program to build the Virtual Observatory in Europe

Eight partners: ESO & ESA, plus six national nodes: INAF (Italy), INSU (France), INTA (Spain), NOVA (Netherlands), PPARC (UK), and RDS (Germany)

Total planned EURO-VO resources: ~ 60 person/yr (2005 - 2008), ~ 3 more than AVO

Three components

October 5, 2005 P. Padovani, ADASS XV 7

An alliance of European data centres who will populate the EURO-VO with data, provide the physical storage and computational fabric and who will publish data, metadata and services to the EURO-VO using VO technologies

A distributed organization that coordinates a set of research and development projects on the advancement of VO technology, systems and tools in response to scientific and community requirements

An operational organization, that provides the EURO-VO with a persistent, centralized registry for resources, standards and certification mechanisms as well as community support for VO technology take-up and scientific programs

October 5, 2005 P. Padovani, ADASS XV 8

EURO-VO Startup

VOTC funded (VO-TECH) EURO-VO MOU was signed in September 2005 (2005 - 2008) VOFC and VODCA activities already started with help from OPTICON,

RADIONET, ESO and ESA DCA:

• board meetings held (Dec. 2004, Jun. 2005, and Sept. 2005)• FP6 proposal submitted Sept. 2005

FC: • First activity: EURO-VO workshop (ESO June 2005)

(http://www.euro-vo.org/workshop2005)• EURO-VO Science Advisory Committee soon to be established• Goal: fund European science based on VO tools

October 5, 2005 P. Padovani, ADASS XV 9

VO-TECH A VO-TC project to complete the technical work necessary to build the EURO-VO 6.6 M€ from EC [FP6], 12 FTEs (+12 from partners) for 3 yrs; VO development

at ASTROGRID (Edinburgh, Leicester, & Cambridge), ESO, French VO, and INAF (Italy)

Start: April 1st 2005 Four broad areas (Design Studies):

Infrastructure (Lead: Leicester) New User Tools (Lead: ESO) Resource Discovery (Lead: French VO) Data Exploration (Lead: Edinburgh)

Six month sub-projects Input: AVO Science Reference Mission, AVO Science Working Group, VO-TECH

Science Team, partners, EURO-VO Science Advisory Committee

October 5, 2005 P. Padovani, ADASS XV 10

EURO-VO and the Community

AVO has reached out to the European astronomical community mostly through the SWG, plus papers and articles (ESO Messenger, ST-ECF & EAS Newsletters)

EURO-VO has reached out to the data providers through a dedicated workshop at ESO (June 27 - July 1); plan is to make this an annual event

EURO-VO will get community input through the SAC and VO-based science projects

We have also started having a presence at JENAM meetings, to contact directly (and get feedback from) astronomers

October 5, 2005 P. Padovani, ADASS XV 11

Summary

• The Virtual Observatory will make handling and manipulating astronomical data and tools residing at various locations around the world much easier than it is now

• The AVO, a Phase-A, project has produced REAL VO and science tools, which can be (and are!) used for astronomical research

• The EURO-VO will now make the VO in Europe a (non-virtual!) reality

• Follow our progress at http://www.euro-vo.org