The International Virtual Observatory Alliance: recent technical developments and the road ahead

Quinn, Peter J.; Barnes, David G.; Csabai, István; Cui, Chenzhou; Genova, F.; Hanisch, Bob; Kembhavi, Ajit; Kim, Sang Chul; Lawrence, A.; Malkov, O. Yu.; Ohishi, Masatoshi; Pasian, F.; Schade, David; Voges, W.

doi:10.1117/12.551247

Cited by 29 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Notable examples include the virtual observatories in astronomy [2,3], new techniques for the synthesis and visualisation of ecological observational data [4], and innovative efforts to improve preventative health care and enhance epidemiological knowledge by mining health records [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Semantic eScience Platform for Chemistry

Borkum

Lagoze

Frey

et al. 2010

2010 IEEE Sixth International Conference on E-Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract-The oreChem project, funded by Microsoft Research, is investigating the design and deployment of a semanticbased eScience infrastructure for chemistry. The results of the project include the creation of an ontology that provides the basis for describing the entities and relationships for a scientific experiment, and the implementation of a workflow to combine extracted and in situ information from multiple sources, which provides a framework for computational enhancement of the data and querying thereof.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Semantic eScience Platform for Chemistry

Borkum

Lagoze

Frey

et al. 2010

2010 IEEE Sixth International Conference on E-Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The Virtual Observatory (VO) for Astronomy ) aims at providing the frameworks of standard methods to find, access, and utilize astronomical data archives distributed around the world. The VO framework, developed by 16 national and international projects, provides standard interfaces (Quinn et al 2004). The interoperability among VO projects has been achieved with the VO standard protocols defined by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) (Hanisch 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Astronomical Research Using Virtual Observatories

Tanaka¹,

Shirasaki²,

Ohishi³

et al. 2010

Data Sci. J.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Virtual Observatory (VO) INTRODUCTIONAdvanced observational instruments and homogeneous survey programs have produced various kinds of huge and high-quality data archives, which are now indispensable for studies in astronomy, especially for statistical studies using multi-wavelength data ranging from radio to gamma ray regions. Utilizing such huge data archives requires the aid of new information technologies. The Virtual Observatory (VO) for Astronomy ) aims at providing the frameworks of standard methods to find, access, and utilize astronomical data archives distributed around the world. The VO framework, developed by 16 national and international projects, provides standard interfaces (Quinn et al. 2004). The interoperability among VO projects has been achieved with the VO standard protocols defined by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) (Hanisch 2006). IVOA have discussed and defined standards on data formats, data discovery, data access, and so on. VO projects in the world have been strenuously developing VO software tools and/or portal systems based on the IVOA standards. As a result, VO technologies have now been used in obtaining astronomical research results. In this paper, we introduce three example cases of astronomical research enabled by VO in the USA, Europe and Japan, and describe how the VO technologies are used in the astronomical research. DISCOVERY OF BROWN DWARFSThe first example (Berriman et al., 2003) is an early demonstration project performed by National Virtual Observatory (NVO), the VO project in the USA and one of leading projects in the IVOA. They discovered a single new brown dwarf using the NVO prototype. In this section their demo scenario is described.Brown dwarfs are substellar objects floating freely in space unlike planets and having too low in mass to sustain hydrogen-burning nuclear fusion reactions like normal stars. They are difficult to find in the sky, since they emit almost no optical light. Only 200 brown dwarfs are discovered until this study (Berriman et al., 2003). The NVO project searched for brown dwarfs in a huge amount of archived data obtained through survey observations. Since they are faint in the visual range of electromagnetic wave, it is necessary to use multiple archive data observed in different wavelengths. Selection Criteria for Brown DwarfsIn order to discover brown dwarfs, an observation in infrared is needed. Figure 1 is a schematic graph of Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) of thermal electromagnetic radiation from normal stars and brown dwarfs. It is noted that these SEDs represent thermal radiation only and are different from observed SEDs because real spectra from brown dwarfs are affected by deep absorptions due to atmospheric atoms and molecules. This

show abstract

“…The virtual observatory (VO) framework, now in development by sixteen national and international projects, provides the interface standards for such navigation (Quinn et al, 2004). In addition, virtual observatory projects are providing high-level applications to work with standard VO data products and enabling astronomical researchers and data centers to provide their data to the VO with relative simplicity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The "new astronomy" emphasizes the analysis of multi-wavelength data from billions of objects, from which we expect to discover significant patterns previously hidden in smaller, biased samples. Navigation of this vast sea of data requires new approaches to data discovery, data access, and data delivery based on internationally agreed standards.The virtual observatory (VO) framework, now in development by sixteen national and international projects, provides the interface standards for such navigation (Quinn et al, 2004). In addition, virtual observatory projects are providing high-level applications to work with standard VO data products and enabling astronomical researchers and data centers to provide their data to the VO with relative simplicity.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Data standards for the international virtual observatory

Hanisch

2006

Data Sci. J.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

INTRODUCTIONAstronomy is facing a data avalanche. Large digital sky surveys have become the dominant source of data in astronomy, now totaling well over 100 Terabytes in volume and growing rapidly. There are many examples, such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), the Palomar Digital Sky Survey (DPOSS), the Guide Star Catalog (GSC), Faint Images of the Radio Sky (FIRST), the National Radio Astronomy VLA Sky Survey (NVSS), the ROSAT All-Sky-Survey (RASS), the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), The Quest for Excellence for Suppliers of Telecommunications (QUEST), and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). (A web search on any of these will lead to websites describing the missions and surveys.) Observatory archives provide vast collections of pointed observations, and future synoptic survey telescopes such as LSST will provide complete images of the observable night sky every 3-4 days. Complementing these vast data archives are fully electronic journals and astronomy digital libraries such as the Astrophysics Data System (http://adswww.harvard.edu), NASA Extragalactic Database (http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu), and CDS, the astronomy data center in Strasbourg, France, (http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr). Thus, astronomers are faced with data sets that are orders of magnitude larger, and more complex, than anything they have dealt with in the past. These data sets must be compared with models and theoretical simulations that are often of equal or even larger scale. The "new astronomy" emphasizes the analysis of multi-wavelength data from billions of objects, from which we expect to discover significant patterns previously hidden in smaller, biased samples. Navigation of this vast sea of data requires new approaches to data discovery, data access, and data delivery based on internationally agreed standards.The virtual observatory (VO) framework, now in development by sixteen national and international projects, provides the interface standards for such navigation (Quinn et al., 2004). In addition, virtual observatory projects are providing high-level applications to work with standard VO data products and enabling astronomical researchers and data centers to provide their data to the VO with relative simplicity. Through these developments, the virtual observatory becomes a catalyst for worldwide access to astronomical observations and an essential part of the research astronomer's toolkit. It is important to emphasize, however, that the VO is not a centralized data repository or a data quality enforcement organization. The VO is the

show abstract

The International Virtual Observatory Alliance: recent technical developments and the road ahead

Cited by 29 publications

References 0 publications

A Semantic eScience Platform for Chemistry

A Semantic eScience Platform for Chemistry

Astronomical Research Using Virtual Observatories

Data standards for the international virtual observatory

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About