Françoise Genova (CDS, Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg)
Abstract
The astronomical Virtual Observatory (VO) aims at providing seamless access to the wealth of the discipline on-line resources, hence at developing global interoperability. This is coordinated by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance. During the first period of the VO development, a huge work has been devoted to the development of basic interoperability standards, to set up the VO framework for publication of data and for interoperability of tools, which has proven to be a major asset for seamless usage of data. Now the VO is in operations.
The talk will describe the different strands of work of an operational VO, and the challenges ahead, taking in particular the example of the European VO. The European implementation of the VO has been moulded by the specific organisation of European astronomy, with complementary roles of the local, national and European levels. Several projects supported by the European Commission have helped to shape Euro-VO, with a strong emphasis on coordination of national and intergovernmental agency projects on actions towards astronomers, data centres and VO developers, including during the last period outreach towards education and the public. Local and national projects contribute in the VO development and implementation in their domains of interest and expertise. A census of European astronomical data centres performed in 2009/2010 shows a large interest for the VO, and a wide diversity of sizes and organisations, in the data centre community. The Astronet Infrastructure Roadmap for European astronomy (2009) has recognized data and the VO as one of the infrastructures of astronomy. The way forward will be discussed.Slides in PDF format
Paper ID: I06
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