1. The Astrophysical Virtual Observatory F. Genova, AstroNET meeting, Poitiers

2. Astronomy on-line resources • On-line information and services: observatory archives, value-added services and tools (e.g. CDS, NED), electronic journals and the NASA ADS bibliographic database, … • Widely used by the community world-wide • A very significant fraction of published papers combine data from several instruments • Long term international partnership for defining standards to describe data and for networking of on-line resources • Navigation between on-line resources F. Genova, AstroNET meeting, Poitiers

3. The Astronomical Virtual Observatory • Science driven: tools for astronomers • From links between services to the astronomical Virtual Observatory (integration) Seamless and transparent query of data centres New analysis and visualisation tools A standard structure for data centres to publish their data and services F. Genova, AstroNET meeting, Poitiers

4. Prototype accessing distributed archives: AVO RTD project (FP5) 2MASS ESO-WFI Chandra Data available at selected point are highlighted in tree VLT-ISAAC HST-ACS Field of view outlines are plotted automatically DSS My Data Image metadata – provenance and characterisation F. Genova, AstroNET meeting, Poitiers AVO prototype based on CDS Aladin

5. ESAC IAP ParisObservatory Lyon Observatory F. Genova, AstroNET meeting, Poitiers

6. Line lists in value-added services provided by specialised scientific teams F. Genova, AstroNET meeting, Poitiers ESA VOSpec & Spectral Line Access Protocol (SLAP) Service

7. A huge diversity of resources • ‘Classical’ data centres: observatory archives, services such as ADS, CDS NED - science ready data (project end-product), value-added services + VO layer • More and more scientific teams are willing to provide services – share their expertise theoretical services (running models/giving access to results), focussed services, image processing s/w suites, … • E.g. comparison between modelling and observations • A “hidden” research infrastructure but a major support for research F. Genova, AstroNET meeting, Poitiers

8. A global framework: the International Virtual Observatory Alliance Round the clock: Europe (incl. ESA, ESO + 6 partners) China India Canada Spain Italy Armenia France Germany Hungary Japan Korea USA Russia UK (AstroGrid) Australia F. Genova, AstroNET meeting, Poitiers