1. The Astrophysical Virtual Observatory to EURO-VO transitionPaolo PadovaniESO Virtual Observatory Systems DepartmentEURO-VO Facility Centre Scientist

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) 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 P. Padovani, ADASS XV

4. AVO’s Main Achievements • Three science demonstrations • First refereed astronomicalpaper 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) P. Padovani, ADASS XV

5. AVO’s Main Achievements (conts.) • Founding member of IVOA • Inputfor 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) 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 P. Padovani, ADASS XV