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Planning for the Virtual Observatory. Tara Murphy. … with input from other Aus-VO members …. What is the VO?. Mission: “ To deliver more science per dollar for astronomy ” The VO is a distributed collection of: Data resources Software resources Computing (grid) resources Telescopes?.
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Planning for the Virtual Observatory Tara Murphy … with input from other Aus-VO members …
What is the VO? • Mission: “To deliver more science per dollar for astronomy” • The VO is a distributed collection of: • Data resources • Software resources • Computing (grid) resources • Telescopes? Tara Murphy http://www.aus-vo.org Decadal Plan Meeting 2004
International community • The IVOA is a collaboration between many countries, several of which are allocating significant resources to it • Over $25 million has been invested by NVO, Astrogrid and AVO • Member countries include: • US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, Hungary, Japan, China, India, Spain, Italy, Korea Tara Murphy http://www.aus-vo.org Decadal Plan Meeting 2004
Why is the VO important? • Future facilities (such as SKA) will require enormous software effort to achieve their potential Funding for these facilities will have to include money for specialised software development • The VO is developing expertise in the type of software and infrastructure required Tara Murphy http://www.aus-vo.org Decadal Plan Meeting 2004
And also… • IAU resolution Public Access to Astronomical Archives : • Data obtained on publicly-funded Major National or International Astronomical facilities should … be placed in an archive where they may be accessed via the internet by all research astronomers. • … the data should be accompanied by appropriate metadata and other information or tools to make them scientifically valuable. • ARC requirements Tara Murphy http://www.aus-vo.org Decadal Plan Meeting 2004
Australia’s involvement • Should Australia be a part of it? YES! • Why? • To increase the effectiveness of Australian Researchers • To increase the effectiveness of Australian Instruments Tara Murphy http://www.aus-vo.org Decadal Plan Meeting 2004
The HST archive Tara Murphy http://www.aus-vo.org Decadal Plan Meeting 2004
The current situation • So far Aus-VO has been successful at obtaining funding from a variety of sources such as • APAC • CSIRO Emerging Science • ARC LIEF grants • Which have allowed us to get started Tara Murphy http://www.aus-vo.org Decadal Plan Meeting 2004
However… • To be more effective we need to • strengthen the identity of Aus-VO • achieve critical mass • be able to set long term goals Tara Murphy http://www.aus-vo.org Decadal Plan Meeting 2004
The future of Aus-VO • We see the VO as part of a larger movement towards e-science • We want to produce great software for Australian astronomy data • To be successful we need to change: • the structure of Aus-VO • the way it is funded Tara Murphy http://www.aus-vo.org Decadal Plan Meeting 2004
Conclusion • Fact: the amount of astronomical data will increase massively in the next decade • Fact: old software techniques just won’t work any more • To be competitive in this new era we have to plan for these changes now! Tara Murphy http://www.aus-vo.org Decadal Plan Meeting 2004