The Virtual
Observatory in action :
new science,
new technology, and next generation
facilities.
Proposal for
an IAU Symposium
to be held
within the IAU General Assembly
Prague,
August 2006.
development web site
http://www.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/VoscienceIAUPrague
Submitted Version 03/01/2005
After a few years of early technical
development, the Virtual Observatory (VO) is now at a stage where new science
is starting to be performed with VO tools and infrastructure. This process
should accelerate over the next few years, to the point where it becomes almost
invisibly the standard way of doing things. By 2006, the time will be just
right to review science performed with the VO, and especially its impact on
smaller institutions and poorer countries, along with continued VO technical
developments.
THE VO VISION
The vision of the Virtual Observatory (VO) is to make access to
astronomical databases as seamless and transparent as browsing the World Wide
Web is today. The data flowing from facilities and surveys will be
standardised, compatible, and easy to examine jointly. Data centres will
provide not just data access, but data manipulation tools. These too will be
standardised and compatible so that astronomers can mix and match different
tools. Finally, data centres will also
provide computational resources - data storage, search engines, analysis
engines, and virtual user storage space - which will also be internationally
standardised. The result should be an enormous increase in astronomical productivity.
As each astronomer sits down at her PC, the world’s data, and all the tools
necessary to analyse it, will be at her fingertips.
THE ROUTE TO THE VO
Achieving the vision requires both technological
developments and an international commitment to standardisation and working
culture. Increasingly, it will alter the way that astronomers do science, and
the way that future facilities and projects plan for their data management, and
the scientific exploitation of their data. It will make an impact on a wide
variety of astronomical topics, but especially those using very large
databases, and those needing a multi-wavelength approach, or more generally the
use of multiple archives.
To date, there are fifteen VO projects
worldwide, who co-ordinate their efforts through an International Virtual
Observatory Alliance (IVOA). This body evolves and agrees upon technical
standards as well as sharing best practice and software. It is widely regarded
as a strikingly successful example of international co-operation, and was
highlighted as such in the recent OECD report on future large scale facilities
in astronomy. The various VO projects have laid the foundations for the VO -
international standards, fundamental infrastructure, early demonstrations, and
the first published science papers using VO tools - and we expect the next few
years to see the VO gradually becoming a working reality.
NEXT STEPS FOR THE VO
The next stages will involve
·
user uptake worldwide
·
science results using VO tools
·
deployment of the new infrastructure at data centres
·
making links to existing and planned facilities
·
much more ambitious data mining analysis services.
These then form the main themes of a symposium
for 2006. Our aim therefore is to bring together an exciting blend of new
science results, plans for major facilities, and discussion of technical
advances in data mining and the VO.
PAST VO MEETINGS
We feel that the time will be just right for an
IAU Symposium in August 2006.
There has been a number of national and regional
meetings devoted to the VO concept, and a considerable number of technical
meetings internal to the specialised VO development community, but a relatively
small number of open international meetings. After some early specialised conferences
at Caltech and ESO during 2000 and 2002, the first international exposure to a
general astronomical audience was at a Joint Discussion held as part of the IAU
General Assembly at Sydney in July 2003.
By 2006 we believe that the maturity of the subject, the expected
scientific results using new tools, and the importance of the infrastructure to
expensive new facilities, make a scientific Symposium attached to the IAU in
2006 an attractive idea.
KEY ASTRONOMICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Astronomical developments also make the
Symposium a fruitful prospect. Several major sky survey projects - the SDSS,
WFCAM/UKIDSS, VISTA, and the LSST - will
cover the full range from mature archive, through hot new live database, to
imminent creation. It is widely acknowledged that the huge volume of these
databases, and the need to match them to other data sources to make sense of
the objects in them, requires the VO infrastructure for their full
exploitation, and we expect to see major advances in cosmology, quasars, and
stellar astronomy emerging. More widely, the increasing push to multi-facility
science, combining radio, X-ray and optical data, or combining solar and space
plasma observations, should be leading to exciting new results. Finally, plans
for major new facilities, such as ALMA, GAIA, ELT, or SKA, will be developed
explicitly with the new infrastructure
in mind.
FREEDOM OF ACCESS TO DATA
AND FACILITIES
One of the fundamental aims
of the Virtual Observatory initiative is democratisation of astronomy. The
infrastructure is global. The IVOA develops open standards. Tools and software
components developed worldwide are shared.
Data centres, as well as providing open access to key databases, will
provide server-based search, query, and analysis services, as well as
distributed storage services. The result will be that facilities in Mumbai will be
just as good as those in Caltech. The VO is fundamentally aligned with the ICSU
position in breaking down the "digital divide". A particular focus of
the proposed Symposium will be to explore how well this vision is developing.
Each session is a quarter day.
Day-1
Session-1
Technology Demonstrations
Session-2
Technology Demonstrations
Session-3
Introductory Reviews
Session-4
Results and prospects from Sky Survey programmes
Day-2
Session-3 VO technical advances and Data Mining
Algorithms
Session-4 The Sun-Earth connection
Session-5 Cosmology and Quasars-I
Session-6 Cosmology and Quasars-II
Day-3
Session-7 Large scale facilities and data
management
Session-8 Galactic Structure and extreme stellar
populations
Half-day break.
Day-4
Session-9 Technology Demonstrations
Session-10 Technology Demonstrations
Session-11The VO worldwide
Session-12 Solar system science
Day-5
Session-13 The VO and outreach
Session-14 The future of the VO
Session-15 Conference summary.
TOPIC
NOTES
Technology
demonstrations. Throughout the IAU, the main
international VO projects will establish stalls showing the current VO
infrastructure in action. These will be visited on a drop-in basis throughout
the two-week GA, including the time when the VO Symposium is running. However,
we will also provided scheduled sessions with organised
"walk-throughs" of software and science results as a formal part of
the Symposium programme.
Introductory
reviews. These reviews will explain the VO vision,
examine the technological readiness of the VO to date, and summarise key
science areas where we expect the VO to have an impact.
Sky Survey programmes. By the time of the
Symposium, SDSS will have a large and mature data set, the UKIDSS IR sky survey
programme will be partially completed, VISTA will be about to start, and plans
for the LSST will be well advanced. The VO infrastructure will be crucial to
getting science out of all these and so we expect significant interest. We also
see the automated survey instruments such as MACHO and successors, as well as
robotic facilities such as the Liverpool Telescope, in this bracket.
Sun-Earth connection and
solar system science. The key scientific
interest is in combining information from solar observatories with
earth-orbiting space plasma experiments, in order to understand space weather.
We also expect interest in VO tools from scientists looking for near-Earth
objects and Trans-Neptunian objects in large optical automated surveys. These
communities have often been somewhat separate from mainstream astrophysics, but
there is a lot in common, so we are particularly to highlight these areas.
Cosmology, quasars,
galaxies, stellar populations etc. A
considerable range of science topics should find the VO infrastructure and
tools important. Sometimes this is just because of the importance of
multi-wavelength data, and so of multiple archives from different centres;
sometimes it is because of the desire to use extremely large databases; and
often it is specifically the need to locate rare objects in multi-dimensional
parameter space. Finally, in all these areas, astronomers increasingly want to
perform not just data searches, but rather ambitious kinds of data analysis -
correlation analyses, mixture fitting, etc. One of the aims of the VO is to
make such things easy for everybody, not just for "power users".
Future
facilities and data management. Large projects are increasingly realising that
they have to build their data management chains to fit the new vision of the VO
- not just outputting standard formats, but making provision for science-ready
archives as the main mode of user access, and providing new services within the
VO infrastructure, such as user-tunable pipeline processing, and VO-compatible
proposal request and instrument control. In this session, we will be open to
whoever wishes to talk, but we would expect contributions from both current
observatories and facilities, and the big players in new projects, such as
ALMA, LSST, Planck, GAIA, and ELT.
VO
technology and the future. The main focus of the Symposium is on science
made possible by the VO. However we also wish to review key technology advances
that have made this possible, and to look forward to the next technology steps
needed to facilitate science. The two key areas here are in advanced data
mining algorithms, and more intelligent resource discovery and utilisation,
linked to global developments in the semantic web.
The
VO worldwide. The VO
infrastructure links up the world's databases transparently, and there is an
increasing focus on services provided by facilities and data centres. This
means astronomers in small institutions and poorer countries come much closer
to being on an equal footing with those in large institutions and rich
countries. This is why the IVOA contains
VO projects from all over the world, including Asia and Eastern Europe. As well
as access for their astronomers, they are keen to contribute data and resources
from their own facilities. We will be keen to hear from world-wide
representatives whether this vision is becoming a reality, and what else we
need to do.
VO
and outreach. As well
as professional astronomers world-wide, the VO infrastructure will make it easier
for schoolchildren and teachers to use and interact with real astronomical data
and facilities. There are currently several active projects aimed at such
outreach, and we would expect contributions from them.
Conference
summary. We will
select someone distinguished to make a closing keynote speech. In addition we
will select two individuals to review the posters, and report on selected
highlights.
POSTERS
Poster papers will be strongly encouraged, so
that oral talks can be of a more general nature, and given plenty of time for
discussion.
INVITED
SPEAKERS
We will invite speakers to cover four main
themes. We will aim at securing something like 8-10 keynote speakers. The names
below are preliminary ideas. Noone has been contacted yet.
(1) The first and most important theme is
science with the VO. Our first priority is therefore to invite senior scientists
to give review talks in relevant science areas, such as cosmology, extreme
steallar objects, or solar system science. Their remit will be both to review
the science topic and to consider how the VO is important for this area. Some
preliminary names are :
Jim Peebles (talked at 2002 Garching VO meeting)
Jerry Ostriker
(talked at 2002 Garching VO meeting)
Harayuki Okuda (X-ray astronomy, Japan)
(2) The second theme is large telescope and
survey projects. Possible names are :
Konrad Kuijken (VST, VISTA)
Tony Tyson (LSST project)
Gerry Gilmore (GAIA project)
Someone from Astro-F survey (Japan)
(3) The third theme is VO technology. Here we
will aim for key VO project leaders and/or senior figures in the larger world
of Web, e-Science, or Grid worlds. Possible names are :
Peter Quinn (leader of Euro-VO project)
Alex Szalay (leader of US-NVO)
Ian Foster (Grid guru, Argonne Lab)
Carole Goble (Bio-informatics)
(4) The fourth theme is VO democratisation and
outreach. Possible names are
Ajit Khembhavi (India)
Chenzhou Cui (China)
Sang Chul Kim (Korea)
SUPPORTING LETTERS
LETTER FROM CHAIR OF
PROPOSING COMMISSION
From: genova@cluster.u-strasbg.fr
Sent: 04 December 2004 11:06
To: al@roe.ac.uk
Cc: Ray.Norris@atnf.csiro.au;
genova@newb6.u-strasbg.fr
Subject: Commission 5/Prague VO Symposium
Dear Andy,
Commission 5 fully supports the proposal you lead,
to hold a Symposium entitled "The Virtual Observatory in action: new
science, new technology, and next generation facilities" attached to the
IAU General Assembly in Prague.
Building the astronomical Virtual Observatory is one
of the very few truly global endeavours of astronomy, and so it is very appropriate
to hold the Symposium in conjunction with the IAU General Assembly. The first
Virtual Observatory projects were started in 2001, and the Virtual Observatory
Alliance, which groups together individual projects, was formed in 2002. The
Joint Discussion "Large telescopes & Virtual Observatories: Visions
for the Future" at GA XXV was a very successful forum in which the concept
was presented to the worldwide astronomical community, whose feedback was
useful for validation and further development.
VO projects have been extremely active in the last
years, and the concept is now mature enough to enable new science. It is time
to present the community with the potential it offers. All sub-fields of
astronomy will benefit from the VO, each bringing its own requirements to it,
and the Symposium format is best suited to present and discuss all its
scientific aspects and novelty.
The Symposium will be an important milestone for the
VO, touching the community well beyond VO projects and beyond their national
borders. VO is no longer just a topic for aficionados. Instead astronomers from
many different backgrounds are starting to ask what the VO will mean for them,
and for their science, and how their
observatory should be involved. Even more importantly, it is essential that the
future directions of the VO are guided by the astronomical community as a
whole.
Regards,
Francoise Genova
Commission 5 president
SUPPORTING LETTER FROM COMMISSION 40
(Radio Astronomy)
Prof. Andrew Lawrence
Head of School of Physics
University of Edinburgh
UK
Dear Prof. Lawrence:
On behalf of Commission 40 (Radio Astronomy) of the
International Astronomy Union, I am very pleased to support your proposal for
an IAU Symposium entitled "The Virtual Observatory in action : new science,
new technology, and next generation facilities", to be held during the
XXVIth IAU General Assembly in Prague
2006.
This interesting proposal departs from the usual, in
the sense that it is focused in the Virtual Observatory project and not on an
astronomical object or phenomenon. The Virtual Observatory project has the goal
of making access to astronomical databases as seamless and transparent as
browsing the World Wide Web is today. Being myself (as many other astronomers)
a user of presently available archival databases I feel that it is important to
review, shape,and define this ambitious project.
The proposed scientific organizing committee is well
balanced, and as a result of enormous potential of a working Virtual
Observatory, this symposium will certainly be of interest for the participants
of the Prague 2006 General Asembly. The
proposal will include technology demonstrations with
organized"walk-throughs" of software and science results.
In summary, I amply support this proposal and look
forward to its approval.
Sincerely,
Dr. Luis F. Rodriguez
President of Commission 40
ccp. Dr. Virginia Trimble, President of Division XII
Dr. Karel
A. van der Hucht, IAU Assistant General Secretary
SUPPORTING LETTER FROM COMMISSION 44 / DIVISION XI
(Space and High Energy
Astrophysics)
From: Haruyuki Okuda [okda@agate.plala.or.jp]
Sent: 18 December 2004 03:23
To: al@roe.ac.uk
Cc: masatoshi.ohishi@nao.ac.jp
Subject: IAU symposium
Dear Prof. Andy Lawrence,
From Dr.
Masatoshi Ohishi, one of the SOC members, I have recently known that you were
asking me to send a supporting letter to your proposal for the IAU symposium
"The Virtual Observatory in Action: New Science, New Technology and Next
Generation Facilities". I have
checked my mailing list in the past, but I could not find your mail. I do not
know why.
Any way,
I have read your proposal sent to Dr. Ohishi,
and find it very interesting proposal.
In every field of astronomy, observational data are flooded by the rapid developments of observational
technique. Tremendous amount of data have been continuously produced from
various facilities in ground based observatories as well as from space borne
telescopes. Now, full use of these data sets is impossible without powerful
coordination among the different fields and introduction of new infrastructure. I think the idea of Virtual Observatory
should be the best solution. In this respect, your proposal is very valuable to
advance the idea and organize world wide collaboration. Since many space missions are in operations,
and many others are in preparations, it is quite timely to have such a
symposium also for our community of Space and High Energy Astrophysics. As the
president of Division XI, I am pleased to support the proposal for the IAU
symposium "The Virtual Obervatory in Action: New Science, New Technology
and New Generation Facilities"to be held at Prague in 2006.
Sincerely yours,
Haruyuki
Okuda
President of Division XI,
Space and
High Energy Astrophysics
SUPPORTING LETTER FROM CHAIR
OF
WORKING GROUP ON LARGE SCALE
FACILITIES
From: Gerry Gilmore [gil@ast.cam.ac.uk]
Sent: 19 November 2004 17:16
To: A.Lawrence@roe.ac.uk
Subject: support for proposed IAU meeting for the
Virtual Observatory
Hi Andy,
I confirm support for your proposed IAU meeting
related to the Virtual Observatory from the IAU WG on Future Large Scale
facilities. The IVOA is developing rapidly to become not only a premier Large
Scale facility in its own right, but also to be a critical enabling
infrastructure which will support and enhance many other future Large Scale
Facilities.
It is clear that the present state of extremely
rapid development of IVOA,and its varioua national activities across the globe,
make it ideally qualified for IAU sponsorship.
good luck with your proposal
gerry Gilmore
Chair, IAU WG Future Large Scale facilities.
********************************************************
Gerry Gilmore FInstP ScD
Professor of Experimental Philosophy
Institute of Astronomy direct phone +44 (0)1223 337506
Cambridge University secretary: Suzanne Howard
Madingley Road +44 (0)1223 766097
Cambridge CB3 0HA showard@ast.cam.ac.uk
UK
fax +44(0)1223 339910/7523
mobile +44 (0)771 2774522
e-mail: gil@ast.cam.ac.uk;
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~gil/
*******************************************************
SUPPORTING LETTER FROM CHAIR
OF
WORKING GROUP ON SURVEYS
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 11:02:04 +1100 (EST)
From: Quentin Parker <qap@ics.mq.edu.au>
To: Andrew Lawrence <al@roe.ac.uk>
Cc: Quentin Parker <qap@ics.mq.edu.au>
Subject: Re: VO Symposium proposal for Prague IAU
Dear Prof Lawrence,
thank you for submitting your draft submission concerning
an IAU symposium on the Astrophysical Virtual Observatory for our comment and
endorsement.
As chair of the IAU working group on Sky Surveys
(Commission IX) I strongly support this proposal.
An IAU endorsed symposium at the next General
Assembly on this important and rapidly maturing multi-national initiative is
extremely timely and would be of considerable interest to many prospective
attendees.
The proposed SOC appears balanced and
representative, whilst the topic list is well structured and comprehensive.
Finally it is not hard to make a compelling scientific case to hold such a
colloquium at the next IAU as it strikes as the very heart of how we will
exploit and manage multi-wavelength, multi-facility data of increasing
complexity, scope and volume in the near future.
Best regards,
Quentin
Dr. Quentin A Parker
Chair IAU Working Group on Sky Surveys
Department of Physics
Macquarie University
Sydney 2109 AUSTRALIA
qap@ics.mq.edu.au
SUPPORTING LETTER FROM CHAIR
OF
WORKING GROUP ON SOLAR DATA
ACCESS
From: rdb@mssl.ucl.ac.uk
Sent: 19 November 2004 18:34
To: al@roe.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Prague IAU VO proposal
Dear Andy,
Thank you for your e-mail - I'm sorry that I have
been so slow responding.
An IAU Symposium related to Virtual Observatories is
an excellent idea and by the proposed date we hope that many VOs will be in
general use and will be making a real impact on the analysis of data.
We have started to make some real progress in
bringing together the solar and heliospheric VOs under the Division II working
group on International Data Access. We recently had a very productive meeting
in the US which brought together interested parties in this area, including the
five VO projects dedicated to this community.
One or more representatives of the Working Group
would be happy to serve on the SOC to
help organanize this event.
Best Regards
Bob
DETAILS
FROM PROPOSAL FORM
as
submitted to IAU proposal Server Jan 3rd 2005.
(1)
Title:
The Virtual Observatory in action : new science,
new technology, and next generation
facilities.
(2)
Date and duration:
2006-08-14 or 2006-08-21 duration 5 days.
(3)
Location:
Prague
(4)
Coordinating IAU Division:
Division XII "Union Wide Activity"
(5)
Proposing Commission:
IAU Commission 5 "Documentation and
Astronomical Data"
(6)
Supporting Commission(s):
C40 Radio Astronomy
C44/DXI
Space and High Energy Astrophysics
WG of the Executive on Large Scale Facilities
WG on Surveys
WG on Solar Data Access
Also hope for further support letters from
C47 Cosmology
C9 Instrumentation and Techniques
(7)
Other ICSU body co-sponsoring the meeting, if any:
Could approach CODATA if the proposal is
approved.
(8)
Other supporting organisations, if any:
N/A for symposium proposal.
(9)
Contact address:
Prof. A.Lawrence
Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9
3HJ
Scotland, UK
Telephone: +44-(0)131-668-8346
Telefax: +44-(0)131-668-8416
E-mail: al@roe.ac.uk
(10)
Proposed Scientific Organising Committee
We intend to recruit one additional member for
the SOC from outside Europe and the USA.
|
Name: |
Country: |
Position/expertise
|
|
Andy
Lawrence (Chair) |
UK |
Head of School of Physics, University of
Edinburgh. Project Leader of AstroGrid project. PI of UKIDSS IR sky survey
project. Current chair of International Virtual Observatory Alliance. |
|
Masatoshi
Ohishi |
Japan |
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan,
Tokyo. Leader of Japanese Virtual Observatory project. Current deputy-chair
of International Virtual Observatory
Alliance. |
|
Francoise
Genova |
France |
Director of CDS, University of Strasbourg,
France. Leader of France-VO initiative. President of IAU Commission 5. |
|
Ray
Norris |
Australia |
Deputy Director of the Australia National
Telescope Facility, Australia. Vice-President of IAU Commission 5. |
|
Attila
Meszaros |
Czech Republic |
Astronomical Institute, Charles University,
Prague, Czech Republic. High energy astrophysicist. |
|
Robert
Hanisch |
USA |
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore,
USA. Project Manager of US National Virtual Observatory Project. |
|
Peter
Quinn |
Germany |
Head of Data Management Division, European
Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany. Overall leader of Euro-VO
programme. |
|
Alexander
Szalay |
USA |
Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns
Hopkins University, USA. Leading cosmologist on Sloan
Digital Sky Survey Team. PI of US National Virtual Observatory project. |
|
Nicholas
Walton |
UK |
Institute of Astronomy, University of
Cambridge, UK. Specialist in time variable astronomy. Project Scientist for
UK AstroGrid project. |
|
Oleg
Malkov |
Russia |
Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy
of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. Leader of Russian Virtual Observatory project. |
|
Ajit
Khembhavi |
India |
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and
Astrophysics, Pune, India. Expert in quasar studies. Leader of Indian Virtual
Observatory project. |
|
Roy
Williams |
USA |
Center for Advanced Computing Research,
California Institute of Technology, USA. Distinguished computer scientist and
Technical Lead in the International Virtual Observatory Alliance. |
|
Giuseppina
Fabbiano |
USA |
Chandra Science Centre, Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, USA. Specialist in X-ray studies of
galaxies. Led Chandra science software development. |
|
Isabelle
Scholl |
France |
International Space University, French campus.
Distinguished solar physicist and Professor of Space Information
Technologies. |
|
Zhao
Yongheng |
China |
Director of World Data Center for Astronomy,
Beijing Astronomical Observatory. Leader of Chinese Virtual Observatory
Project. |
|
Enrique
Solano |
Spain |
Laboratory For Space Astrophysics and
Theoretical Physics. INTA, Madrid. Leader of Spanish Virtual
Observatory Project. |
(11)
Proposed Local Organising Committee:
N/A for Symposium.
(12)
Proposed Editor(s) of the Proceedings:
Chief Edditor : Andy Lawrence
Assistant Editors : Roy Williams, Nicholas
Walton
(13)
Expected or maximum number of participants:
Approx 250
(14)
Registration fee:
N/A for Symposium
(15)
Expected price of 2-3 categories of
hotels and/or other accommodations:
N/A for Symposium
(16)
Amount requested for travel support from the IAU:
N/A for Symposium
(17)
Topics in the Preliminary Scientific Programme (max. 10 lines):
(For announcement in
the IAU Information Bulletin)
- Cosmology and Galactic Structure with very large databases
- Rare object multi-wavelength searches : the
universe at 10 pc and z=10
- Serendipitous discoveries with the VO
- The Sun-Earth connection
- Population analysis : stars, galaxies, quasars,
solar system bodies
- Data mining with SDSS, WFCAM, VISTA and the
LSST
- Data management for ALMA, ELT, GAIA, and SKA
- Technical progress on the VO infrastructure
- New data mining algorithms
- The semantic web and the future VO
(18)
Detailed scientific rationale and draft programme.
draft attached.
will also be
available on IVOA web pages
(18)
Statement on confirmation of ICSU policy on freedom of attendance.
We confirm that attendance
from ALL countries is guaranteed, in accordance with the ICSU rules on Freedom
in the Conduct of Science.
(19)
Proposer
|
Name |
E-mail |
Date |
Place |
|
Professor Andrew Lawrence |
al@roe.ac.uk |
2005-01-03 |
Edinburgh |
(20)
President of Co-ordinating IAU Division
|
Name |
Division
Number |
Email |
|
Professor Virgina Trimble |
XII |
vtrimble@astro.umd.edu |