IVOA Executive Committee Meeting (FM42)

Sunday October 16 @ 17.00-19:00 Pune

Supplementary: Wednesday October 19 @ 13:00-14.15

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Logistics

The meeting will be held in the Bhaskara 3 Meeting Room at IUCAA.

Transportation will be provided at 16:30 from the Marriott Hotel on Sunday, Oct. 16. A representative from IUCAA will be available in the lobby at the time of departure.

Agenda FM42

1. Roll Call and Agenda (MA)
2. Minutes of TM41 (PP)
3. Review of Actions
4. Project Reports - Significant Events Only
5. Report of the TCG meeting and TCG status (CA)
6. Reports by WGs - WG Chairs
7. Approval of new IVOA Recommendation(s) [Standing Item]
8. WG Chairs and vice-Chairs with expiring terms
9. IVOA membership application from Ukrainian Virtual Observatory (PP)
10. Possible new IVOA members (PP, AK)
11. The VO in the current global economic situation (PP, All)
12. May 2012 Interop (BH)
13. Future Interops (All)
14. CSP status (MA)
15. Date of next telecon
16. AOB
17. Summary of Actions (MA)

Reports from the Projects

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Argentina - NOVA

NOVA has finally received the funds from Conicet,one of the main research agency. We are installing and testing software to allow uploading data. A national workshop is being planned for next year to introduce users to VO tools. If possible, we will try to synchronize it with the Interop in Brazil, since it needs to be close or simultaneous with the national meeting of the Argentinian Astronomy Society to increase the impact in the local community. NOVa is also in contact with HELIO project to make observations from solar telescopes at CASLEO available.

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ArVO

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AstroGrid

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Australia-VO

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BRAVO

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China-VO

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CVO

The CVO project continues to work on implementing new features in our TAP service, such as inline table upload, authenticated access to properietary metadata, experimental PQL support, and RSS output format. Users can combine PQL queries and RSS output format to make their own custom RSS feed which notifies them when new data of interest becomes available at the CADC.

We have implemented the draft TAP Registry Extension (TAPRegExt) as part of the VOSI-Capabilities resource in our TAP service.

Our work on implementing a complete VOSpace-2.0 service has continued and we have now implemented most aspects of the current working draft; we have provided feedback that has been incorporated into the draft specification (mainly as clarification, some as changes).

Our experimental Group Membership (GMS) service is functionally complete and operational. We will likely bring a proposal to the GWS working group in the near future.

The CADC continues to provide VM-based cloud computing services to users; this service now uses VOSpace to store and retrieve VM images so users can now share both data and VMs with their collaborators.

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Euro-VO

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ESO-VO

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ESAVO

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France VO

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GAVO

GAVO has hired two new persons; one is already busy working on the new relational registry and on providing packaged VO tools for Debian-based systems, the other will initially be taking up Splat-VO development to update the SSAP interface. We also worked on our data center software, DaCHS, e.g., on easier setup. There's also new code easing generation of SDM-compilant VOTables.

We continued maintaining our data collections, e.g., updating our theoretical spectra service in many respects while moving it to the data center proper, improving access to the Königstuhl plate archive, providing RAVE 3, adding orbits to our ephemeris service, and more.

In standards, we've been working on TAPRegExt, thinking about updating ADQL, TAP details, and more. We plan to spend some time on finally getting a utypes document done.

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HVO

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Japan-VO

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VAO

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RVO

RVO progress report (Oct 2011)

1. Working group "Technologies of RVO information structures" (IPI RAS, led by Leonid Kalinichenko)

In 2011 the following activity in the RVO area at the Institute of informatics problems of RAS deserves noting. Development of VO approaches based on the mediation of heterogeneous distributed information resources and applied to the problem of calibration of photometry of optical GRB afterglow continued. The core of the mediation infrastructure based on the declarative specification of the problem in conceptual terms and provided for the integrated access to the registered catalogs (including USNO, 2MASS, SDSS, VSX, UCAC, NSVS, GSVC) was refined to make the results practically applicable. Now the system works automatically starting as soon as a GRB is detected and delivering the results to be used in further observations.

2. The database of Moscow astronomical plate collection and maintenance of the General Catalogue of Variable Stars (INASAN and SAI MSU, led by Nikolai Samus)

The General Catalog of Variable Stars (GCVS), appended via Name-Lists, has got thousands of new entries in 2011. Because of its unprecedented large volume, the 80th Name-List is being prepared in three parts. Part 1 (2036 stars, right ascensions between 0h and 6h) has been published (Kazarovets et al., 2011a). Part 2 (more than 2000 stars, right ascensions between 6h and 16h) will be published later this year. Part 3 (also about 2000 stars) is in preparation. Dozens of corrections to the electronic GCVS have been introduced during the year. Besides 4 Novae given their GCVS names immediately upon discovery in 2011, we announced GCVS names for 10 young variables of special astrophysical interest (Kazarovets et al., 2011b).

Digitizing the Moscow plate collection (its part kept at Sternberg Institute) has slowed down due to technical problems with scanners. However, discoveries of new variable stars using digitized plates were continued. A paper on 75 new discoveries in the 10 deg x 10 deg field centered at SA 9 will be submitted this year. Search for variable stars has been commenced in the 10 deg x 10 deg field centered at the star beta Cas. Dozens of new variables have already been discovered; hundreds are expected to follow.

3. Working group "RVO data" (INASAN, led by Dana Kovaleva)

The revised list of Russian astronomical data resources is compiled (version of June 2011) and placed at http://www.inasan.ru/eng/rvo/rus_res.html The report on activity of the WG Astronomical Data will be presented at the XIII yearly All-Russian conference on Digital Libraries (Voronezh State University, October 19 to 22, 2011, http://rcdl2011.vsu.ru/index.php?&plang=e).

4. Zvenigorod Scanlaboratory Group (INASAN, led by Sergei Vereshchagin)

Zvenigorod observatory keeps working on the project "The creation of the electronic library of astronegatives received on Zvenigorod Astrograph".

Main task: processing, analysis and maintenance of access to plates archives and observational logs.

Since 1972 to 2005, 3703 negatives were observed and fixed in log.

The basic result: an electronic Astrograph Zeiss scan archive, data reduction and their inclusion into WFPDB.

The information on work science groups, tools, volumes and characteristics of glass library of the Zvenigorod observatory is presented on the INASAN site http:// www.inasan.ru/rus/scan/. The address of a site for viewing of archive of photographic plates of the Zvenigorod Astrograph in a Data Base in Bulgaria is http://draco.skyarchive.org/search/search.cgi

The Main Observatory Telescope: Astrograph Zeiss - 400/2000. It is established in Zvenigorod in 1972. Focus=200 sm. The telescope have wide field equal 8.5 to 8.5 for as much as possible for a large plate with size 30 on 30 cm. Such field of view allows to photograph a long tails of comets, having them on a plate diagonal.

The equipment for the project: A3 EPSON Expression 1640XL scanners with a computers.

Now we are scanning and cataloging the plate images according to requirements of the Data Center in Sofia (WFPDB). Scanning of photographic plates of the Zvenigorod Astrograph: 400 negatives in FITS, TIFF and JPG - formats are scanned in 2011. Now accessible more than 1500 scans in total. The scans was recorded on DVD, SOTA and USB disks.

Have presented the report at conference: European Week of Astronomy and Space Science, 4-8 July 2011, Saint Petersburg, Russia

5. Observational Data Archives Working Group (SAO RAS, led by Olga Zhelenkova)

We carried out step-by-step work on standardization of observation parameters of FITS files, stored in the SAO RAS archive and preparing of science-ready observation data. It includes:

1) integration of information systems for support of observations at the 6-m telescope. In SAO RAS the following systems were developed and supported for a number of years: the interactive system of submission of applications and scheduling of observations (http://www.sao.ru/request/), the electronic journal of observations (http://tb.sao.ru/BTALogs/, local access), the search information system of the observation archive (http://oasis.sao.ru/oasis/cgi-bin/fetch?Z&user&ru, http://www.elbib.ru/index.phtml?page=elbib/rus/journal/2010/part4/ZVP). The architecture of each system has three levels — "client - application server — database server". A web browser is used as a client, the application server is the Apache server, and the database server is PostgreSQL. All three systems integrated at the level of database tables, in order to eliminate duplication of information input and thereby reduce the errors introduced when entering the names of observational programs, surnames of the authors of the programs and observers;

2) we developed the program tool for automatic correction of astrometry calibration of direct images, getting on the 6-m telescope, Zeiss-1000 and the auxiliary telescopes. The tool works on the base of AstroGrid node , locally deployed in the observatory. As a reference catalogues through AstroGrid DCA are used 2MASS and GSC. We use our own astrometry correction algorithms. With the package we plan to held, in accordance with the WCS FITS standard, mass correction of coordinate parameters of direct images stored in the observation archive.

We optically identified of radio sources of the RCR catalogue with help of program tools and resources of the virtual observatory. We designed a prototype of the information system which contains radio, IR and optical data for the RCR sources, collected from digital surveys (VLSS, NVSS, FIRST, GB6, DSS-II, 2MASS, SDSS, LAS UKIDSS) and catalogues (VLSS, TXS, NVSS, FIRST, RCR, GB6, USNO-B1, GSC2.3.2, 2MASS, SDSS, LAS UKIDSS). The system will be used for further research as the RCR catalogue, as other lists of radio sources (http://www.sao.ru/fetch/cgi-bin/SkyObj/, http://www.elbib.ru/index.phtml?page=elbib/rus/journal/2010/part4/ZMST).

6. Publications

Kazarovets, E.V., Samus, N.N., Durlevich, O.V., et al. 2011a, The 80th Name-List of Variable Stars. Part I - RA 0h to 6h. Information Bulletin on Variable Stars, No. 5969.

Kazarovets, E.V., Reipurth, Bo, Samus, N.N. 2011b, GCVS Names for Interesting Young Variable Stars. Peremennye Zvezdy/Variable Stars, 31, No. 2.

Vereshchagin S., Chupina N., Digital archive of plate collection of the astrograph of the Zvenigorod observatory of Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Baltic Astronomy, 2012 (in press).

Kovaleva D.A., Dluzhnevskaya O.B. Russian resources of astronomical data to be integrated in the International Virtual Observatory. In: Digital libraries XII, 2011 (in press).

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SVO

(Since June 2011)

Manpower: 11 FTEs. The SVO Thematic Network (people from Spanish institutes with interest in the VO) is composed of 177 members in 34 institutes.

New project: SVO has got funds from the Spanish Ministry of Research for the period 2012-2014 (315000 euros).

SVO in Twitter (http://twitter.com/#ObsVirtEsp). In Spanish.

VO-compliance of astronomical archives:

- Official release of the Calar Alto VO archive (http://www.caha.es/the-scientific-archives-of-calar-alto-observatory-a-world-of-discoveries-at-everybody-s-reach.html)

Applications:

- TESELA: a new Virtual Observatory tool to determine blank fields for astronomical observations (Cardiel, Jiménez-Esteban, Alacid, Solano, Aberasturi). Accepted in MNRAS

- VOTA: A Virtual Observatory tool for asteroseismology. 20th Stellar Pulsation. Conf. Series. E. Solano (oral).

VO Science:

- WISE/2MASS-SDSS brown dwarfs candidates using Virtual Observatory tools (Aberasturi, Solano, Martín). Accepted in A&A.

- The Virtual Observatory and Gaia (II Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Gaia Network. E. Solano. Oral presentation.).

- The Virtual Observatory in action. SF2A. Paris. July 2011. E. Solano (invited talk).

- PHA's precovery using the Virtual Observatory. Solar System Exploration. Bilbao. June 2011. E. Solano (oral).

Outreach:

- The Virtual Observatory and the amateur astronomy. E. Solano. Cuenca. July 2011.

Education:

- The six Euro-VO cases translated into Spanish are available from the HoU-Spain web page.

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VObs.it

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VO-India

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Reports from WGs & IGs(follows order as at http://www.ivoa.net/forum/)

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Applications WG

The main current standardisation activity of the Apps WG is SAMP v1.3, which adds the Web Profile, providing the capability for web applications to participate in SAMP communications. Some prototype web applications making use of the Web Profile for science usage will be presented in Apps sessions in Pune.

SAMP 1.3 is advancing through the standardisation process, though slightly slower than advertised during the last Exec. A PR was posted on 05-09-2011, but this stimulated further useful discussions, and this version will now not be the subject of an RFC. The plan is now that a revised PR, informed by discussions at the Interop, will be posted shortly after Pune, followed by RFC and TCG review in the usual way, with the expectation of reaching REC status in early 2012.

A number of other VO-related applications will also be showcased during the Apps sessions as usual; the number of TAP-related submissions is notable.

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Data Access Layer WG

The SSA-1.1 specification has completed the TCG review period.

The latest WD-TAPRegExt-1.0 was posted 2011-07-27 and has been implemented in several TAP services. The specification is mature and should be ready for RFC in November 2011.

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Data Models WG

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Grid and Web Services Working Group

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Registry WG

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Semantics/UCD WG

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VOEvent

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VOTable WG

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Data Curation and Preservation IG

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Knowledge Discovery in Databases IG

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Theory IG