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IVOA Executive Committee Meeting (FM49)

Sunday May 12, 2013 @ 16.00

Contents

Logistics

Room 106

Draft Agenda

Roll Call and Agenda (MA)
Minutes of TM48
Review of Actions (MA)
Project Reports [Significant Events Only]
TCG status
WG Reports
Approval of new IVOA Recommendation(s) [Standing Item]
WG/IG chairs/deputy chairs with expiring terms
IVOA Exec Chair and Vice Chair
IVOA Secretary
IVOA Web pages and Document Repository
Future Interops
Date of Next Exec Meeting
AOB
Review of Action Items (MA)

Reports from the Projects

Argentina - NOVA

ArVO

AstroGrid

Australia-VO

BRAVO

China-VO

CVO

Euro-VO

ESAVO

France VO

GAVO

HVO

VObs.it

Japan-VO

Ukraine VO

VAO

This past year saw the successful deployment of updated and enhanced versions of all VAO science applications. The Data Discovery Tool (DDT) incorporated a new display interface with sky coverage “footprint” overlays, embedded image previews, an improved user interface, and SAMP (Simple Applications Messaging Protocol) support. The DDT is widely used and is often the first step in discovery of multi-wavelength data for further analysis. The Spectral Energy Distribution builder and analysis tool Iris was enhanced with an integrated desktop user interface, more versatile graphics, plug-in capabilities that allow users to add their own fitting functions, and SAMP support. A final release scheduled for May 2013 will include co-plotting, red- and blue-shifting, interpolation, and calculation of integrated quantities. In 2012 and 2013 there have been more than 500 downloads of the Iris package. The Scalable Cross-Comparison (SCC) service saw improvements in the user interface, incorporation of SAMP support, and the addition of several key catalogs (WISE, PPMX, DENIS3, UCAC3, TYCHO2); SDSS DR9 is being added now.

VAO/VO services reached new levels of stability and compliance, with growth from 8,400 services to 9,300 services over the past year. Overall uptime exceeds 99%, and overall compliance of VAO member organization services with VO standards now exceeds 80%. (Most “violations” are minor and of little consequence for properly formatted queries.) A thorough review of the registry identified ~400 services in the broader VO community that were not being supported, and these were deprecated in the registry. Service growth greatly surpassed service deprecation.

The VAO works extensively in standards and protocol development in concert with the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA), and VAO team members have leadership roles in the IVOA Technical Working Group, Registry WG, Data Access Layer WG, and Data Models WG. VAO supported completion of standards development work in the areas of the Registry, Grid and Web Services (VOSpace 2.0), and Data Models (Photometry Data Model 1.0). Other VAO supported standards activities include Spectral Data Model 2.0, UTypes 1.0, Simple Image Access Protocol 2.0, and a sky coverage footprint standard.

Work also progressed on a suite of capabilities for data sharing and publication, including a toolkit for deployed a Table Access Protocol (TAP) server, an improved user interface to registering services in the VO Registry, and a “Dropbox-like” environment for data sharing in research collaborations. Progress on support for data cubes increased rapidly toward the end of the past year, this being a major thrust area for the remainder of the VAO program. Revision to the VAO Registry itself were undertaken to bring the VAO implementation up to date with the most recently agreed registry standards and to support a TAP-based query interface.

Design specification and prototype implementations for Python interfaces to VO protocols and services were developed, both in a “pure Python” mode (for easiest integration into a user’s scripting environment) and in a higher-level interface, VOClient. We are coordinating work with the AstroPy collaboration in order to reach the increasing number of astronomers whose data analysis environment / language of choice is Python.

Professional engagement activities in the past year included two Community Days: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (November 14, 2012) and Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore (November 29, 2012). Each event featured VO demonstrations and tutorials and attracted about 50 participants. VAO had an exhibit at the January 2013 American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach, CA, and team members and collaborators also presented 12 poster papers. VAO team members also provided lectures and tutorials at the Penn State Statistics Summer School (June 2012), the NASA Exoplanet Sagan Summer Workshop, Pasadena (July 2012), and at the Brazilian National Astronomy Meeting and Brazlian VO Summer School (Sao Paulo, November 2012). Materials from these community outreach events are available through the VAO website.