EuroVO-DCA WP6: Support to data centres from other European Countries

E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

Support to Data Centres from other European Countries EuroVO-DCA Review, 10 January 2007

EuroVO-DCA

WP6: Support to data centres from other WP6: Support to data centres from other

European CountriesEuropean Countries



WP6: goals

• Same objectives as WP3… – Dissemination of VObs knowledge.

– Support to Data Centres willing to join the VObs initiative.

• … but different “audience”– Data Centres from European countries not

participating in the project.



WP6: work methodology

• Identification of potentially interested Data Centres.

– Preliminary Census of European Data Centres.

• Available since Nov’06 and updated on a regular basis.

• From Centres with a positive response:

– Formal letter of interest indicating:

• Clear, focused objectives • Specific needs

• Added value for the DCA project • Contact point



WP6: work methodology (II)• Support

– Technical Visits:• To/from the Data Centre.

• Close-contact after the visit: periodic reports and feedback.

– Regional VObs info-workshops• Sofia, Bulgaria. 2008, Jan 24-25th.

• Also participants from Hungary, Serbia and Romania.

– Participation in WP3 workshops• “Astronomical spectroscopy and the VObs”, Madrid, March07.

• “How to publish data in the VObs”, Madrid, June07.



WP6: Visits and Workshops• Technical visits

– Lígia Amorim (Portugal) visited LAEFF/SVO in March’07

– Petr Skoda (Czech Rep.) visited Lyon/France-VO in August’07

– András Holl (Hungary) will visit CDS/France-VO in 2008.

• WP3 Workshops

– “Astronomical Spectroscopy and the VObs”, Madrid, March 07 • Czech Rep.: Petr Skoda

– “How to publish data in the VObs”, Madrid, June’07• Portugal: Andre Moitinho, Lígia Amorim, Sonia Anton

• Bulgaria: Milcho Tsvetkov

• Czech Rep.: Petr Skoda

• Hungary: András Holl

• IVOA Meeting, Cambridge, September’07• Czech Rep.: Petr Skoda (“VObs for ground-based optical spectroscopy”)



Report of activities: Portugal• University of Lisbon/SIM (Laboratory of Systems,

Instrumentations and Modelling).

• Contact point: André Moitinho.

• The project: “Development of a VO service to

provide access to a catalog containing UBVRI

photometric information of open star clusters”.

• The goal: Multiwavelength analysis of these

sources.



Portugal (II): progress report

• Database ready

• Web interface (almost) ready

• VO service with a public dataset available: March08



• Also interested in WP5 (“Grids”)– Participation in the ESAC Grid Workshop (Nov’07): Sonia Anton.

• VO dissemination– André Moitinho is acting as a VO-coordinator in Portugal:

• Collaboration with Coimbra University» Solar data with a time line of 100 years.

» Stellar evolution models.

» Libraries of stellar spectra..

• Presentation of the VO service to the Portuguese stellar community (beginning 2008).

• DCA Info-day in Lisbon (possibly).

Portugal (III): progress report



Report of activities: Bulgaria• Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

• Contact point: Milcho Tsvetkov

• The project: “VO-compliance of WFPDB”.– WFPDB contains descriptive information of more than

half a million plates (23% of the existing ones all over the world).

– A small subset of plates has been scanned.

– Plates offer a unique opportunity to explore astrophysical phenomena on a long timeline basis.



Report of activities: Bulgaria (II)• VObs Info-Workshop: Sofia, 2008, Jan 24-25

– Attendance: 40 participants + 9 DCA people.

• Day-1:– DCA lectures on:

• The VObs: Why is it necessary?

• IVOA VObs standards: access protocols, formats, data models, registries,…

• VObs tools

• VObs Science

– Presentations from participating Data Centres



Report of activities: Bulgaria (III)

• VObs Info-Workshop: Sofia, 2008, Jan 24-25

– Day-2:• Hands-on sessions on how to publish in the VObs.

– Guided by DCA tutors.

– Work on real data brought by the participants from

their Data Centres.

• Workshop summary and follow-up plans.



Report of activities: Czech Republic

• Ondrejov Observatory

• Contact point: Petr Skoda

• The project: “VO-compliance of the spectroscopic archive

of the Ondrejov 2-m telescope (the largest telescope in the

Czech Rep.)



Report of activities: Czech Rep. (II)• Active participation in the definition of requirements for

the proper handling of ground-based optical spectra in the

VObs.:

– Impact on the IVOA access protocol (SSAP) and Data Model

• VObs dissemination in the Czech Republic– Contacts with the solar community.

– University lectures in Prague and Brno.

– Conferences for amateur astronomers.

– Specific materials for teachers and students of secondary school.



Report of activities: Hungary

• Konkoly Observatory, Hungarian Academy

of Sciences

• Contact point: András Holl

• The project: “VO-compliance of the

International Bulletin of Variable Stars”.



Report of activities: Hungary (II)

• Interoperability between journals and archives.

– IBVS tabular data will appear in the HTML version as a link.

– By clicking on the link, a VObs is launched (e.g. Aladin) and the IBVS data displayed.



Non-European countries

• VObs is a global endeavour and collaboration already

exists with many non-European countries.

• The DCA project is willing to strengthen its links with

these countries by providing a limited amount of support.

• Workshops & Technical Visits:– A. Mickaelian (VObs-Armenia) and I. Chilligarian (VO-

Russia) participated in the EuroVO-DCA workshop

(March’07).



Non-European countries (II): The Holy See

• Contact point: Alessandro Omizzolo

• The project: “VObs-compliance of the Vatican Plate Archive”.

– Well-preserved and metadata-rich archive of 10000 plates.

• Problem: The Holy See is not considered either a project’s

partner or an EU member

– Put in contact with the Italian VObs for a deeper collaboration.



Cycle-2 activities• Support to on-going projects.

– Activities will be finished by the end of DCA project.

• Projects for which the real work has not yet started (Austria, Finland)– Roadmap definition with clear, affordable objectives for 1-year cicle.

• Start process for new participants– First contacts with the Lithuanian astronomy community in Oct’07 in the

framework of the EU-funded project “Expanding the abilities of Lithuanian scientists while Lithuania integrated into the infrastructure of the EU”.

• Advertisement– Presence in meetings with a high participation of potential newcomers

(IAU General Assembly, JENAM, ADASS, national astronomy meetings,…).



Summary• Very successful cooperation with Data Centres from

Portugal, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

• These teams have begun to build a strategy to include their knowledge and data holdings in the VObs.

• In some cases a national VO-infrastructure is being created.

• WP6 has also helped Data Centres to explore other EU initiatives:– Hungary is leading a working group of 10 people from 9 countries

to identify and evaluate the EU calls that best fit their needs (mainly in terms of equipment and manpower).

• We aim at continuing and expanding the activities here reported during Cycle-2.

Documents

EuroVO-DCA WP6: Support to data centres from other European Countries