Virtual Observatory & LIGO Roy Williams California Institute of Technology

IVOA is a standards organization

VO Standards Simple Cone Search Simple Image Access Simple Spectral Access Space-Time Coordinate Metadata Spectral Data Model Unified Content Descriptors Vocabularies in the Virtual Observatory VOTable Format Specification Sky Event Reporting Metadata (VOEvent) Table Access Protocol Astronomical Data Query Language VOSpace Authentication Mechanisms Asynchronous Service Pattern IVOA Support Interfaces IVOA Identifiers Registry Interfaces VOResource: Registry Record VOResource Schema Extension fetch data by sky position data models service infrastructure registry semantics data exchange relational/region queries

Virtual Observatory model: survey owners make their own VO service – + new VO-hosted repository if funded sharing: – standard services form data grid – VO registry – connections to literature analysis: – old tools refitted + new tools in cloud – everyone wants something different publication: – connection with journals+data, ADS and semantics preservation: – responsibility is with data centers – they hate making good metadata

Virtual Observatory organization: through standard services and VO registry, service validation users: more people using surveys for publication institutions: astronomy data centers – IPAC, STSCI, HEASARC, etc new communities: don't like standard services (too complex, too simple) standards: US project:

LIGO Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory to detect the gravitational waves (GW’s) predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity (GR). NSF requirement for open data but data is difficult to understand

LIGO open data size ~600 TB per year plan is to work with OAIS replication: – Hanford WA, Livingston LA, Pasadena CA, Milwaukee WI analysis is not supported, rather "rich viewing” preservation – getting the good metadata out of scientists heads designated community – professional astronomers – educated layperson

LIGO open data sharing: VERY carefully. Data is very difficult to understand. international: US Ligo with French/Italian Virgo. – Differences on open data question new communities will have a steep learning curve! other purposes: PEM channels –Seismometers Accelerometers Tiltmeters Magnetometers Microphones Radio receivers Weather stations