1. AstroGrid and Virtual Observatories for Radio Interferometry arrays/ proposals Anita Richards Paul Harrison Noel Winstanley (Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester)

2. Northstar/ALMA phase 1 to 2 proposal tools Dec 2007 Jive A M S Richards AG3 Desktop (beta release 2008) ● User Interface to VO services ● Components – Registry – Find Data – Work with Applications – Build Workflows – Look at results.. ● Expanded help ● (Just show some new features here)

3. Northstar/ALMA phase 1 to 2 proposal tools Dec 2007 Jive A M S Richards Automation using Scripts ● Use python, perl, C++, etc ● Access all the AstroGrid VO functionality from the command line – connecting via AstroGrid's 'Astro-Runtime' – STILTS table operations – ADQL queries – Your local functions

4. User AstroGrid workbench Task Launcher MERLINImager Position, size, n, resol n, date AstroGrid service MERLIN archive RadioNet Parseltongue FITS images VOTable description MySpace Aladin, GAIA Download MERLINImager ● Red: 18cm lobes ● Green: 6cm jets/hotspot s ● Customised images (0".1 resolution) ● No need to download massive data sets or specialised software

5. Northstar/ALMA phase 1 to 2 proposal tools Dec 2007 Jive A M S Richards VO user-steered pipelines ● Parseltongue on AIPS ● Python (etc.) DB queries for additional metadata ● Images from calibrated visibility data - MERLINImager ● Image cutouts - HDF Imager (in progress) ● UV data with calibration - currently web form ● Tony Rushton: X-ray binary data mining ● Image, find peak, shift, average uv data, extract variability curve e.g. 3-min sampling ● Split data into 4x3 MHz, measure Faraday rotation ● Limitations for public services: ● Obit temperamentality ● Limit to number of AIPS running simultaneously ~6 ● Long-term consider mix'n'match with CASA

6. Northstar/ALMA phase 1 to 2 proposal tools Dec 2007 Jive A M S Richards VO services and B2E ● Footprints ● What else is in the field/nearby calibrators ● Splatalogue ● Wrap exposure calculators etc. ● Use proposal stages to generate metadata for further stages and archive processing/access ● Services embedded at data centres (cf JIVE Aladin) ● Source extractor, cross matcher etc.? ● Develop and discuss requirements ● e.g. use CEA for process management? ● Extensions to IVOA standards? ● Authentication/restricted access/logging

7. Northstar/ALMA phase 1 to 2 proposal tools Dec 2007 Jive A M S Richards Euro-VO ● Facilities Centre - latest addition ● Testing science cases ● Data Centre Alliance ● Workshops and support for publishing data ● Questionnaire to capture requirements ● VOTech tool development e.g.: ● STILTS, TopCat, Aladin VO enhancements ● PLASTIC interoperability ● Virgo (Google Sky-like) ● NB RadioNet Training FP7 proposal ● Include proposal tool use in ERIS etc. ● RadioVO workshop ~2011

8. Northstar/ALMA phase 1 to 2 proposal tools Dec 2007 Jive A M S Richards Plastic – VO tools on the desktop http://plastic.sourceforge.net http://plastic.sourceforge.net ● Enables applications to 'talk' to each other – select sources in one application and these will show up in another application ● Communication protocol for client side VO tools ● Easy to adopt and extend ● Wide buy-in – tools from UK, France, USA, etc ● Developed mainly by AstroGrid

9. Northstar/ALMA phase 1 to 2 proposal tools Dec 2007 Jive A M S Richards AstroGrid Workflows: automation Taverna workflow engine developed by Manchester computer science, widely used in bio and environmental sciences

10. Northstar/ALMA phase 1 to 2 proposal tools Dec 2007 Jive A M S Richards IVOA: Interoperability Standards ● VOExporer exposes registry weaknesses – mostly in schemata/implimentation ● Images, spectra, time standards pretty OK – maybe some too complex – User-friendly metadata entry/ publication tools e.g. from DCA ● Not yet covered: – Polarization – Visibility plane quantities ● Do we need these or should we describe data in terms of the potential image/time/spectral resolution? ● Do we need a proposals standard?