1. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. The Virtual Observatory Enrique Solano Spanish VO Principal Investigator LAEX-CAB (INTA-CSIC)

2. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. Outline Why do we need Virtual Observatories? Are they operational yet? Who is behind them?

3. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. Virtual Observatories: The goal Efficient management of the information available in astronomical archives. … BUT …accessing to on-line resources through high capacity networks is almost a daily task for most of the astronomers… So, what else is needed?

4. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. A real-life example: “I want to get all what is known about Vega” Finding the pieces: 239 000 results Many unrefereed sources

5. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. A real-life example: “I want to get all what is known about Vega” Finding the pieces (II) But… is there anything else out there? –Need of astronomical “yellow pages”  VO makes the discovery process more efficient and reliable thanks to Registries.

6. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. A real-life example: “I want to get all what is known about Vega” Gathering the pieces Astronomers need to learn about different user interfaces, access and download procedures. Tedious, inefficient and painful task.

7. Without VO astronomer archive 1 survey 2 survey 1 archive 2 service 1 archive 3 service 2 survey 3 service 3 n services, n interfaces

8. With VO astronomer archive 1 survey 2 survey 1 archive 2 service 1 archive 3 service 2 survey 3 service 3 n services, “1” interface VO

9. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. A real-life example: “I want to get all what is known about Vega” Putting the pieces together

10. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. The situation is getting worse as astronomical data is growing exponentially Large area surveys: future Paranal. Comissioning 2008 - 100 TB/yr Cerro Pachón. First light 2014 - 5 PB/yr Full operation: 2020 - 100 PB/yr

11. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. The situation is getting worse as astronomical data is growing exponentially

12. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. Outline Why do we need Virtual Observatories? Are they operational yet? Who is behind them?:.

13. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. Std s Tools Science Agree and build standards. Uptake of standards by the data services. The VO approach

14. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. VO Tools Interactive graphical viewer and editor for tabular data. Interactive sky atlas. Spectral analysis tools. Std s Tools Science

15. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. VO Tools  Alignment, rotation, scale- related issues are tackled in a transparent way for the user.  Remote data as if it was local.

16. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. VO Science Std s Tools Science

17. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. Science that benefits from VO Multiwavelength astronomy. Identification of rare/exotic objects

18. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. Outline Why do we need Virtual Observatories? Are they operational yet? Who is behind them?

19. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. IVOA members

20. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. The Spanish VO Aims: Aims: Coordination of the VO-activities of the Spanish institutes. Contact-point for the international VO-projects. Aims: Aims: Coordination of the VO-activities of the Spanish institutes. Contact-point for the international VO-projects. Member of IVOA since June 2004. Member of IVOA since June 2004. Structure: Structure: 9 FTEs at LAEX (the core of the SVO). Network at national level of (almost) 100 people. Structure: Structure: 9 FTEs at LAEX (the core of the SVO). Network at national level of (almost) 100 people. http://svo.laeff.inta.es

21. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. AyA2004-00253, AyA2005-04286 AyA2004-00253, AyA2005-04286 AyA2005-24102E, AyA2008-02156 AyA2005-24102E, AyA2008-02156 AyA2004-00253, AyA2005-04286 AyA2004-00253, AyA2005-04286 AyA2005-24102E, AyA2008-02156 AyA2005-24102E, AyA2008-02156 The funding sources

22. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. SVO: Objectives Construction of a community of science users: -Scientific Workshops. -Support to VO science programmes -Production of on-line tutorials -This school  Development of IVOA standards and services Support to data publishing in the VO Education and Outreach activities.

23. The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, 27-28 October 2009 E. Solano. Summary The VO provides new ways to discover, access, and analyze data from astronomical data collections worldwide. All major data centers provide VO- compatible interfaces to their data. New and/or more efficient science. VO Science is already a reality.