A virtual observatory (VO) is a collection of interoperating data archives and software tools which utilize the internet to form a scientific research environment in which research programs can be conducted. Historically addressing astronomical subjects, space physics and geosciences have also been a focus of VO development.
4-522: The Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (AVO) project conducted a research and demonstration programme on the scientific requirements and technologies necessary to build a virtual observatory for European astronomy. The AVO has been jointly funded by the European Commission (under FP5 - Fifth Framework Programme) with six European organisations participating in a three-year Phase-A work programme, valued at 5 million euro. The partner organisations were
8-420: Is to allow transparent and distributed access to data available worldwide. This allows scientists to discover, access, analyze, and combine observational and laboratory data from heterogeneous data collections in a user-friendly manner. The IVOA (International Virtual Observatory Alliance) is a standards body created by astronomical VO projects to develop and formalize the interoperability standards upon which
12-976: The European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Munich , Germany , the European Space Agency (ESA), AstroGrid (funded by PPARC as part of the UK's E-Science programme), the CNRS-supported Centre de Données Astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS), the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, the CNRS-supported TERAPIX astronomical data centre at the Institut d'Astrophysique in Paris, France, and
16-615: The Jodrell Bank Observatory of the Victoria University of Manchester, United Kingdom. The Phase A program focussed its effort in the following areas: Virtual observatory In much the same way as a real observatory consists of a collection of unique instruments, the VO consists of a collection of data centres each with unique collections of observational data, software systems and processing capabilities. The main goal
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