Transcript Overview of the past twelve months of Prototypes

All the VO software uses these protocols to interoperate with each
other.
Up to now, the main point in the structure is the creation of a registry
containing all the available resources (described using the
VOResource metadata standard), thus allowing software to
automatically discover and use what it needs.
Overview of the past twelve months of Prototypes & Tools
M. C. Leoni 1, T. A. McGlynn 2, R. D. Williams 3
1 European
Southern Observatory, Germany
Greenbelt - MD, USA
3 Caltech, Pasadena - LA, USA
2 HEASARC,
Besides using well known industry-level protocols, the VO is
developing other standards to help the interoperability and to improve
performance.
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The VO Reality
Formats & Protocols
VOTable  XML dialect
SIAP – (Simple Image Access Protocol)
SSAP – (Simple Spectrum Access Protocol)
ADQL – (Astronomical Data Query Language) XML translation of SQL-based
queries to be exchanged among VO servers.
SOAP & XML – (Simple Object Access Protocol, eXtensible Markup Language)
Thanks to the increased effort in the development and spread of the “VO novel”, the
past year saw a spur in the creation of software for the Virtual Observatory: including
both prototypes and released tools, produced by the national VO projects, members
of the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA).
Following is a comprehensive list of software for the VO – as of this writing.
Highlights are on main features and the way each one interacts and interoperates
with the others using common industry standards as well as astronomy-specific ones
developed within the IVOA.
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Separation is not as definite as depicted in the overall architecture
picture.
Due to the existing strong relationships amongst applications, some of
them may actually fall under different parts of this representation (or
contain software with functionalities belonging to more than one area).
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Tools
Since the main format to exchange data is VOTable, most of the tools first developed
regard the manipulation of such VO standard-based files. The list includes
visualization tools, filters as well as software libraries.
JAVOT – Java Parser for VOTable: http://us-vo.org/VOTable/JAVOT
Mirage [VO-enabled] – Java-based wrapper for Mirage, a tools for exploratory analysis and visualization
of classification and proximity structures of multi-dimensional numerical data from an arbitrary domain of
study: http://skyservice.pha.jhu.edu/develop/vo/mirage/
Specview – Java application for 1-D spectra visualization and analysis of astronomical spectrograms:
http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/specview
TOPCAT – interactive graphical viewer and editor for tabular data: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/
VOTFilter – enables the import of VOTable documents into OpenOffice Calc spreadsheet; written in Java,
this XML filter can be downloaded from:
http://www.china-vo.org/VOTable Filter for OpenOffice Calc.htm
VOPlot – a Java visualization tool, to manage VOTable data. Available as standalone application or a
web-based one, the latter being an applet. More info at http://vo.iucaa.ernet.in/~voi/voplot.htm
VOSpec – Java applet tool to handle VO spectra:
http://pma.standby.vilspa.esa.es:8080/vospec/index.html
VOTable Java Streaming Writer – Java package to convert files in different formats (e.g. ASCII) to
VOTable: http://vo.iucaa.ernet.in/~voi/votableStreamWriter.htm
VOTool – package for allowing IRAF system to handle VOTable: http://iraf.noao.edu/projects/votool/
Xmatch (CDS) – Aladin plug-in http://www.euro-vo.org/twiki/bin/view/Avo/CDSXMatchPlugin
Improve your science using VO tools…
…and the other VO services!
Grid and Web Services
Several Web Services have been created, both wrapping already existing services as
well as exposing new functionalities. Grid services are in the making to allow workload
distribution and resource sharing.
ACE – (Astronomical Catalogue Extraction) Based on the well-known SExtractor tool, this web service
exposes the same capabilities to the web world:
http://wiki.astrogrid.org/bin/view/Astrogrid/AVODemoDesign
Aladin Image – gives image URL locations or images based on DIME:
http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cdsws/aladin_image.gml
Astronomical Coordinates – provides astrnomical coordinate translation
http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cdsws/astroCoo.gml
Cosmic Distances – XML ws to calculate different distance measures in a given cosmology:
http://voservices.net/Cosmology/ws_v1_0/Distance.asmx
Filter Profiles – access profiles of well-known astronomical instruments:
http://voservices.net/filter/
GLU Resolver – resolves catalogue tags through GLU:
http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cdsws/glu_resolver.gml
Grist – Grid sevices for data mining in astronomy: http://grist.caltech.edu/
NED – XML Web Service interface to NED : http://voservices.net/NED/ws_v1_0/NED.asmx
Name Resolver – resolves names for VizieR, Simbad, NED:
http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cdsws/name_resolver.gml
SDSS Cas – XML Web Service interface to the SDSS Catalog Archive Server:
http://voservices.net/CasService/ws_v1_0/CasService.asmx
SDSS Image Cutout – SDSS DR1 finding chart tool: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr1/en/tools/chart/chart.asp
Spectrum – portal for VO Web Services to acess data from SDSS DR1 and 2dFGRS:
http://voservices.net/spectrum/
UCD – resolves UCD tag, gives the complete list of UCDs, gives the list of UCD contained in a catalogue:
http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cdsws/ucdClient.gml
VizieR WS – Web Service to access VizieR catalogues:
http://cdsws.u-strasbg.fr/axis/services/VizieR
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Prototypes & more
Aladin for AVO – Interactive sky atlas, http://www.euro-vo.org/twiki/bin/view/Avo/SwgDownload to visualize images, superimpose catalogues, interactively access data & info from online databases.
Astrogrid – The suite developed covers all the needs a data centre has to publish its data archive: http://www.astrogrid.org/maven/docs/SNAPSHOT/astrogrid-software-site/
Atlasmaker – Grid-based software for building atlases fo astronomical images: http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/projects/nvo/atlasmaker/
Carnivore – VO registry with publishing, querying and harvesting capabilities (uses XML database): http://mercury.cacr.caltech.edu:8080/carnivore
DataScope – (Data Inventory Service) Quick look at all image, observation and catalogue data available for a given position in the sky: http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/vo/
Montage – Grid software for mosaics computation: http://montage.ipac.caltech.edu/
NCSA Registration Portal – portal that allows data providers to make their resources VO visible: http://nvo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/nvoregistration.html
NVO Registry – searchable registry, exposes keyword/SQL interface, http://nvo.stsci.edu/VORegistry
Open SkyQuery – based on Microsoft.net technolog, offers SOAP services to perform distributed astronomical queries using VOTable and ADQL: http://openskyquery.net/Sky/skysite/
Peagsus – (Planning for Execution in Grids) system to map and execute workflows on the Grid: http://pegasus.isi.edu/
SDSS Sky Server – provides access to SDSS DR3 data: http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/
SkyQuery.net – prototype of a federated database application: http://www.skyquery.net/main.htm
SkyView – panchromatic image atlas, generates images of any part of the sky at wavelengths in all regimes from radio to gamma-ray: http://skys.gsfc.nasa.gov/
VirtualSky – portal to a panchromatic sky atlas: http://www.virtualsky.org/