Towards a VO compliant ESO science archive

Abstract

Data centres have a major role in the Virtual Observatory (VO), as they are the primary source of astronomical data. The VO cannot (and does not) dictate how a data centre handles its own archive. However, ‘VO-layer’ is needed to ‘translate’ any locally defined parameter to the standard (i.e., International Virtual Observatory Alliance compliant) ones. The longer term vision of the VO is also to hide away any observatory/telescope/instrument specific detail and work in astronomical units, for example, ‘wavelength range’ and not grism or filter name. Data providers are then advised to systematically collect metadata (‘data about data’) about the curation process, assign unique identifiers, describe the general content (e.g., physical coverage) of a collection, and provide interface and capability parameters of public services. Finally, the VO will work at its best with high-level (‘science-ready’) data, so that the VO user is spared as much as possible any complex and time consuming data reduction. Data centres should then make an effort to provide such data.