Virtual Observatory Software for Astronomers

AstroGrid : Project Information

AstroGrid logo 200 x 144 The AstroGrid software represents the most mature implementation of a working Virtual Observatory system to date. The AstroGrid project began in 2001 as part of the UK's government e-Science initiative, and has proceeded in three phases. Following a short exploratory phase (late 2001), the original AstroGrid project (2002-4) centred on research and prototyping; the follow-on project (AstroGrid-2 : 2005-7) was the engineering and construction phase. The current, third, phase (AstroGrid-3 : 2008-9) is an operations project. We launched working services and user software in April 2008. AstroGrid software and services are now used by astronomers all over the world on a daily basis. A query of some kind is sent to our Registry approximately once every thirty seconds.

The AstroGrid project has involved four inter-related strands of work.

  • Working with our colleagues world-wide to construct agreed international standards and protocols.
  • Constructing technical infrastructure software, for data centres and developers to deploy.
  • Establishing and running working services, such the AstroGrid Registry, and various VOSpace fileservers.
  • Constructing astronomical user software, and providing user support.

The core AstroGrid work has been funded by PPARC and by STFC. This core has been enhanced by European Commission funding, as part of the AVO, VOTECH, DCA, and AIDA projects. The total funding over eight years has been approximately £14M.

This link lists the AstroGrid Team and key contact points.

This link provides Key Documents from the history of AstroGrid.

This link lists Publications produced by the AstroGrid project.

The future

AstroGrid, as a construction project, formally completes its work during 2009. The software we have constructed (both the user software and the infrastructure software) will be available as fully documented products for future projects to deploy and to develop.

The worldwide VO is here to stay, and the consortium responsible for AstroGrid are committed to maintaining and operating the existing services. So for example VODesktop and TOPCAT will continue to work for the foreseeable future; but of course whether they continue to improve and change will depend on the degree of success future projects have in gaining funding for new developments. The main guaranteed funding in the medium term is together with our Euro-VO colleagues, through the AIDA project.

A new project is developing in the UK which intends to use and develop the completed AstroGrid software - VOTC:UK. This is a large collaboration of missions, facilities and data centres, aimed at maintaining a shared data management infrastructure, and using the shared technology to develop tools and user interfaces tailored to each facility. The initials "VOTC" stand for "VO Technology Centre", which is a Europe-wide plan - VOTC:UK will be the UK contribution to that concept. The VOTC:UK project is currently under review by STFC.

Attachments

Acknowledging AstroGrid. If you make use of the AstroGrid system or tools, we would be grateful if you could acknowledge this use in any resulting publications. You could use these words: 'This research has made use of data obtained using, or software provided by, the UK's AstroGrid Virtual Observatory Project, which is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council and through the EU's Framework 6 programme.' Use of any data discovered or accessed through AstroGrid should of course be mentioned as noted by the data providers.

Licensing and Copyright. AstroGrid software is released under the Academic Free License.. The copyright on the text used in these web pages is owned by the contributing authors. Copyright on images used are assumed to be with the indicated or implied source as appropriate.