Italian Theoretical Virtual Observatory (ITVO): cosmological simulations in the VO frame (original) (raw)

The TVO Archive for Cosmological Simulations: Web Services and Architecture

Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2008

In order to offer an intuitive but effective access to a growing number of cosmological simulations, we have developed the Italian Theoretical Virtual Observatory project (ITVO), as described by Pasian and colleagues in 2006. In this work we describe two Web portals as two ways to access and share complex data coming from numerical astrophysical simulations. We present a set of Web services aimed at offering services such as Simple Numeric Access (ProtocolSNAPSimple Numeric Access Protocol), as described by Gheller and colleagues in 2006, and Randomizers dealing with different data formats. The Web services technology allows us to run a particular task (a SNAP job, for instance) close to its data, avoiding an expensive data transfer.

An Archive and Tools for Cosmological Simulations inside the Virtual Observatory

2008

The Italian Theoretical Virtual Observatory (ITVO) is a test-bed project for the inclusion of theoretical data and related tools inside the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA, Hanisch & Quinn, 2003). We started cooperating with the IVOA community to develop standards and tools applicable to the theoretical data obtained from cosmological simulations. The database structure has been created with the main

Data Archiving: experience in the Theoretical Virtual Observatory

2009

For archiving and publishing theoretical data it is important to create a suitable structure to store the metadata of the simulation (that must contain all the code parameters used to perform the run) and also all the physical parameters used and at the end also the metadata of the output files; so the database has to contain all the values to rebuilt the production history of a single file. The database must be a relational one in order to permit scientific query on selected parameters to obtain a restrict result. We present the work made for two kinds of astrophysical simulations: cosmological one that contain Gadget, Enzo and Fly simulations and stellar tracks and isochrones performed with the FRANEC code. These two experiences are made inside the VOTECH and VO-DCA EU funded projects.

ITVO and BaSTI: databases and services for cosmological and stellar models

2009

We have created a database structure to store the metadata of different types of cosmological simulations (Gadget, Enzo, FLY) and the first relational database for stellar evolution models BaSTI, it includes tracks and isochrones computed with the FRANEC code. We are also studying the feasibility of including different sets of theory data and services in the Virtual Observatory (VObs). Some

BaSTI, a Bridge between Grid and Virtual Observatory Part 1: BaSTI inside the VO

Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2008

In the first part of this work we describe a new relational database (DB) created for storing metadata of stellar evolution models for a large range of masses and initial chemical compositions, which allows searching for data by scientific quantities and useful parameters. These data users can access the DB and might select a good catalog of evolutionary tracks and/or isochrones for making scientific studies and comparison with observational data. We also present a new Web portal where users can download scientific data of interest. This work has been conduced within the Italian Theoretical Virtual Observatory (ITVO) project , which aims to register these theoretical data under the Virtual Observatory standard and provide a set of standard tools able to visualize and analyze observational and also theoretical data. In the second part of the work we describe the link between the Grid infrastructure and the Virtual Observatory services as delineated by G. Taffoni and colleagues in 2006 and by F. Pasian and colleagues in 2008. Online material: color figures 1 In this context, with 'scenario' we refer to the fact that the stellar models are computed under various assumptions about the efficiency of noncanonical physical processes such as core convective overshooting, atomic diffusion, and rotation.

VisIVO: A Tool for the Virtual Observatory and Grid Environment

2007

We present the new features of VisIVO, software for the visualization and analysis of astrophysical data which can be retrieved from the Virtual Observatory framework and used for cosmological simulations running both on Windows and GNU/Linux platforms. VisIVO is VO standards compliant and supports the most important astronomical data formats such as FITS, HDF5 and VOTables. It is free software

AstroGrid: the UK's Virtual Observatory Initiative

… Data Analysis Software and Systems XI, 2002

AstroGrid is the UK's Virtual Observatory (VO) initiative. It brings together the principal astronomical data centres in the UK, and has been funded to the tune of ∼£5M over the next three years, via PPARC, as part of the UK e-science programme. Its twin goals are the provision of the infrastructure and tools for the federation and exploitation of large astronomical (X-ray to radio), solar and space plasma physics datasets, and the delivery of federations of current datasets for its user communities to exploit using those tools.

Science with the Virtual Observatory: the AstroGrid VO Desktop

2009

) and show how to pass the various results into any VO enabled tool such as TopCat for catalogue correlation. VOExplorer offers a powerful data-centric visualisation for browsing and filtering the entire VO registry using an iTunes type interface. This allows the user to bookmark their own personalised lists of resources and to run tasks on the selected resources as desired. We introduce an example of how more advanced querying can be performed to access existing X-ray cluster of galaxies catalogues and then select extended only X-ray sources as candidate clusters of galaxies in the 2XMMi catalogue. Finally we introduce scripted access to VO resources using python with AstroGrid and demonstrate how the user can pass on the results of such a search and correlate with e.g. optical datasets such as Sloan. Hence we illustrate the power of enabling large scale data mining of multi wavelength resources in an easily reproducible way using the VO.

Astrovirtel—From Archival Research to the Astrophysical Virtual Observatory

Astrophysics and Space Science, 2004

Given the high cost of modern astronomical observing facilities it is evident that efforts must be made to optimally exploit the data in order to maximize the return on investment. This concept was first implemented on a large scale for the Hubble Space Telescope, and has since been taken over for other space borne and large ground-based facilities. The European HST Science Data Archive is located at the European Southern Observatory (ESO). It has been extended to include data from ESO telescopes and instruments, especially the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and Wide Field Imager (WFI). It was thus natural to design the archive such that queries could be extended across its full content, regardless of the origin of the data. This constituted a first step toward a virtual observatory. The Astrovirtel program, first established in 1999–2000 with funding provided by the European Commission, makes it possible for scientists to use this facility for their investigations. At the same time it allowed us to establish science requirements for archive cross queries, and to define capabilities required for VO's. Recently the European Commission decided to provide the funding for the implementation of the Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (AVO). This will include several European observatories and scientific organizations. It is being developed in close coordination with the US National Virtual Observatory.

The National Virtual Observatory

2008

As a scientific discipline, Astronomy is rather unique. We only have one laboratory, the Universe, and we cannot, of course, change the initial conditions and study the resulting effects. On top of this, acquiring Astronomical data has historically been a very labor-intensive effort. As a result, data has traditionally been preserved for posterity. With recent technological advances, however, the rate at which we acquire new data has grown exponentially, which has generated a Data Tsunami, whose wave train threatens to overwhelm the field. In this conference proceedings, we present and define the concept of virtual observatories, which we feel is the only logical answer to this dilemma.