Purpose & Goals

The Virtual Observatory (VO) is opening up new ways of exploiting the huge amount of data provided by the ever-growing number of ground-based and space facilities, as well as by computer simulations. At ESAC we have the unique position of hosting two major Virtual Observatory groups: the ESA-VO Team, part of the Science Archives Team (SAT) of the European Space Agency, and the Spanish Virtual Observatory (SVO), the Spanish National VO group at LAEX. We therefore wish to share our knowledge and expose attendants to the variety of VO tools and services available today so that they can use them efficiently for their own research. Particular emphasis will be placed on the European VO tools TOPCAT, VOSpec and Aladin. Our intention is to open this workshop to ESAC colleagues, and to any interested participants from local and national institutes in Spain.
 

Workshop Format

VO Experts from the ESA-VO group and from the Spanish Virtual Observatory will lecture and tutor the participants on the usage of VO tools. Real life examples of scientific applications will be given. The majority of the time will be dedicated to hands-on exercises, which will allow participants to become fully familiar with the VO capabilities. Towards the end of the workshop participants will have the opportunity to apply what they have learned to their own scientific cases.
 

Tools providing the following functionalities will be presented:

• Data discovery and data mining
• Catalogue and table handling
• Image and spectra handling
• Cross-correlations
• Access to theoretical models

We ask that all participants please arrange to bring a laptop in order to follow the tutorials and develop any of your own scientific cases. All software that will be used during the school will be listed in the programme.
 

ESAC Science Archive and VO Team - 2010