About GAVO
The German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (GAVO) is the German contribution to the international activities in creating a global Virtual Observatory (VO) network. GAVO aims at providing a platform to support modern astronomical research in Germany by providing fast and easy access to astronomical data archives and related documentation worldwide as well as highly sophisticated software tools for exploiting this data.
Several German astronomical institutes have partnered in order
- to contribute their own data archives and relevant expertise,
- to develop ideas and tools to store, manipulate, process, and exploit this collection of data archives,
- to participate in the international standardization efforts for storage, dissemination, processing and visualization of astronomical data to facilitate retrieval and exchange of data, and
- to act as primary contact points for all people interested in using the VO, ranging from professional scientists, to teachers and students at high-schools or universities, to amateur astronomers.
Within this context GAVO concentrates on the following goals:
- GAVO works towards achieving interoperability of heterogeneous, distributed data archives through a set of interface/infrastructure tools currently under development. Standards worked out by international VO working groups are implemented, thus providing prototypes and examples for other VO teams in European and international cooperation. Besides GAVO also develops software tools for easy storage and handling of data and contributes those to the international community.
- GAVO plans to establish a data center at the Astronomisches Recheninstitut (ARI) at Heidelberg which not only provides key data archives and software tools but also offers "VO services" for the German astronomical community. Other institutes as well as amateur astronomers will get help with publishing their data according to VO standards.
- GAVO team members act as "multipliers" to spread the idea of the VO among the German astronomical community, promote the advantages of the VO, support people to benefit from working with VO tools and to share their data with the international community.
- Cooperation with the German AstroGrid project (which provides the necessary infrastructure and services for distributed parallel computation.)
More information on current projects, services already available as well as documents on several VO related topics published by GAVO members is available in other sections of this site.