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A Virtual Observatory Glossary
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VO Data
Formats
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FITS
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The IAU-approvided standard
format for astronomical data. FITS supports storage of
multidimensional arrays and ASCII and binary tables.
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VOTable
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The IVOA standard format for
transmitting tabular information. VOTables are semantically
similar to FITS tables, but provide a more detailed metdata framework,
connectivity with VO data models and the ability to group columns
within table, and tables themselves in arbitrary hierarchies.
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VO Data
Access Protocols
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Cone Search
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The cone search protocol is a
very simple CGI service that returns all elements in a table deemed to
be within the specified radius of the specified point.
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Simple Image
Access (SIA)
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The SIA protocol returns images
overlapping a specified region of the sky. A VOTable with links
to the image is returned.
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Simple
Spectral Access (SSA)
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The SSA protocol returns a set
of spectra in a specified region of the sky. The basic mechanism
is similar to SIA but the protocl is substantially more sophisticated
and provides for recommended formats for SED's and spectra.
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SkyNode
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The SkyNode protocol supports
sending an ADQL query to a database and returning a result. The
full SkyNode protocol also supports distributed queries that may
involve more than one SkyNode, though the SkyNode protocol itself does
not break up a multi-node query. That is done by a SkyPortal.
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Languages
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Astronomical
Data Query Language (ADQL)
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A super-sub-set of SQL
which includes features to make it easier to specify cross-matches
between multiple catalogs and to specify regions in the sky.
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Semantics
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Uniform
Column/Content Descriptors (UCD)
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A standardized vocabularly of
short ASCII tags describing astronomical concepts.
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IVOA identifiers
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A way to create a unique ID for
use within the entire VO.
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Resource
Metadata
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A standardized description of
all resources and services available within the VO.
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Space-Time
Coordinates (STC)
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A complete, flexible description
for describing a region or position in both space and time.
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Resource
Discovery
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Registry
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A service that allows users to
search for VO resources.
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Registry
Access
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Open
Archive Interface (OAI)
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A non-VO protocol used to
synchronize registries
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VOEvent
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VO framework for publishing and
receiving notifications of transient and urgent events.
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Resource
Access and Job Control
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NESSSI
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NVO Extensible,
Scalable, Secure Service Infrastructure enables easier access to
secured services.
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PLatform for AStronomical Tool
InterConnection(PLASTIC)
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A service to allow collaboration
between multiple processes running on the users desktop.
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Common Execution Architecture
(CEA)
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An Astrogrid framework for
provide job flows.
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Request
Object Management Environment (ROME)
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A tool to manage the execution
of a task that requires many subtasks.
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Selected VO Services
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Web registries (JHU, Carnivore)
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Web queryable VO registries
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Aladin (in SSS)
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Image visualization tool
(runnable as Applet) with many catalog and VO registry querying
capabilities
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WESIX
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Web tool to extract objects from
image and register to fiducial frame using external catalogs
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TOPCAT (in SSS)
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Table manipulation tool with
extensive matching and conversion capabilities
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Mirage
(in SSS)
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Table manipulation tool
especially good at looking at subsamples adapted to read VOTables.
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VOPlot (in SSS)
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Java tool (usable as applet) to
plot VOTables.
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VOMegaplot (in SSS)
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As above but optimized to work
with very large tables.
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VOStat
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A simple VO and Web-enabled
statistics package.
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DataScope
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Web tool to find all resources
in a given region
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SkyView (in SSS)
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Web tool and CLI
application supporting geometric transformations and mosaicking
of data provided by SIA services and other image surveys.
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WCSFixer (Pitt,NOAO)
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Web tools to correct the
astrometric headers in FITS files
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OpenSkyQuery
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A SkyPortal to query SkyNodes.
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