The International Virtual Observatory

Virtual Observatory

Virtual observatory is a collection of interoperating data archives and software tools which utilize the internet to form a scientific research environment in which astronomical research programs can be conducted....

 Alliance or IVOA is a worldwide scientific organisation formed in June 2002. Its mission is to facilitate international coordination and collaboration necessary for enabling global and integrated access to data gathered by astronomical observatories. An information system allowing such an access is called a Virtual Observatory

Virtual Observatory

Virtual observatory is a collection of interoperating data archives and software tools which utilize the internet to form a scientific research environment in which astronomical research programs can be conducted....

. The main task of the organisation so far has focused on defining standards to ensure interoperability of the different virtual observatory projects already existing or in development.

Members

IVOA currently brings together sixteen member organisations, both national and international, some of these being:

• National Virtual Observatory
  National Virtual Observatory
  The US National Virtual Observatory was conceived to allow scientists to access data from multiple astronomical observatories, including ground and space-based facilities, through a single portal. Currently, the National Science Foundation funds the information technology research that created...
  
   (USA)
• AstroGrid
  AstroGrid
  AstroGrid is a £7.7M project which built a data-grid for UK astronomy, forming part of the UK contribution to the International Virtual Observatory. AstroGrid announced its first full production release on 1 April 2008....
  
   (UK)
• European Virtual Observatory
• Australian Virtual Observatory