Meeting of the OIR Long Range Planning Committee

January 11, 2005 at the 205th AAS meeting

Present: Garth Illingworth, Chris Sneden, Alex Szalay, Rolf Kudritzki, Roger Blandford, Caty Pilachowski, Alan Dressler, Michael Strauss, Sara Seager (by phone). Attending: Bob Hanisch, Dave De Young, Wayne Van Citters, Eileen Friel, Jeremy Mould.

NVO

Bob Hanisch gave a presentation which will be placed on the LRPC website. He noted the difference between astronomers and HEP large volume datasets. HEPs process data by throwing most of the data away.

NVO’s business is standards, tools, publication, catalysis, and education & outreach. Its valued added to community data is provision of metadata, not quality control. Middleware connects community data to the NVO. (NOAO DeepWide was connected in 2 days.) NVO’s advisory structure and interfaces involve an EAC, SSC, and the IVOA. In response to a white paper “NVO From Framework to Facility”, a draft RFP is being prepared by NASA and NSF.

Jeremy Mould remarked that new facilities must plan to be part of the NVO, and Alex Szalay said that university libraries may have a role in curation.

International and partnership issues

Wayne Van Citters said that NSF partnerships ranged from Gemini, where it is the executive agency, through LIGO, which is a loose consortium. LHC is another dimension. Wayne continued that the OIR community should be planning for a 15 year run and that the boundary condition at present was a constant budget for the next 5 years. The OIR LRPC report will be input to a senior review of facilities to be undertaken by AST. Referring to MREFC, Wayne said that NSF will control and contextualize the review process by writing the charge to reviewers, overlaying the Brinkman criteria, and seeking feedback on the process from CAA.