AstroGrid Project

Report to AstroGrid Oversight Committee

AGOC(2) July 30th 2002

Paper C : Report of Progress against Goals


(C1) Introduction

This report concentrates on progress against the goals stated in the April 2001 proposal, but also describes the development of our final Phase B goals, milestones, and deliverables. During the course of Phase-A certain revisions were made to the goals
and milestones for the year - these are noted where applicable.

A full glossary of abbreviations used in this document is given at the end of this Paper C.

(C2) Original Phase-A goals and deliverables.

This section gives a review of the progress towards the goals outlined in the April 2001 AstroGrid project proposal.

(C2.1) Phase B plan

Phase-A activities have focused on the capture of requirements, requirements analysis, assessments of relevant technologies, and analysis of existing capabilities and relevance. In parallel the AstroGrid Architecture has been developed using a UML methodology. In the final iterations of this process, the project has identified a suitably scoped set of science drivers which will define the AstroGrid Phase-B deliverables. It is important to note that the 'AstroGrid ten' science drivers have been chosen as they represent a range of topical Astronomy, Solar and STP science cases of relevance today and in the near future. Thus AstroGrid Phase-B deliverables will support scientific endeavour in these areas. However, the tools and capabilities produced by AstroGrid, with this subset of science drivers, will be more generally applicable across a wide range of astrophysical science projects, both today and in the future.

The science drivers are described in the individual science cases, and these in turn are combined to form the AstroGrid Science Requirements document. This document will be fully prepared by the end of Phase-A Q4. An analysis has been performed of the AstroGrid science drivers, whereby activity diagrammes and sequence diagrammes are generated for each case. This identifies Use Cases that will be required to deliver the capabilities and functionalities required by the science cases.  A range of use case have been developed in Phase-A (handling generic issues such as 'user sign on' etc). Further use cases have been constructed where identified by the science case analysis. The Architecture is being developed to enable the construction of a generic virtual observatory, with the analysis of the science cases described above, feeding into the architecture design. The current draft architectural analysis is listed on the Wiki.

This process is enabling the project to generate the Phase-B plan which aims to produce a production system. Milestones against which the progress of the project will be measured are being developed. The full Phase-B plan will be provided to the next meeting of the Grid Steering Committee in Oct 2002.

(C2.2) Science Requirements Document

The large list of science cases that were listed on the AstroGrid VO Wiki site have been scoped to form a subset of 10 Cases for use as the key AstroGrid science drivers for its Phase-B.  The AstroGrid '10' science cases have been selected as they demand the delivery of a set of capabilities that will be relevant to aiding scientific output in these topical science areas.

The ten science areas cover the following areas:
The science drivers encompass a wide cross section of areas, and include drivers aiming to bridge subject area gaps; thus there is a driver bringing together Astronomy and Solar studies, whilst another links the Solar and STP domains. Importantly, the capabilities demanded by these drivers are seen as being of use more generally in the support of other areas of astronomy.  The ten key science drivers have been selected to enable the project to be scoped to ensure that a Virtual Observatory capability is generated by the end of the Phase-B period. The ten science cases are being collated into the overall 'AstroGrid Science Requirements' document. This will be finalised as a Phase-A deliverable by the end of September 2002.

(C2.3) Functional Requirements Document

The AstroGrid architecture formulation is, together with its emphasis on the derivation of use cases from the science drivers, replacing the formal development of a FRD. The status of the development of the Architecture for the purposes of Phase-B is described above in sections C2.1 and C2.2 and is scheduled for completion by September 2002.

(C2.4) Functionality Market Survey Report

There has been no market survey as such. However a number of key enabling technologies and areas have been identified as crucial to the development of the AstroGrid Phase-B product. These areas have been studied in depth and reports prepared.

(C2.4.1) Identity, Authorisation and Authentication (IAA)

Current astronomical facilities on the WWW support anonymous access to public-domain resources with very limited work flows. To meet even current aspirations, the Virtual Observatory needs to operate extensive work flows that also include access to restricted resources. Phase-A's use case analysis and survey of requirements has shown a need for a pervasive infrastructure for identifying users and controlling access to facilities and data.  A system has been designed, based on a sophisticated analysis,  which will support the AstroGrid enabled work flows. It has been derived by the means of the analysis of a wide range of access and control use cases. The preliminary design for the implementation will involve the use of the Globus project's Community Authorisation Service (CAS), but suitably adapted for use by AstroGrid and the VO community. Full details are listed on the Wiki. The evolving analysis and system design is described in Rixon (2002) and Rixon et al (2002).

(C2.4.2) The Use of Data Warehouses

An analysis of the use of 'Data Warehouses' as applied to advanced database federations and manipulations has been carried out. A detailed paper describing this work has been prepared (Page, 2002).  The application of the MySpace concept to provide individualised data warehouses has also been considered. This study has formed the basis used in specifying the PC farm which is being purchased by the end of Phase-B for use as the prototype AstroGrid Data Warehouse platform.

(C2.4.3) Interoperability - the development of VOTable

The VOTable interoperability standard has been developed as a collaboration between AVO, NVO, AstroGrid and a number of major astronomical archive centres. Version 1 of the standard was released in the form of a DTD and XML standard 15 April 2002. (Details are available at http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/doc/VOTable.) Version 1.0  supports the description and interchange of tabular data only. Extensions of VOTable to encompass image data files are envisaged, with CDS (Strasbourg) taking the lead role. AstroGrid will contribute in the context of the Interoperability work area in the AVO.

(C2.5) Agreed division of labour with international partners

There has been considerable progress in the area of AstroGrid's relationships with external partners, both in the Astronomy and Grid technology realms. The collaborations with the AVO and EGSO involving transfer of funds/staff are noted in this section. Details of other collaborations are noted in section 2.

(C2.5.1) Astrophysical Virtual Observatory

AstroGrid is formally a member of the Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (AVO). The 'matching fund' workpackage effort has been aligned so that a corresponding number of staff years of PPARC-funded effort count as contributing to the AVO. There are two AVO funded positions within AstroGrid. These two posts are located at the IfA, Edinburgh. The positions have been offered to two candidates, final negotiations are in progress. A third post was located at Jodrell through it's individual participation within the AVO. This position has been filled and the post is well integrated within the AstroGrid/AVO project structure.

(C2.5.2) European Grid of Solar Observations.

As reported at the April 2002 AOC, Astrogrid funds the EGSO coordinator. EGSO in turn have funded replacement effort in the form of a developer located at MSSL. (In the period before EGSO funding was available this effort was provided by MSSL.) The partnership between AstroGrid and EGSO is continuing to crystallise, to the benefit of both partners and the UK Solar community. It is anticipated that EGSO staff located at MSSL in the coming two years will interact closely with AstroGrid team members there.

(C2.6) Working data grid: demonstration of multi-site browsing and database searching

In the restructuring of the Phase-A objectives, no prototype data grid was developed. As noted elsewhere the Phase-A has concentrated on developing an architecture to deliver the capabilities required from an analysis of the Science Drivers.  As noted in the April 2002 AOC submission, AstroGrid did develop a simple data portal to demonstrate multi-site browsing.  The AstroGrid portal demonstrator was one of six national e-science projects highlighted at the April 25, 2002, official opening of the NeSC.

(C2.7) Pilot programme data base federations.

The Phase-A pilot programme was constructed with the prime aim being to learn technical lessons in achieving the data federations using currently available technologies and capabilities. The Pilot programme will complete end Aug 2002 with the 'radio', 'solar' and 'stp' pilots proceeding to completion.

The optical/ir/x-ray federation pilots were halted at an intermediate point. It became apparent that key systems required were
either becoming unsupported (e.g. the 'Objectivity DBMS' that was in use to service the proposed SDSS EDR/SuperCosmos Sky Survey federation) or of limited interest for further investigation (O2 in use in the XMM X-ray database). Therefore lessons from these pilot federations were noted and the pilots terminated.

Full reports from the Pilot studies are noted on the Wiki pages. A summary of progress in this area was given by Mann et al (2002).

(C2.8) Pilot visualisation tool and Preliminary database management system

Development of prototype visualisation and database management tools was removed as a Phase-A deliverable in July 2001. The AstroGrid architectural analysis has identified the requirement for the development of a user portal and client sub-system in Phase-B. Appropriate visualisation capabilities will be incorporated in this portal/client area. It is anticipated that existing
visualisation tools will be adapted for use in the Phase-B AstroGrid system where possible.

The Phase-A AstroGrid system analysis identified no requirement for the use of a specific database system in Phase-A. Therefore no DBMS tools were developed or deployed. in Phase-B it is anticipated that the AstroGrid system will interact with both internally (the Database Warehouse system) and externally (e.g. archive centre systems).managed DB's.

(C3) External Relations

AstroGrid is interacting with a wide range of groups, from the Astronomy and eScience worlds, from the UK, Europe and the USA. The contacts and relationships that it is forming are beginning to yield tangible gains for the project as it gains access to additional sources of help and expertise. At the same time, AstroGrid is feeding back valuable information and requirements to these groups, important for their development processes. It is likely that AstroGrid will in its Phase-B be able to transfer techniques and capabilities that it has developed to projects outside of Astronomy which are facing similar sets of challenges.

(C3.1) International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA).

Astrogrid is a founder/member of the IVOA. This alliance is composed of representatives from the major (i.e. AstroGrid, AVO, the US National Virtual Observatory (NVO)) and all other major and currently funded virtual observatory initiatives (i.e. eAstronomy Australia, Canadian Virtual Observatory, German Virtual Observatory, Russian Virtual Observatory, Virtual Observatory India). The IVOA has a remit of promoting global virtual observatory initiatives by, in the first instance, ensuring the implementation of common and agreed infrastructure standards across the constituent projects. The IVOA has issued a road map which shows the deployment of steadily increasing capabilities in the next three year time frame.

The Chair of the IVOA is Bob Hanisch (NVO), Deputy Chair: Peter Quinn (AVO), Technical Chair: Roy Williams (NVO), and Secretary: Nic Walton (AstroGrid).

(C3.2) eVPAS

eVPAS was formerly constituted as an approved PPARC supported eScience project at the beginning of 2002. From this point, AstroGrid's 'VISTA' phase-A workpackage (WP-A6) was re-structured to focus on assessing interface issues between AstroGrid and VISTA data products generated by eVPAS. A preliminary report on areas where VO demands will impact on the design of the VISTA pipeline will be prepared as Phase-A deliverable.

(C3.3) UKIDSS and UKIRT/WFCAM

With the slippage of the VISTA project to Q4 2006, the importance of the IR data sets from the WFCAM camera, and in particular the UKIDSS public survey programme, has been heightened. AstroGrid has opened discussions with the teams at CASU and WFAU designing the WFCAM science pipeline. Mike Irwin (CASU) gave a presentation at the MSSL AstroGrid June 2002 project meeting on the WFCAM pipeline. The demands of WFCAM are seem to be similar to those of VISTA, albeit with reduced (x4) date rates due to the smaller IR camera array.

(C3.4) SpaceGrid

Chris Perry, on the AstroGrid team at RAL, is also a member of ESA's SpaceGrid project. This ESA commissioned pilot study is determining the feasibility of large scale 'grid' based capabilities to support ESA's science and technology in the area of Space Science and Satellites.

(C3.5) GRIDSTART

AstroGrid is involved in the Europe wide Grid coordination programme through its membership of the AVO.  Guy Rixon has represented AstroGrid and the AVO at a recent meeting of GRIDSTART. This meeting was the 'kick-off' meeting and aimed to encourage cooperation and sharing of best practise across the various major EU funded 'Grid' projects. GRIDSTART appears to offer an interesting discussion forum whereby  issues can be discussed and solutions proposed for eventual agreement at standards bodies such as GGF and W3C. Further GRIDSTART offers the opportunity for the projects to interact at a one-to-one level. AstroGrid/AVO will be represented at the second July 25 GRIDSTART meeting.

(C3.6) iAstro

Fionn Murtagh is chair of the COST Action, iAstro, and liases back to AstroGrid. Possible collaborative iAstro/AstroGrid initiatives such as focussed workshops are being investigated.

(C3.7) OGSA-DAI

AstroGrid and the bioinformatics eScience project, MyGrid, have been assigned as 'early adopters' of the UK's core eScience OGSA-DAI programme. The OGSA-DAI team (project manager Rob Baxter located at Edinburgh's EPCC) have met with members of the AstroGrid project to discuss the requirements of the astronomy community. These have been input into their requirements capture process. AstroGrid are currently in contact with the IBM development team working on the OGSA-DAI project. It is expected that AstroGrid will shortly gain access to alpha product releases supporting distributed, grid enabled, access to the XML XIndice database. Future releases will support access to main RDBMS such as DB2, Oracle 9i, SQLServer, Postgress, etc.

At this point it is not clear if the development timescale for the OGSA-DAI team will be well matched for the purposes of AstroGrid Phase-B development. The OGSA-DAI product releases have been stalled due to issues concerning the terms of the OGSA-DAI collaboration, and the exact form of the open source licence under which the products will be released. At the GGF5 it has been stated that the licence issue will be resolved shortly, thus AstroGrid can expect to gain access to first alpha product releases by Aug 2002.

(C3.8)  eDIKT

This is generic eScience initiative funded by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council. eDIKT will provide a research and
development capability centred on the NeSC with the aim to create a centre of applied computer science expertise in Scotland.
eDIKT have identified a number of application areas where significant input from eDIKT might be appropriate. One of these is AstroGrid, an assessment of where best to deploy eDIKT effort is currently underway.

(C3.9) GridPP

Links have been further cemented with the GridPP project team. Members from both projects have spoken at each others collaboration or project meetings. At a technical level a number of key AstroGrid and GridPP technical staff met at UCL to discuss practical areas of concern. AstroGrid is closely following the use of the Spitfire database access system and will be assessing the 'web services' alpha release shortly.

(C3.10) MyGrid

AstroGrid has opened connections with the MyGrid project. The MyGrid project manager was invited to, and gave a presentation at, the June 2002, MSSL AstroGrid project meeting. It was agreed that further contacts would be made. Both projects were able to identify areas of common concern, including database interface issues, ontologies, and intermediate data storage capabilities.

(C3.11) Regional eScience Centres

AstroGrid is forming links at the regional UK level with the regional eScience Centres. For instance, Andy Lawrence and Bob Mann have formed close links with the Scottish eScience initiatives operating through the NeSC (as described above with eDIKT). Nic Walton is a member of the Cambridge eScience Centre's management board. Fionn Murtagh interacts closely with the Belfast eScience Centre.

(C3.12) Core eScience Teams

AstroGrid have fed into the GNT's questionnaire and requirements capture of application projects expected network needs. The AstroGrid PM has attended a meeting with the GSC and the GNT to discuss support and network issues. AstroGrid is making use of the CA at CLRC in issuing certificates.

(C4) Additional Milestones

(C4.1) Project Architecture

The full project architecture that will be employed to ensure the delivery of the AstroGrid Phase-A deliverables is currently in its final stages of development with completion due by Sept 2002. The current architecture is available on the Wiki at http://wiki.astrogrid.org/bin/view/Astrogrid/ArchitectureDocs

As described in C2.2 the project has selected a set of science drivers. These have been analysed in detail, each decomposed to determine use cases required by the scinece driver. Sequence and activity diagrammes have been constructed.

(C4.2) Development of the Vision Document

The Vision Document will outline and describe the AstroGrid project, objectives and key deliverables. This document is now rapidly evolving, an outline has been set out. The Vision paper will be delivered by the end of Phase-A of the project.

(C4.3) Phase A Pilot technology trials

A small number of technology trials are in progress in Q3/Q4 of Phase-A.

(C4.3.1) Registry/Workflow using Ontology Demo.

This will produce a subset of astronomy ontology and produce a registry prototype using ontology. Technologies employed include JBoss (an EJB server), Jena (a JAVA API for reading DAML+OIL documents) and OilEd (and editor for producing DAML+OIL documents).

(C4.3.2) IAA/CAS demo

Details of this are given above in section C2.4.1.

We have installed the pre-alpha version of CAS (Community Authorisation Server) from Globus and got it working. A report is available on the wiki (http://wiki.astrogrid.org/bin/view/Astrogrid/AssessmentOfCAS).

(C4.3.3) Use of the OGSA-DAI project deliverables

Details of this are described in C3.6 above.

(C4.4) AstroGrid Publications and Conference Activity

A full list of the publications that AstroGrid have published in the academic press is given below in C.A1. Likewise scientific meetings that AstroGrid members have attended and/or made presentations at are also listed in C.A2.

(C5) Development of Phase-B Goals, Milestones and Deliverables

This section of the report lists the goals and deliverables that will form the outputs of the Phase-B of the AstroGrid project.
The original deliverables listed in the original AstroGrid April 2001 paper are noted. New and altered deliverables are indicated with cross reference made to the descriptions of the Phase-B work areas in Paper D, Section 5. 

(C5.1) Original April 2001 Phase-B goals and deliverables.

The originally proposed Phase-B deliverables were outlined in the April 2001 AstroGrid submission. The Phase-A study described in these AGOC(2) papers has lead to an alteration of a number of these milestones. However, the majority of the original milestones will be addressed at some level. These are discussed in the following sections with reference made to the Phase-B goals that have been developed as outlines in Paper D, Phase-B plan, section D5.

(C5.1.1) A working datagrid for key databases

A major consideration for the AstroGrid project is that it develops a Phase-B product that enhances the UK communities access to major datasets originating in the UK, or of import to the UK community. The emerging Phase-B plan is based upon the AstroGrid 'ten' science drivers as noted earlier. These cases do require the use of many of the major UK sourced data sets. These include providing access to:
It should be noted that data from VISTA is not explicitly addressed in the Phase-B plan for AstroGrid. VISTA is now unlikely to start producing data until early 2007, this well outside the AstroGrid Phase-B timescale. However, support for WFCAM data is fully included. WFCAM generates data flow at the level of ~25% of those anticipated from VISTA and thus can be considered an intermediate challenge in terms of VISTA. The scoping of the capabilities developed and deployed to support access to WFCAM data is framed such that they are scalable for VISTA data rates when this facility comes on line. Thus AstroGrid Phase-B products will be 'VISTA ready'.

By the end of the Phase-B plan generation (September 2002), specific desirable outcomes will be listed for each of the science cases. Thus for instance, in the case of the high redshift quasars case, an outcome might be for the deployment of a capability to cross federate catalogue source data, derived from two remotely located data centres, within a set (and quick) time period.
These goals are thus under development, with an aim for challenging yet realist targets to be set.

The Phase-B plan includes areas relating to the delivery of the associated storage and high-throughput datamining machines that will be required in support of the datagrid.

(C5.1.2) A uniform archive query and data mining interface to support the datagrid

These areas will be addressed with activity areas in D.4 Data Federations.

(C5.1.3) Ability to browse simultaneously multiple datasets

Metadata issues will be encompassed in a number of activity areas, with visualisation in activity area D5.7.1

(C5.1.4) Tools for integrated on-line analysis of data (images and spectra)

Activity area D5.7

(C5.1.5) Tools for on-line database analysis

Activity area D5.3, D5.4 and D5.5 for advanced data mining. Tools in area D5.7.2

(C5.1.6) Ability for user to upload code to run own algorithms

Area D5.7.2

(C5.1.7) Tools for database ingestion

Area D5.3 and D5.4

(C5.1.8) Tools for open ended resource discovery

Area D5.2

Appendices

(C.A1) AstroGrid Publications ( 2001- )

Genova, F, Benvenuti, P., DeYoung, D.S., Hanisch, R.J., Lawrence, A., Linde, T., Quinn, P.j., Szalay, A.S., Walton, N.A., Williams, R.D., 2002, AAS, 200, 8703

Giaretta, D. G. 2001, Proc ADASS XI, in  press

Gilmore, G., Walton, N. A., 2002, Frontiers, in press.

Lawrence, A. 2002, 'Towards the International Virtual Observatory', eds Gorski, K & Quinn, P. Q., ESO/NASA/ESA/NSF, in
press.

Lawrence, A. 2002, Proc SPIE, in press

Mann, R. G. 2001, Proc ADASS XI, in press

Mann, R. G. 2002, 'Towards the International Virtual Observatory', eds Gorski, K & Quinn, P. Q., ESO/NASA/ESA/NSF, in
press.

Page, C. P. 2002, 'Towards the International Virtual Observatory', eds Gorski, K & Quinn, P. Q., ESO/NASA/ESA/NSF, in
press.

Richards, A. M. S. 2002, ' 'Towards the International Virtual Observatory', eds Gorski, K & Quinn, P. Q., ESO/NASA/ESA/NSF, in press.

Rixon, G. T., Irwin, J. M., Walton, N. A., 2001, Proc ADASS XI, in press

Rixon, G. T. 2002, 'Towards the International Virtual Observatory', eds Gorski, K & Quinn, P. Q., ESO/NASA/ESA/NSF, in
press.

Rixon, G. T.,  Andrews, K. E.,  Walton, N. A., 2002,  Proc SPIE, in press

Walton, N. A., 2002, Astronomy & Geophysics, 43, 30

Walton, N. A. 2002, 'Towards the International Virtual Observatory', eds Gorski, K & Quinn, P. Q., ESO/NASA/ESA/NSF, in
press.

(C.A2) Presentations (marked *) and attendance of AstroGrid project members were made at the following meetings and conferences (Oct 2001 - Aug 2002) (excludes AstroGrid and AVO project meetings):

GridPP Collaboration Meeting, Edinburgh, 5-6 Nov, 2001
* Walton, N. A.

Cambridge eScience Centre Launch Meeting, Cambridge, 30 Jan 2002
McMahon, R. G.
Walton, N. A.

GGF4, Toronto, 17-20 Feb 2002
Walton, N. A.

IoA, Cambridge, colloquium, 27 Feb 2002
* Walton, N.A.

NeSC: Getting OGSA Going, 18-22 Mar 2002

Linde, T
Mann, R. G.
Page, C. P.
Rixon, G. T.
Walton, N. A.

University College London, seminar, 4 Apr 2002
* Walton, N.A.

University of Bristol: RAS National Astronomy Meeting, Bristol, 9 Apr 2002
Mann, R. G.
McMahon, R. G.
* Walton, N.A.
Watson, M.

University of Sheffield: UKSP/MIST 2002, 10 Apr 2002
* Bentley, B.
* Perry, C. H.
* Walton, N. A.

Queens University, Belfast: presentation to Astronomy Group staff, 18 Apr 2002
* Walton, N.A.

NeSC: Official Opening of the NeSC, Edinburgh, 25 Apr 2002
Rixon, G. T.
* Walton, N.A.  (keynote lecture)

NeSC: Information Grid, Edinburgh, 30 Apr 2002
Alden, E. C.
Linde, T.
Rixon, G. T.
Walton, N. A.

Jodrell Bank Observatory: seminar, 1 May 2002
* Walton, N.A.

Royal Astronomical Society: lecture at the Annual General Meeting, London, 10 May 2002
* Walton, N.A.

'Towards an International Virtual Observatory', ESO, Munich, 10-14 Jun 2002
* Garrington, S. T.
* Lawrence, A
* Mann, R. G.
* McMahon, R. G.
* Page, C. P.
* Richards, A. M. S.
* Rixon, G.T.
* Walton, N.A.
Watson, M.G.

CeSC: talk at the 1st science meeting of the Cambridge eScience Centre, Cambridge, Jun 18 2002
McMahon, R. G.
* Walton, N.A.

GRIDSTART, Kick-off meeting, Cetaro, Italy, July 2002
* Rixon, G. T.

Applications and TestBeds, Glasgow, 20 July 2002
Linde, T.
Murtagh, F.

GGF5, Edinburgh, 21-24 July 2002
Linde, T.
Rixon, G. T.
Walton, N. A.

GRIDSTART, Meeting 2, Edinburgh, 24+25 July 2002
Rixon, G. T

SPIE: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, Hawaii, 22-28 Aug 2002
Lawrence, A.
Murtagh, F.           (conference organising committee)
* Walton, N. A.
Watson, M.

(C.A3) References

Laws, S., et al,


Glossary

eAA
eAstronomy Australia (formerly AVO)
AVO
Astrophysical Virtual Observatory
CA
Certification Authority
CASU
Cambridge Astronomy Survey Unit
CLRC
Central Laboratory of the Research Councils
CVO
Canadian Virtual Observatory
DAML+OIL
DARPA Agent Markup Language + Ontology Inference Layer
eDIKT
eData Information Knowledge Transformation
EJB
Enterprise Java Beans
FRD
Functional Requirement Document
GAVO
German German Virtual Observatory
GNT
Grid Network Team (a core eScience team)
GSC
Grid Support Centre (based in RAL)
HDF
Hubble Deep Field
IVOA
International Virtual Observatory Alliance
NVO
National Virtual Observatory
OGSA-DAI
Open Grid Service Architecture - Database Access and Integration  (a UK core eScience programme)
RAL
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
RVO
Russian Virtual Observatory
SRD
Science Requirements Document
VO
Virtual Observatory  (rather than Virtual Organisation!)
VO-India
Virtual Observatory-India
WFAU
Wide Field Astronomy Unit (Edinburgh)