IA2 Welcome

The long-term goal of this project is to implement a new strategy for preserving and providing access to the Astrophysical data heritage.

IA2 is an ambitious Italian Astrophysical research infrastructure project that aims at co-ordinating different national initiatives to improve the quality of astrophysical data services. It aims at co-ordinating these developments and facilitating access to this data for research purposes.

The first working target, is the implementation of the TNG Long-Term Archive (LTA). Its feasibility was demonstrated by the LTA pilot project prototype, funded by CNAA in 2001 and completed successfully in July 2002. The implementation of the TNG archive implies:
− interfacing with the Centro "Galileo Galilei" (CGG) for the acquisition of TNG data;
− long-term storage of scientific, technical and auxiliary data from the TNG;
− providing accessibility by the CGG staff and by the scientific community to original and derived data;
− providing tools to support the life cycle of observing proposals.

The second target of the proposal aims at ensuring harmonization with other projects related to archiving of data of astrophysical interest, with particular reference to projects involving the Italian astronomical community (LBT, VST, GSC-II, DPOSS, …), to the Italian Solar and Solar System Physics community (SOLAR, SOLRA, ARTHEMIS which form SOLARNET – a future node of EGSO) and to the national and international coordination efforts fostering the idea of a multiwavelength Virtual Astronomical Observatory, and the use of the archived data through the Italian Astronomical Grid.

Moreover a particular effort will be made to ensure a close interaction with a number of existing national and international projects aimed at developing and implementing advanced data mining and visualization tools, in particular with in EURO-VO activities

This center is proposed by a collaboration comprising a number of Italian Institutes.