e-Science and Grid Computing in Edinburgh

The advent of massive datasets in astronomy demands a new approach to science in this area. Astronomers around the world are building a "Virtual Observatory" through which it appears to a user that they have all the astronomical datasets in the world actually residing on their desktop PC.

The development of the Virtual Observatory is making use of a range of new distributed computing technologies from the world of Grid Computing: if the Internet provides you with access to information held on computers around the globe, then the Grid aims to let you harness their computational power. Within the UK, Grid technologies are being developed to support scientific research within universities, as part of the e-Science initiative. Edinburgh generally is a leader in this kind of research through the presence of the National e-Science Centre, while the IfA is a major contributor to the development of the Virtual Observatory through the AstroGrid and VOTECH projects, which feature staff from the Wide-Field Astronomy Unit.