Semantically-Enabled Virtual Observatories

We are developing a semantic data framework for virtual observatories. A Virtual Observatory provides online location, retrieval, and analysis services to a variety of heterogeneous scientific data sources. We employ semantic technologies to integrate data and provide “intelligent” services such as ontology-enhanced search, analysis, and data visualization. Our specific initial deployments are in the field of solar-terrestrial physics where we target atmospheric and solar researchers as end users. In this paper, we describe our general use case, our approach using OWL-DL and related tools, and our initial deployment. We describe what we have found as benefits and challenges using OWL-based semantic technologies in our efforts building an operational system. Our system is deployed in two scientific data collections with community usage migration starting now.