Connecting the time domain community with the Virtual Astronomical Observatory

摘要

The time domain has been identied as one of the most important areas of astronomical research for the nextdecade. The Virtual Observatory is in the vanguard with dedicated tools and services that enable and facilitatethe discovery, dissemination and analysis of time domain data. These range in scope from rapid notications oftime-critical astronomical transients to annotating long-term variables with the latest modelling results. In thispaper, we will review the prior art in these areas and focus on the capabilities that the VAO is bringing to bearin support of time domain science. In particular, we will focus on the issues involved with the heterogeneouscollections of (ancilllary) data associated with astronomical transients, and the time series characterization andclassication tools required by the next generation of sky surveys, such as LSST and SKA.© (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.