Special Session 15 : Data Intensive Astronomy
Beijing, 28-31 August, 2012

The rapid development of semiconductor technology has lead to large sensitive detectors that enabled astronomers to easily survey large sky areas. Such large-scale observations and surveys cover a wide range of scientific themes in astronomy. Astronomers need to be well-prepared for such a new era of astronomical research utilizing large amounts of data. Since the data production rate will be 100 to 1000 times larger than the past, advanced data analyses combined with statistics and data mining will be essential to derive general “rules” and/or “knowledge” on various phenomena in the Universe, as the data volumes will make human inspection and analysis of the data impossible. The most important and exciting astronomical discoveries of the coming decade will rely on research and development in data science disciplines that enable rapid information extraction, knowledge discovery, and others, combined with sophisticated data management, access, visualization and other technical advancement.

Topics

• Near- and far-future telescopes and survey projects that will produce large-scale data
• Scientific insights from large-scale observations in broad fields in astronomy
• Advanced data analyses, such as data mining, in deriving scientific knowledge from large-scale data
• Data management and data access with and beyond virtual observatories to ensure data-intensive astronomical research
• Synergy of data-intensive astronomy with other fields, such as mathematics/statistics and informatics
• Education, Public Outreach and Others

Coordinating Division

Division XII - Union-Wide Activity

Contact

Masatoshi Ohishi (masatoshi.ohishi [at] nao.ac.jp)