Structure

Paris Astronomical Data Centre (PADC) is a Regional Expert Centre certified by INSU / CNRS. Its purpose is to distribute ground-based and space borne data of general interest, and to maintain and develop the savoir-faire about Virtual Observatory (VO) techniques to access and promote these archives. In particular, it hosts and helps maintaining INSU-certified data services with VO interfaces.

PADC is organized around four main components, according to INSU rules:

• Directorate (direction): a director, a deputy director and a technical director are coordinating PADC activities.
• Projects committee (Groupe Projets): six science themes (Atomic and molecular physics, VO-Theory, Planetary science, Heliophysics, Stars and distant universe, Reference systems and ephemerides) are coordinated by this committee. The scientific coordinator and technical coordinator of the science themes are members of this committee. Five extra, more general themes are transverse to the science themes: Education, Interoperability and workflow, Hardware infrastructure, Mining and Automation, Nançay Data Centre. This committee is chaired by the director of PADC.
• VO Science council (Conseil scientifique, CSOV): the goal of this committee is to advise about PADC evolutions. Its members are representatives of the laboratories involved in the data centre, and are scientific users of VO resources. The committee is completed with three external experts and is chaired by PADC director.
• Steering committee (comité de pilotage, CoPil): the goal of the steering committee is to discuss and possibly to reinforce the level of resources allocated to the data centre. Its decisions are based on the CSOV advice. The members of the CoPil are the directors of the laboratories involved in PADC. This committee is chaired by the President of Paris Observatory.

Structure of VO-Paris Data Centre