Avaruusdataan

Avaruusdataan is a term used in Finland to describe a critical stage in the process of analyzing and storing astronomical data. It specifically refers to the transition period when the data collected from ground-based astronomical observations enters digital storage, and this data is in essence transferred to a longer-term digital data repository.

This term was coined in the context of the European Space Agency's (ESA) response to the recommendations made in the 1997 Optical Interferometry workshop. At that time, the European space and astronomy programs recognized the increasing demands of managing vast quantities of satellite data, including that from investigating phenomena such as variable stars, comets, and asteroids. This workload could only be managed by merging and integrating data, shifting to digital formats and moving to utilization of the existing computing resources.

Avaruusdataan bridges data storage managed by the Space Operations Data Facilitator, a longitudinal facility handling subsets of many operational space and astronomy-related projects. Part of this data set includes huge volumes generated by optical and near-infrared observing projects like the High Angular Resolution Programme (HARP), as well as solar instrumentation and the Galileo terrestrial missions. Systematically acquired data duplicates extracted continuously for dedicating offline computing are crucial aspects of the contemporary transition.