AstroGrid-D: Enhancing Astronomic Science with Grid Technology

Abstract

We present AstroGrid-D, a project bringing together astronomers and experts in Grid technology to enhance astronomic science in many aspects.\nFirst, by sharing currently dispersed resources, scientists can calculate their models in more detail. \nSecond, by developing new mechanisms to efficiently access and process existing datasets, scientific problems can be investigated that were until now impossible to solve. \nThird, by adopting Grid technology large instruments such as\nrobotic telescopes and complex scientific workflows from data aquisition to analysis can be managed in an integrated manner. In this paper, we present prominent astronomic use cases, discuss requirements on a Grid middleware and present our approach to extend/augment existing middleware to facilitate the improvements mentioned above.