VISTA science exploitation

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Observational astronomy in the UK is in a strong position with the advent of the pioneering near-infrared (NIR) survey facilities of VISTA and WFCAM and the opportunities for detailed followup provided by membership of ESO. Significant advances in astronomy have always relied heavily on surveys of the sky from radio, through optical to X-ray wavelengths and the new era of deep NIR surveys is the latest stage in this progression. It is also one where the UK has both a substantial lead and the requisite expertise in the Cambridge and Edinburgh survey units to exploit this advance in wide field astronomy. Recognising the benefits of this, ESO are now also heavily committed to public surveys through the VST and VISTA telescopes and to wider exploitation of expertly processed and archived science data products. In the modern era wide-field digital survey cameras produce enormous volumes of data that are way beyond the resource capacity and analysis skills of non-specialist astronomers. Systematic pipeline processing, calibration and legacy curation of observational data are a fundamental requirement of an end-to-end integrated observing strategy and a crucial component of a global Virtual Observatory. The Vista Data Flow System (VDFS) has been developed to allow an optimal ergonomic solution to this avalanche of data, through access to multi-Tbyte data storage systems, expert pipeline processing systems and science user support. Continuing development of the VDFS processing and analysis pipelines will not only benefit the UK astronomy community now, but will also be relevant in the era of Extremely Large Telescopes and the radio Square Kilometer Array, by further developing the infrastructure to analyse the data from these facilities. This standard grant proposal is a bid for resource to complete the full development of the VDFS and thereby provide fully integrated data processing support for the UK-led VISTA public surveys. This also includes the operational equipment necessary to carry out the data processing and store the data products. By building on the tremendous advances already made at CASU this will enable a cost-effective and optimal solution to the problem of converting the enormous quantities of VISTA data to fully calibrated science-ready products ripe for exploitation.