Technologies

Most of our services are developed following IVOA standards. We are especially involved in the development of Theory, Grid & Webservices and Semantics standards at the IVOA.

Simulation Data Model

We developed the Simulation Data Model in partnership with the Theory Interest Group of IVOA. This data model is used in all our databases publishing numerical simulations and models, such as the PDR database and StarFormat.
Simulation Data Model specification

Simulation Data Access Layer

The Simulation Data Access Layer (SimDAL) is the IVOA access protocol to retrieve simulations through the Virtual Observatory. We developed this standard with the Theory Interest Group and the Data Access Layer Working Group of the IVOA.
Simulation Data Access Layer

SKOS Vocabularies

To describe simulations and numerical models in our databases, as well as physical quantities manipulated by the software system, we use semantics concepts. We develop these vocabularies in SKOS in partnership with the Semantics Working Group of the IVOA. SKOS vocabularies allows us to introduce relationships between concepts so that the software system can better understand users requests.
SKOS vocabularies for VO-Theory

Parameter Description Language

The Parameter Description Language (PDL) is a grammar developed by Carlo-Maria Zwölf et al. and is one of the IVOA standards. It has been initially developed to expose our numerical codes with online computing resources. PDL is now a central technology in our platform to provide online services and future workflows.
Parameter Description Language specification