Science Archives: Facilitating Survey Science

In this paper we discuss the role of science archives and data centres in supporting survey astronomy. We start by describing the work of the Wide Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU) at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Edinburgh, which in recent years has built science archives for the current large area and deep infrared surveys (UKIDSS and VISTA). We then go on to briefly discuss, in more general terms, how archives should operate and service the current and ever increasing volume of digital survey data.