Advanced Data Products for the Next Decade

The amount and quality of research carried out using archival data has been steadily increasing over the last decade (see, e.g., the statistics presented in White et al. 2009, submitted to Astro2010), thanks in no small measure to the improved quality of the data that most projects and missions make available to archival researchers. Within the vision of the Virtual Observatory, advanced data management techniques will allow the integration of globally distributed data collections and services, putting a vast array of data and products within easy reach of researchers everywhere. The development of high-quality advanced data products is a central component of that vision. Over the next decade, Archive Centers—in cooperation with the Virtual Observatory—should expand their involvement in the development, validation, and dissemination of advanced data products for their respective missions, identifying the tools and data that offer significant promise of broad applicability, and developing them to the extent needed to make the results accessible to the whole astronomical community. Survey projects, such as IRAS, HIPPARCOS, SDSS, and WMAP, have traditionally provided archival users with high-quality processed data and software tools that greatly facilitate their research. The quality of such products generally is as good as it can be achieved, since the processing is carried out by the most experienced people and the data are homogeneous. Pointed missions, such as today’s Great Observatories, face a more difficult challenge because of the heterogeneity of the data they produce; PI teams can often achieve higher quality for specific data sets, thanks to fine-tuned processing and