The European grid of solar observations

The European Grid of Solar Observations (EGSO) is a Grid test-bed that will change the way users analyze solar data. One of the major hurdles in the analysis of solar data is finding what data are available and retrieving those required. EGSO is integrating the access to solar data by building a Grid including solar archives around the world. The Grid relies on metadata and tools for selecting, processing and retrieving distributed and heterogeneous solar data. EGSO is also creating a solar feature catalogue giving for the first time the ability to select solar data based on phenomena and events. In essence, EGSO is providing the fabric of a virtual observatory. Since the first release of EGSO in September 2003, members of the solar community have been involved in product testing. The constant testing and feedback allows us to assure the usability of the system. The capabilities of the latest release will be described, and the scientific problems that it addresses discussed. EGSO is funded under the IST (Information Society Technologies) thematic priority of the European Commission's Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) – it started in March 2002 and will last for three years. The EGSO Consortium comprises 11 institutes from Europe and the US and is led by the Mullard Space Science Laboratory of University College London. EGSO is collaborating with other groups in the US who are working on similar virtual observatory projects for solar and heliospheric data with the objective of providing integrated access to these data.