AstroCloud, a Cyber-Infrastructure for Astronomy Research: Architecture

TL;DR

AstroCloud is a comprehensive cyber-infrastructure designed to support the entire lifecycle of modern observational astronomy research through seamless integration of data management, security, and workflow systems.

Contribution

This paper introduces the architecture and key design features of AstroCloud, a new integrated platform for astronomy research supporting big data workflows.

Findings

Designed a data access middleware for seamless data retrieval.

Implemented an extendible proposal workflow system.

Developed a security framework for data access control.

Abstract

AstroCloud is a cyber-Infrastructure for Astronomy Research initiated by Chinese Virtual Observatory (China-VO) under funding support from NDRC (National Development and Reform commission) and CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences). The ultimate goal of this project is to provide a comprehensive end-to-end astronomy research environment where several independent systems seamlessly collaborate to support the full lifecycle of the modern observational astronomy based on big data, from proposal submission, to data archiving, data release, and to in-situ data analysis and processing. In this paper, the architecture and key designs of the AstroCloud platform are introduced, including data access middleware, access control and security framework, extendible proposal workflow, and system integration mechanism.