Synergy in Astronomy and Geosciences

Abstract Astronomy and geosciences are deeply related and converging fields. Both industries process large volumes of spatially enabled data in similar ways, with commonalities in remote sensing techniques, coordinate transformations, distance measurement, analysis of time series, and spectroscopy. Yet the two industries employ different software and standards, hindering interoperability. Virtual European Solar and Planetary Access (VESPA) is an initiative to bring together the virtual observatory and the planetary science through the development of common tools, interfaces, and data access protocols. With deeper integration, geosciences can benefit from the adoption of data discovery methods and distributed data storage techniques developed by the virtual observatory, while astronomy would be able to leverage on the extensive data processing and web mapping tools developed by the geosciences.