TDIG Charter

[John Swinbank]

Dear all,

I've just updated http://www.voevent.org/ to display the new TDIG charter, as provided by Matthew (thanks!). The text is:

> The time domain is the emerging field of astronomical research, as recognized in the European ASTRONET and 2010 US National Research Council Decadal Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Planned facilities for the next decade and beyond, both ground-based, such as the LSST and SKA, and space-based, such as CHEOPS, EChO and PLATO, will revolutionize our understanding of the universe with nightly searches of large swathes of sky for changing objects and networks of robotic telescopes ready to follow up in greater detail selected interesting sources. This will impact essentially every area of astronomy, from the Solar System to cosmology, and from stellar evolution to extreme relativistic phenomena, making it a very rich area for scientific exploration and discovery, and extending beyond the traditional electromagnetic spectrum into neutrino and gravitational wave astronomy. Moreover, many interesting phenomena, e.g., supernovae and other types of cosmic explosions, can only be studied in the time domain. The challenges lie in the automated distribution, processing, classification, and archiving of vast streams of triggers. The VO is well-placed to support and facilitate research in this area.
> 
> 
> The IVOA Time Domain Interest Group has evolved from the IVOA VOEvent Working Group recognizing that the mechanics of celestial event notification are now broadly resolved within the VO but that broader representation of the emerging time domain community has become necessary.
> 
> It will:
> 
> - Provide a forum for discussing time domain specific issues in a VO context.
> - Contribute to other IVOA working groups to ensure that time domain specific requirements are included.
> - Incorporate standard approaches defined in these groups when designing and implementing services on time domain archives.
> - Define standard services relevant for time domain archives.
> - Promote development of services for comparing theoretical results to observations and vice versa.
> - Define relevant milestones and assign specific tasks to interested parties.

Cheers,

John