The Data Lab: A Science Platform for the analysis of ground-based astronomical survey data
The next decade will feature a growing number of massive ground-based photometric, spectroscopic, and time-domain surveys, including those produced by DECam, DESI, and LSST. The NOAO Data Lab was launched in 2017 to enable efficient exploration and analysis of large surveys, with particular focus on the petabyte-scale holdings of the NOAO Archive and their associated catalogs. The Data Lab mission and future development align well with two of the NSF's Big Ideas, namely Harnessing Data for 21st Century Science and Engineering and as part of a network to contribute to Windows on the Universe: The Era of Multi-messenger Astrophysics. Along with other Science Platforms, the Data Lab will play a key role in scientific discoveries from surveys in the next decade, and will be crucial to maintaining a level playing field as datasets grow in size and complexity.