  We have designed and implemented a novel way to process wide-field
astronomical data within a distributed environment of hardware resources and
humanpower. The system is characterized by integration of archiving,
calibration, and post-calibration analysis of data from raw, through
intermediate, to final data products. It is a true integration thanks to
complete linking of data lineage from the final catalogs back to the raw data.
This paper describes the pipeline processing of optical wide-field astronomical
data from the WFI (http://www.eso.org/lasilla/instruments/wfi/) and OmegaCAM
(http://www.astro-wise.org/~omegacam/) instruments using the Astro-WISE
information system (the Astro-WISE Environment or simply AWE). This information
system is an environment of hardware resources and humanpower distributed over
Europe. AWE is characterized by integration of archiving, data calibration,
post-calibration analysis, and archiving of raw, intermediate, and final data
products. The true integration enables a complete data processing cycle from
the raw data up to the publication of science-ready catalogs. The advantages of
this system for very large datasets are in the areas of: survey operations
management, quality control, calibration analyses, and massive processing.
