Databases & On-line Data in Astronomy

283 Pages·1991·9.04 MB·English

by  H. U. Zimmermann, A. W. Harris (auth.), Miguel A. Albrecht, Daniel Egret (eds.)

DATABASES & ON-LINE DATA IN ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS AND
SPACE SCIENCE LIBRARY
A SERIES OF BOOKS ON THE RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
OF SPACE SCIENCE AND OF GENERAL GEOPHYSICS AND ASTROPHYSICS
PUBLISHED IN CONNECTION WITH THE JOURNAL
SPACE SCIENCE REVIEWS
Editorial Board
R. L. F. BOYD, University College, London, England
W. B. BURTON, Sterrewacht, Leiden, The Netherlands
C. DE JAGER, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
J. KLECZEK, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Ondfejov, Czechoslovakia
Z. KOPAL, University of Manchester, England
R. LOST, Max-Planck-Instilutfur Meleorologie, Hamburg, Germany
.
L. I. SEOOV, Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., Moscow, U.S.S.R.
Z. SvESTKA, Laboratory for Space Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands
INSTRUMENTATION
VOLUME 171
DATABASES &
ON-LINE DATA
IN ASTRONOMY
Edited by
MIGUEL A. ALBRECHT
ESO, Garching bei Miinchen, Germany
and
DANIEL EGRET
Observatoire Astronomique
Universite Louis Pasteur
Strasbourg, France
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Databases and on-l1ne data ln astronomy I edlted by Mlguel A.
Albrecht. Danlel Egret.
p. CII. -- (Astrophys 1c s and ~pace sc 1e nce i 10rary ; v. 171>
Inc ludes lndex.
ISBN 978-94-010-5433-1 ISBN 978-94-011-3250-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-3250-3
1. Astronomy--Data bases. 2. Data base searchlng. 3. On-l1ne
data processlng. 1. Albrecht. Mlguel A. II. Egret. D. (Danlel)
III. Series.
QB51.3.E43D38 1991
025. OS· 52--dc20 91-14440
CIP
ISBN 978-94-010-5433-1
Printed on acid-free paper
AlI Rights Reserved
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1991
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any inforrnation storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
Table of Contents
Preface xi
1 Data from the ROSAT Observatory 1
1-1 Introduction .......... . 1
1-2 The Instruments ........ . 2
1-3 Satellite Data Flow .............. . 2
1-4 The ROSAT Scientific Data Centre ......... . 3
1-5 Standard Data Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1-6 Extended Data Evaluation with EXSAS ....... . 5
1-7 Archiving and Retrieval of ROSAT data at the RSDC 5
1-8 WFC Data ....................... . 8
1-9 Archive Access and Data Rights 8
2 The EXOSAT Database System 11
2-1 Introduction .......... . 11
2-2 A Data Archive Infra-structure. . . . . 12
2-3 The User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2-4 The Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2-5 Conclusions. . . . 16
3 IRAS 17
3-1 Introduction .......... 17
3-2 Data products ......... 20
3-3 Data access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3-4 Future developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4 Databases from Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) 29
4-1 The COBE Mission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4-2 Contents of the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
vi Databases & On-line Data in Astronomy
4-3 Organization of the Data . 33
4-4 Future Plans ....... . 34
5 The many faces of the Archive of the International Ultraviolet
Explorer satellite 35
5-1 Introduction ... 35
5-2 The ruE project. . 35
5-3 The IDE Archives 36
6 Data Archive Systems for the Hubble Space Telescope 47
6-1 Introduction ...................... 47
6-2 Critical design issues for the HST Archive System. 49
6-3 The Capabilities Required of the HST Archive System 52
6-4 The Data Management Facility (DMF). . . 53
7 Database Aspects of the Guide Star Catalog 59
7-1 Introduction .... . 59
7-2 History ....... . 59
7-3 Catalog Construction 60
7-4 Production Data . . . 61
7-5 GSC Structure and Content . 63
7-6 Enhancements and Plans .. 64
8 The HIPPARCOS INCA Database 67
8-1 The HIPPARCOS mission: requirement for an INCA Database 67
8-2 The INCA database: creation . . . . 69
8-3 The INCA database: stellar content 70
8-4 The INCA database: data content 73
8-5 Usage of the INCA database. . . 74
8-6 Database software and organization of the data 75
8-7 Access mode 75
8--8 Future plans. 75
9 The SIMBAD astronomical database 79
9-1 Introduction ............ . 79
9-2 The Strasbourg Data Center (CDS) . 79
9-3 The astronomical contents ..... 80
Contents vii
9-4 Retrieving data: three query modes 81
9-5 SIMBAD ill: a new Database Management System 82
9-{; How to obtain access to SIMBAD? . 84
9-7 The users of SIMBAD . . . . . . . . 85
9-8 Updating SIMBAD: a very large cooperative effort 85
9-9 Future trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
10 The NASAlIPAC Extragalactic Database 89
10-1 Introduction 89
10-2 Context ... 89
10-3 Data contents. 91
10-4 Functions 99
10-5 Interface. 101
10-{; Architecture . 103
10-7 Future plans 104
11 The ESO Archive Project 107
11-1 Introduction ..... 107
11-2 Raw versus Calibrated data. 107
11-3 Archiving at ESO .. 108
11-4 Data Format ..... 109
11-5 The Archive Medium 110
11-{; The Archiving Process . 111
11-7 The Catalogue of Observations . 112
11-8 STARCAT: The user interface . . 112
12 Archives of the Isaac Newton Group, La Palma and Westerbork
observatories 115
12-1 Introduction ................. 115
12-2 Contents and organization of the archives 116
12-3 Accessing the La Palma and Westerbork Observations Cata-
logues ................................ 119
12-4 User Profiles of the archives 122
12-5 Future plans .. . . . . . . . 123
13 Archiving at NRAO's VLA and VLBA Telescopes 125
viii Databases & On-line Data in Astronomy
14 ESIS A Science Information System 127
14-1 Introduction .. 127
14-2 User needs . . . . . . . . 128
14-3 The pilot project . . . . . 128
14-4 System architecture . . . 130
14-5 Science Oriented Information Retrieval 131
14-6 Conclusions ............. . 137
15 The NASA Astrophysics Data System 139
15-1 Introduction ..... 139
15-2 System Development . 140
15-3 System Design . . . . . 141
15-4 System Operations . . . 146
15-5 System Usage ..... . 148
15-6 ADS Service Upgrades and Additions. 149
15-7 Further Information 149
16 The NSSDC Services 151
16-1 Introduction .. 151
16-2 Current services 152
16-3 Future services. 156
16-4 How to access the NSSDC archives 158
17 The Space Data Centre at RAL 161
17-1 Introduction ........ . 161
17-2 Facilities at the SDC .... . 162
17-3 Data available or expected to be available 162
17-4 User services ......... . 164
17-5 Future plans .. . . . . . . . . 164
18 Database applications in Starlink 165
18-1 Introduction .. . 165
18-2 SCAR ...... . 168
18-3 Other database systems 174
18-4 Comparison with HDS 175
18-5 Further reading. . . . . 176
Contents ix
19 Database applications in Astronet 179
19-1 Foreword . . . . . . . 179
19-2 DIRA: Background. 180
19-3 DIRA structure . . 182
19-4 Personal database . 185
19-5 Graphic tasks. . . . . 187
19-6 DIRA master database content 188
19-7 General characteristic of DBIMA . 189
19-8 Retrieving data from archives .,. 190
20 Database Services at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre 193
20-1 Context . . . . . . . . . 193
20-2 Databases and Services 195
20-3 Access Mode 196
20-4 User Profile . 197
20-5 Future Plans 197
21 Astronomical bibliography from commercial databases 199
21-1 Introduction .. 199
21-2 Databases. . . . . . . 200
21-3 Vendors . . . . . . . . 208
22 Astronomical Directories 211
22-1 Introduction ..... 211
22-2 First compilations " . 211
22-3 The virus strikes back . 212
22-4 Present situation . . . 215
22-5 A question of quality 216
22-6 Speaking of evolution 219
22-7 Other directories . . . 220
22-8 Future trends . . . . . 222
23 Science networks: A short overview 225
23-1 Introduction ..... 225
23-2 Wide-area networks 225
23-3 Organisations . . . . 228
x Databases & On-line Data in Astronomy
23-4 The future. . . . . . . . . 230
24 User Interfaces in Astronomy 235
24-1 Introduction ...... . 235
24-2 Current Status . . . . . . 236
24-3 Designing the User Interface Software . 243
25 The FITS Data Format 253
25-1 Introduction ..... . 253
25-2 General Structure .. . 254
25-3 The FITS Data Format . 254
25-4 FITS Committees and Standards 256
25-5 Conclusions. 257
List of Acronyms 259
Index 265