Including Optical Interferometry in the Virtual Observatory

This wiki page has been set up to follow the OLBIN announce (5 Apr 2012) dedicated to build A Virtual Observatory in optical interferometry. First action will be focused onto the setup of a portal giving access to OIFITS data. Data Model discussions may figure about discussion on the future OIFITS standard revision.

Rationnal

The Virtual Observatory (VO) is opening up new ways of exploiting the huge amount of data provided by the ever-growing number of ground-based and space facilities. Specially created to develop softwares for the exploitation of interferometric facilities, the Jean Marie Mariotti Center (ASPRO, LITpro, amdlib, SearchCal) is working on VO tools to increase the diffusion and operability of interferometric data. As a first part of this project, we are developping a database containing reduced interferometric observations obtained with a wide range of interferometric instruments. The goal is to make it as complete as possible and easy to use for non-specialists. A very limited prototype of the OIFITS search engine can be found here: http://apps.jmmc.fr/oidb

Actions

At this stage of the project, we need two types of contribution from the group members in order to improve our prototype and make it operational soon.

1) Remarks and suggestions about the general layout of the oifits search engine. What kind of search parameters could be added ? What kind of fonctionalities do you expect from this oifits search engine ? Please send us your thoughts and suggestions to jmmc-tech-group@ujf-grenoble.fr.

2) We need oifits files to fill the database ! But as a first step, we would like to analyse a representative sample of oifits files obtained from a maximum of interferometric facilities in the world. The reason is that OIFITS files can be different in the way the keywords are used and filled. Once we will have estimated those differences, we will be able to define a standard and store all the oifits consistently in the database. Ideally, the sample would be representative of all the modes/setups of each instrument.

We specifically need files for the following instrument: CHARA/MIRC, CHARA/VEGA and NOI (or previously NPOI).

So if you have a representative sample of oifits from those instruments, please drop them on this ftp site (anonymous access): Thanks !

Members List

Laurent Bourges, Theo ten Brummelaar, Gilles Duvert, Francoise Geneva, Xavier Haubois, Brian Kloppenborg, Yitping Kok, Sylvain Lafrasse, Peter Lawson, Jean-Baptiste LeBouquin , Fabien Malbet, John Monnier, Denis Mourard, Claudia Paladini, Romain Petrov, Steve Ridgway

Changes / News / Events

The forum list has been created -- GuillaumeMella - 29 May 2012

A very limited prototype giving access to some data is online -- GuillaumeMella - 05 Apr 2012