From wgas@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Fri Mar 12 18:23:44 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["3296" "Fri" "12" "March" "93" "17:40:39" "-0500" "William Pence" "pence@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov " nil "69" "RE: \"OGIP FITS\" standard" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Return-Path: Received: from cv3.cv.nrao.edu by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA19545; Fri, 12 Mar 93 18:23:43 EST Received: from Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov by cv3.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.13) id AA27916; Fri, 12 Mar 93 18:23:20 EST Received: from localhost.gsfc.nasa.gov by Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov (911016.SGI/1.35) id AA09233; Fri, 12 Mar 93 17:40:39 -0500 Message-Id: <9303122321.AA04678@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> Comment: AAS Working Group for Astronomical Software Originator: wgas@hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Errors-To: leb@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Reply-To: Version: 5.41 -- Copyright (c) 1991/92, Anastasios Kotsikonas From: pence@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Pence) Sender: wgas@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: RE: "OGIP FITS" standard Date: Fri, 12 Mar 93 17:40:39 -0500 Lucio Chiappetti wrote: >In a recent meeting an ESTEC colleague mentioned the "OGIP FITS conventions" >and the case for compatibility with them. He also voluntereed to distribute >some related documentation. > >Since I have never seen such topic discussed on FITSBITS or WGAS (I am >posting this to both lists) I would like to know more : As a member of the OGIP, I will attempt to give an unofficial answer to the questions that were presented. First, OGIP stands for the 'Office of Guest Investigator Programs' at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. The OGIP provides guest observer support for various high-energy astrophysics missions including the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, ROSAT, Astro-D, and XTE. Also under the OGIP is a group called the HEASARC which, among other things, is developing and promoting multimission FITS format standards for use by these missions. > - Are these OGIP conventions a "private" convention of GSFC, or it is > intended to propose them as a draft standard in the traditional FITS > way ? Our goal is to develop standards which can be used throughout the high-energy astrophysics community, not just within the OGIP. We are following a 2-pronged approach to develop the standards. On one hand, we are designing specific FITS formats for use by particular missions. These formats then serve as a model for future missions with similar types of data. On the other hand, we are beginning to draft general guidelines for the FITS format for certain general classes of high-energy data, such as light curves, spectra or event data. > - Is the related documentation restricted in access or usage ? > And if not is it available electronically ? The documentation will be freely available. One distribution channel that the HEASARC uses is it's biannual Journal called "Legacy" which usually contains some FITS related articles. Legacy is currently sent to a very wide distribution list, both within and outside the high-energy community. If anyone wishes to be added to the distribution list, and/or receive copies to the first 2 issues that have been published, they should send a request to HEASARC::TYLER or tyler@heasrc.gsfc.nasa.gov In the future, we plan to make each Legacy article available electronically, but this will probably not be available for a few more months. > - How stable are those conventions ? I mean, are they frozen ? Are > they liable to change duirng development dramatically ? etc. etc. We are currently trying to reach an internal concensus withing the OGIP for some some of these standards. In particular, we will soon have a draft document on the standard formats for light curve and event data files that are used in timing analysis. So the standards are certainly not frozen, but as we beginning using these formats within the OGIP, it will naturally become more difficult to make major changes. > - Are these conventions open for discussion in the context of future > missions in which European and Eastern countries may be involved > (e.g. SAX, Spektrum-RG, XMM etc.) ? Yes, we will certainly welcome discussion on our drafts. It would be in everyone's interest to try to reach agreement on standards that all high-energy research groups could use. Bill Pence HEASARC From wgas@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Tue Mar 16 16:20:04 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1718" "Tue" "16" "March" "93" "15:28:34" "-0500" "William Pence" "pence@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov " nil "33" "High Energy FITS Format Standards" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Return-Path: Received: from cv3.cv.nrao.edu by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA06876; Tue, 16 Mar 93 16:20:03 EST Received: from Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov by cv3.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.13) id AA07475; Tue, 16 Mar 93 16:19:46 EST Received: from localhost.gsfc.nasa.gov by Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov (911016.SGI/1.35) id AA05697; Tue, 16 Mar 93 15:28:34 -0500 Message-Id: <9303162118.AA01615@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> Comment: AAS Working Group for Astronomical Software Originator: wgas@hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Errors-To: leb@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Reply-To: Version: 5.41 -- Copyright (c) 1991/92, Anastasios Kotsikonas From: pence@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Pence) Sender: wgas@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: High Energy FITS Format Standards Date: Tue, 16 Mar 93 15:28:34 -0500 Lucio Chiappetti has asked what is the best forum for discussing data format issues related to high energy astrophysics missions like ROSAT, AstroD, AXAF, SAX, Spektrum-RG, XMM, XTE, etc. The purpose of such discussions would be to define conventions for the use of FITS standard formats to store similar types of high energy astrophysics data. This would involve defining standard names for FITS keywords and table columns and designing standard table column layouts for different types of data, all within the current FITS standard. Discussions of expanding the FITS standard, e.g., to define new types of FITS extensions, would be beyond the scope of this discussion group. My own preference would be to have a separate mail exploder specificly for discussion of High Energy Astrophysics data related issues. I think the WGAS and FITSBITS groups are both too broad in nature for this purpose which would make it difficult to reach a concensus. It would be better to have a smaller and more focused group to discuss these specific issues. There would be no attempt to limit membership to this discussion group, but I would expect the core members to be the 1 or 2 people from each high energy astrophysics mission that are most directly concerned with data format issues, as well as the writers of general analysis software for this type of data. The HEASARC already maintains a mail distribution list like this consisting of people interested in FITS data formats for the CGRO, ROSAT, AstroD, and XTE missions. These people are mainly located at GSFC, but there are a few at other sites. We would be happy to expand the membership of this list to include anyone interested in these issues. -Bill Pence From wgas@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Wed Mar 17 11:25:31 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["752" "Wed" "17" "March" "93" "10:32:00" "-0500" "Eric Mandel" "eric@cfa242.harvard.edu " nil "25" "Re: High Energy FITS Format Standards " "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Return-Path: Received: from cv3.cv.nrao.edu by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA08985; Wed, 17 Mar 93 11:25:30 EST Received: from Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov by cv3.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.13) id AA19833; Wed, 17 Mar 93 11:25:09 EST Received: from localhost.gsfc.nasa.gov by Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov (911016.SGI/1.35) id AA08589; Wed, 17 Mar 93 10:32:00 -0500 Message-Id: <9303171622.AA00957@cfa242.harvard.edu> Comment: AAS Working Group for Astronomical Software Originator: wgas@hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Errors-To: leb@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Reply-To: Version: 5.41 -- Copyright (c) 1991/92, Anastasios Kotsikonas From: eric@cfa242.harvard.edu (Eric Mandel) Sender: wgas@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: High Energy FITS Format Standards Date: Wed, 17 Mar 93 10:32:00 -0500 Bill (and others), We at SAO would be interested in participating in a HEA-FITS mail exploder. As is the case with GSFC, we have a few projects going on here, each of which would probably want to participate. As it turns out, we have recently brought up Brent Chapman's public domain "Majordomo" mailing list manager, which allows people to subscribe and unsubscribe to mailing lists without human intervention. It appears to work very nicely. It might be a good idea to use this software to manage the HEA-FITS list, rather than have a human perform this function. If there is general consensus to start a HEA-FITS list, we can easily add such a list to the ones that majordomo manages here, if this is acceptable. Regards, Eric Mandel From wgas@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Wed Mar 17 11:44:46 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["121" "Wed" "17" "March" "93" "10:50:32" "-0500" "Nick White, HEASARC. Tel: 301 286 8443" "white@heagip.DNET.NASA.GOV " nil "9" "Re: High Energy FITS Format Standards" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Return-Path: Received: from cv3.cv.nrao.edu by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA09031; Wed, 17 Mar 93 11:44:45 EST Received: from Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov by cv3.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.13) id AA20524; Wed, 17 Mar 93 11:44:29 EST Received: from localhost.gsfc.nasa.gov by Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov (911016.SGI/1.35) id AA08779; Wed, 17 Mar 93 10:50:32 -0500 Message-Id: <9303171639.AA02522@east.gsfc.nasa.gov> Comment: AAS Working Group for Astronomical Software Originator: wgas@hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Errors-To: leb@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Reply-To: Version: 5.41 -- Copyright (c) 1991/92, Anastasios Kotsikonas From: white@heagip.DNET.NASA.GOV (Nick White, HEASARC. Tel: 301 286 8443) Sender: wgas@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: High Energy FITS Format Standards Date: Wed, 17 Mar 93 10:50:32 -0500 Eric, We have the same "smart" exploder software, and will setup an heafits exploder over the next day or two. Nick From wgas@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Wed Mar 31 17:41:55 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["2955" "Wed" "31" "March" "93" "17:25:34" "-0500" "William Pence" "pence@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov " nil "67" "High Energy Astrophysics FITS group - HEAFITS" "^From:" nil nil "3"]) Return-Path: Received: from cv3.cv.nrao.edu by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA08951; Wed, 31 Mar 93 17:41:54 EST Received: from Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov by cv3.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.13) id AA02512; Wed, 31 Mar 93 17:41:22 EST Received: from localhost.gsfc.nasa.gov by Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov (911016.SGI/1.35) id AA07133; Wed, 31 Mar 93 17:25:34 -0500 Message-Id: <9303312234.AA18082@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> Comment: AAS Working Group for Astronomical Software Originator: wgas@hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Errors-To: leb@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Reply-To: Version: 5.41 -- Copyright (c) 1991/92, Anastasios Kotsikonas From: pence@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Pence) Sender: wgas@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: High Energy Astrophysics FITS group - HEAFITS Date: Wed, 31 Mar 93 17:25:34 -0500 This is to announce that a new electronic mail exploder, called HEAFITS, has been set up for the purpose of discussing issues related to FITS format files in High Energy Astrophysics (HEA). This is intended to be a more specialized group for discussion of HEA-specific FITS issues that would not necessarily be of interest to the majority of subscribers to the existing FITSBITS and WGAS mail exploders. There is no strict charter for what topics can be discussed within the HEAFITS group, but in general, the purpose of this mail distribution group is to promote the development of standards for FITS files containing data related to high energy astrophysics. This includes, but is not limited to, proposals for standard keyword names, or standard binary table layouts and column names to be used for different classes of HEA data. More general issues such as proposals for changes to the existing FITS Standard, or for new types of FITS extensions, should more properly be addressed to the FITSBITS group, rather than HEAFITS. There are two mail addresses associated with HEAFITS. The first address should be used to subscribe or unsubscribe to HEAFITS. Once you have subscribed, the second address should then be used for posting messages to the group, as explained in more detail below: TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE TO HEAFITS: To subscribe to this mail exploder, interested parties should send a one-line mail message to the following account: listserv@legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov The body of the mail message should contain one line with the following text: subscribe heafits Your Name where 'Your Name' is obviously your own name. To unsubscribe to the group, send a message to the the same address with the line: unsubscribe heafits We are currently in the process of automating this listserver mechanism, but in order to not further delay the start of this group the subscription and unsubscription process will be handled manually for the present. Therefore it may take up to a day from the time of your request before your name is actually entered into the subscription list. TO POST MESSAGES TO THE HEAFITS GROUP. Once you have subscribed to HEAFITS, you may then send messages to the other members of the group by addressing your mail to heafits@legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov (Note that these messages should _not_ be sent to the listserv address). I would suggest that new subscribers to this group wait until next week before posting any messages to the group, to allow for a critical mass of people to subscribe first. I will send out a message next week to all the subscribers, once it appears that there are enough people subscribed to make a meaningful discussion possible. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Pence High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) pence@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (Internet) or HEASRC::PENCE