3rd RSIH&SWA Workshop – Morelia, Mexico – 20 October 2015

IPS Common Data Format v1.0 (IPSCDFv1.0) - Official Launch!

M.M. Bisi (Mario.Bisi@stfc.ac.uk) (1),

and The world-wide IPS community..

(1) RAL Space, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Oxford, Didcot,

Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX, England, UK

Outline

Why?

Outline of IPSCDFv1.0

Where we are

Final steps

Are We Agreed and Open Discussions?

Why?

Why There are multiple IPS-capable systems with a variety of

analysis methods, data products, and ways in which data are

presented.

This makes it complicated for the non-IPS specialist to use and

understand without full hands-on interaction with the

observatory/data provider.

No clear distinction is made between single- and multi-site

obtained velocity values and what they might mean to the end

used/scientist looking to exploit the IPS result(s).

Because of the above, IPS is hugely under exploited.

Outline of IPSCDFv1.0

Outline (1)

Currently several of us have been experimenting with sub-

versions of the following plain-text ASCII format (although

exact character counts for each parameter/column need to be

explicitly agreed upon for uniformity still):

Date Start-UT System Cent.

Obs. Freq. Obs. Bandwidth Source

RA-J2000 DC-J2000 Limb

Dist. Lat. PA Elong. Vel.

V-err g-value g-err Method

Vel. V-err g-value g-err

Method

Outline (2)

Proposed addition of the source size on the sky which will

complete the plain-text ASCII format as the IPS Common Data

Format v1.0 (IPSCDFv1.0) for full implementation and use by

all:

Date Start-UT System Cent.

Obs. Freq. Obs. Bandwidth Source

Src. Size RA-J2000 DC-J2000 Limb

Dist. Lat. PA Elong. Vel.

V-err g-value g-err Method

Vel. V-err g-value g-err

Method

Where we are

Where are we? STELab and UCSD have been baselining the beta-testing

precursor to IPSCDFv1.0 in that almost all the parameters are

included with the exception of the radio source size on the sky

for the most part (ordering and column sizes need checking).

MEXART have started to implement this precursor format.

Not yet tested, as far as I am aware, is the output of two different

velocity values in the format (multi-site and then single site).

Others (as far as I am aware) have yet to start producing data for

sharing in this format but are willing to do so (where sufficient

data and results are available) once we have “frozen” the format.

Final Steps

What now? Add in the source-size option – this can be a null value (-999),

an estimate for the source on the sky at that particular observing

frequency, or an actual observed/determined size on the sky

(dependent upon the observatory’s needs/capabilities) as well as

set the column widths needed.

Provide data as openly as possible (with whatever constraints

you need to put on the use of the data) in this plain-text

ASCII format.

Promote the format where possible at meetings/conferences/

workshops and to let the wider community have exposure to IPS,

its capabilities, and its usefulness on its own and alongside other

data/data products/models/etc…

Are We Agreed and Open Discussions?

Are we agreed? (I hope so…)

Over to you all…

Are We Agreed and Open Discussions?