Simulating instruments for mining uncalibrated archives

Bruno Voisin, Alberto Micol, Seathrún Ó'Tuairisg, Ray Butler, Aaron Golden, Andy Shearer

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

As the astronomical community continues to produce deeper and higher resolution data, it becomes increasingly important to provide tools to the scientist that help mining the data in order to provide only the scientifically interesting images. In the case of uncalibrated archives, this task is especially difficult as it is difficult to know whether an interesting source can be seen on images without actually looking. Here, we show how instrument simulation can be used to lightly process the database-stored image descriptors of the ESO/Wide Field Imager (WFI) archive, and compute the corresponding limiting magnitudes. The end result is a more scientific description of the ESO/ST-ECF archive contents, allowing a more astronomer-friendly archive user interface, and hence increasing the archive useability in the context of a Virtual Observatory. This method is developed for improving the Querator search engine of ESO/HST archive, in the context of the EC funded ASTROVIRTEL project, but also provides an independant tool that can be adapted to other archives.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)294-301
Number of pages8
JournalProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume5493
DOIs
StatePublished - 2004
Externally publishedYes
EventOptimizing Scientific Return for Astronomy through Information Technologies - Glasgow, United Kingdom
Duration: Jun 24 2004Jun 25 2004

Keywords

  • Data Mining
  • Instrument Simulation
  • Virtual Observatories

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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