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X-ray Data in a Digital Environment

X-ray Data in a Digital Environment. Kim Arcand Visualization Coordinator. Chandra X-ray Observatory.

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X-ray Data in a Digital Environment

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  1. X-ray Data in a Digital Environment Kim Arcand Visualization Coordinator

  2. Chandra X-ray Observatory The Chandra X-ray Observatory captures X-ray images and measures spectra of many high-energy cosmic phenomena. Chandra has a highly elliptical orbit that takes it 1/3 of the way to the Moon. This orbit allows Chandra to observe continuously for many hours at a time, but makes it unreachable by the Space Shuttle, which was used to launch it back in 1999

  3. Chandra Data X-ray data obtained by Chandra is typically stored on board for about 8 hours worth at a time. About three times a day, Chandra communicates with the Deep Space Network, sending its newly acquired data back to Earth while receiving new instructions from the ground. Deep Space Network consists of three dishes in Australia, Spain, and California. It is the primary way that Earth maintains contact with missions through the Solar System.

  4. Chandra Data The data transmitted via the Deep Space Network appears as a series of positions and times. The tables of information can then be translated into an image, for example, by plotting the position on a grid. Each additional photon for a location makes that point appear brighter, thus representing a stronger X-ray source.

  5. False or Representative Color From the numerical data that is transmitted from the satellite, multi-colored X-ray images can be made by assigning different parts of the X-ray range that Chandra observes to colors recognizable to the human eye. The color choice is typically used as a type of code in which the colors can be associated with the intensity or brightness of the radiation from different regions of the image, or with the energy of the emission.

  6. Virtual Observatories & Digital Environments: New online astronomy • Sky in Google Earth • http://earth.google.com/ • Google Sky • http://www.google.com/sky/ • WorldWide Telescope • http://worldwidetelescope.org/ • Wikisky • http://www.wikisky.org/ • Digital Planetariums, etc

  7. Chandra Images & Metadata Metadata modified images can be used in multiple digital environments such as Google Sky and WWT. Chandra EPO is currently researching methods to automatically embed metadata into Chandra images.

  8. Chandra Images & Metadata The technology will also allow search engines to find these images dynamically in respect to sky coordinates, object classifications, descriptions, and physical properties like wavelength or distance.

  9. Chandra Images & Metadata The currently employed standard for metadata tagging is the Astronomy Visualization Metadata (AVM) Standard, which is utilized by multiple observatories, e.g. Chandra, Hubble and Spitzer. AVM: http://www.virtualastronomy.org/avm_metadata.php

  10. Project Flow • Stage 1: • Program algorithms to automate XMP file creation. • Agglomerate data from web databases to embed and update images with XMP information. • Generate workflows to porting images into WorldWide Telescope and Google Sky. • Stage 2: • Automate WCS coordinate alignment. • Build automated XMP updater for files on server. 350+ Chandra images currently live in the database, manual placement of metadata (except WCS) in all. WCS placed in about 30-35 images. Programming in Python, C, and XML

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