Category Archives: Data Management

The Virtual Observatory Is Very Much Real!

Posted on February 24, 2018 by astrocompute

  This is the title of a talk given at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics by my colleague Giuseppina (Pepi) Fabbiano. Pepi has been involved in the VO since its earliest daya, and she currently serves as Chair of the … Continue reading →

Posted in archives, astroinformatics, Astronomy, computer videos, Computing, computing videos, cyberinfrastructure, data archives, Data Management, information sharing, software engineering, software sustainability, Virtual Observatory | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

From The Front Lines of SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 2016

Posted on July 15, 2016 by astrocompute

I attended the SPIE meeting on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation in Edinburgh, Scotland from June 26 through July 1, and I am sharing my views on the conference presentations. Approximately 2,000 astronomers, software engineers and instrumentation specialists crowded the Edinburgh … Continue reading →

Posted in astroinformatics, Astronomy, computer modeling, cyberinfrastructure, Data Management, databases, Gemini, Grid Computing, High performance computing, informatics, information sharing, programming, Scientific computing, software engineering, software maintenance, software sustainability, TMT, user communities, Virtual Observatory, visualization, W. M. Keck Observatory | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The SAMI Data Archive: A Prototype of An Archive of the Future?

Posted on February 10, 2016 by astrocompute

Astronomy data sets are not simply exploding in size – they are exploding in complexity too. Witness the data sets obtained from integral-field spectroscopy (IFS).  While the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral-field spectrograph (SAMI) survey has exceeded measurements of 1,000 galaxies, surveys such … Continue reading →

Posted in astroinformatics, Astronomy, astronomy surveys, Computing, cyberinfrastructure, data archives, Data formats, Data Management, Data mining, databases, FITS, HDF5, High performance computing, informatics, information sharing, Open Source, Python, Scientific computing, software engineering, software maintenance, software sustainability, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How Does An Astronomer Become A Data Scientist?

Posted on January 29, 2016 by astrocompute

I have been asked this question by several junior colleagues, so I thought my answer might be valuable to a broader audience. In particular, these young scientists were keen to learn how their skills might be transferable to another field. … Continue reading →

Posted in astroinformatics, Astronomy, Career Advice, careers, computer modeling, computing videos, Data Management, Data mining, Data Science, databases, High performance computing, informatics, information sharing, programming, R, Scientific computing, software engineering, software maintenance, software sustainability, statistical analysis, statistics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

VO Interfaces at the CSIRO ASKAP Science Data Archive (CASDA).

Posted on December 8, 2015 by astrocompute

This week, I am reporting on a presentation I heard by James Dempsey of CSIRO at the IVOA meeting in Sydney, November 2015. You can download the presentation at the meeting site here. ASKAP is the Australian SKA Pathfinder, a … Continue reading →

Posted in archives, ASKAP, astroinformatics, Astronomy, astronomy surveys, cyberinfrastructure, data archives, Data Management, High performance computing, informatics, information sharing, Observatories, Scientific computing, SKA, software engineering, software maintenance, software sustainability, Virtual Observatory | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A New Data Archive for Gemini – Fast, Cheap and in the Cloud

Posted on November 20, 2015 by astrocompute

I must congratulate my colleague Paul Hirst at Gemini – he is to my knowledge the first astronomer to use “cheap” and “cloud” in the same title. His talk on building a new archive for the Gemini telescopes was presented … Continue reading →

Posted in astroinformatics, Astronomy, Cloud computing, Computing, cyberinfrastructure, data archives, Data formats, Data Management, FITS, Gemini, informatics, information sharing, metadata management, Observatories, Operations, programming, Python, Scientific computing, software engineering, software maintenance, software sustainability, telescopes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Petascale Data Management in Solar Physics: Approach of the DKIST Data Center

Posted on November 10, 2015 by astrocompute

While attending the ADASS XXV meeting in Sydney, I heard this excellent presentation by Steve Berukoff 0n data management at the National Solar Obervatory’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, now under construction on Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii.  The telescope is due for … Continue reading →

Posted in archives, astroinformatics, Astronomy, Cloud computing, Computing, cyberinfrastructure, data archives, Data Management, DBMS, Grid Computing, High performance computing, informatics, information sharing, metadata, metadata management, Observatories, Open Access, Open Source, programming, Scientific computing, software engineering, software maintenance, software sustainability, Solar astronomy, telescopes, Time domain astronomy, user communities | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Palomar Transient Factory: High Quality Realtime Data Processing in a Cost-Constrained Environment

Posted on May 5, 2015 by astrocompute

This is the title of a paper by Surace et al. (2015) currently available on astro-ph and presented as a paper at ADASS XXIV in October 2014. The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) is an example of a cost-constrained project that is … Continue reading →

Posted in astroinformatics, Astronomy, astronomy surveys, cyberinfrastructure, data archives, Data Management, High performance computing, informatics, information sharing, Observatories, Operations, Parallelization, programming, Scientific computing, software engineering, software maintenance, software sustainability, Uncategorized, user communities | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tools For Astronomical Big Data

Posted on March 12, 2015 by astrocompute

This week, I attended the Tools for Astronomical Big Data Workshop, held in Tucson from March 9 -11 and sponsored by NOAO. Over 100 practitioners gathered to “survey the present state of the art in addressing the challenges of conducting … Continue reading →

Posted in astroinformatics, Astronomy, astronomy surveys, Catalogs, Cloud computing, cyberinfrastructure, Data Management, Data mining, databases, DBMS, Grid Computing, High performance computing, image mosaics, informatics, information sharing, Montage, Observatories, Parallelization, programming, Scientific computing, SDSS, social networking, software engineering, software maintenance, software sustainability, Uncategorized, user communities, visualization, XSEDE | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The dot Astronomy 6 Conference

Posted on December 23, 2014 by astrocompute

For my last post of 2014, I would like to draw everyone’s attention to the on-line material about the dot Astronomy 6 Conference, held this year at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, on December 8-10. This annual meeting on on-line astronomy … Continue reading →

Posted in astroinformatics, Astronomy, astronomy surveys, Computing, data archives, Data Management, Hack Days, informatics, information sharing, Internet, On-line Journals, Open Access, Open Source, programming, publishing, Python, Scientific computing, social media, social networking, software engineering, software maintenance, software sustainability, Time domain astronomy, Uncategorized, user communities, Virtual Observatory, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment