Units in Astronomy and Astrophysics

This paper has been prepared by the authors as the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) contribution to the Task Group on Digital Representation of Units of Measure (DRUM) of the Committee on Data (CODATA) of the International Science Council (ISC). It describes the standards for use of units in astronomy and astrophysics and their development over the last 3+ decades: the IAU Style Manual, the FITS standard, and the IVOA recommendation on the use of units. In addition, it highlights special units in use in the field (units of length, time, and flux density, as well as celestial coordinates); caveats (on the importance of reference positions, linear velocities versus Doppler velocities, time, and polarization); and special quirks

Units in the VO

This document describes a recommended syntax for writing the string representation of unit labels ("VOUnits"). In addition, it describes a set of recognised and deprecated units, which is as far as possible consistent with other relevant standards (BIPM, ISO/IEC and the IAU). The intention is that units written to conform to this specification will likely also be parsable by other well-known parsers. To this end, we include machine-readable grammars for other units syntaxes

Categorisations of object types in SIMBAD

Astronomical objects may be classified into types in many ways, and the evolution of such categorisations changes with new discoveries and progress in astrophysical understanding. The SIMBAD database contains information on astronomical objects that have been studied in the published literature, including a field that specifies astronomical object types. As a record that is derived entirely from the literature, a given astronomical object in SIMBAD may have multiple object types, and the list of object types must be maintained and updated. The SIMBAD object type list currently contains some 200 types, that are organised into a hierarchy based on astrophysical concepts. The hierarchical structure also includes relations between object types, and this facilitates searches of SIMBAD to obtain lists of all of the astronomical objects in a given category independently of the publisher or the year of publication. We will explain the organisation of astronomical object types in SIMBAD and how they may be used in queries of the SIMBAD database, and visualised on all-sky maps

A New Bibliographical Feature for SIMBAD: Highlighting the Most Relevant Papers for One Astronomical Object

International audienceThe number of bibliographical references attached to an astronomical object in SIMBAD is has been growing continuously over the years. It is important for astronomers to retrieve the most relevant papers, those that give important information about the object of study. This is not easy since there can be many references attached to one object. For instance, in 2014, more than 15,000 objects had been attached to more than 50 references. The location of the object's citations inside the paper and its number of occurrences are important criteria to extract the most relevant papers. Since 2008, because of the DJIN application (a semi-automatic tool to search for object names in full text) this information has been collected. For each article associated with an astronomical object, we know where it is cited and how many times and with which name it appears. Since September 2013, the users of SIMBAD web site can choose to retrieve the most relevant references for an astronomical object depending on its location in the publication. A new formula to sort references by combining all locations, number of occurrences, total number of objects studied, citation count, and year is presented in this paper

Le système d’information sur les sols de France : capitaliser, analyser, diffuser, aller vers l’open data

International audienceThe Scientific Interest Group on soil (GIS Sol) was created in 2001 with the mission of designing and coordinating the inventory and monitoring of soils in France. This mission requires capitalizing existing or newly produced data in databases, analyzing them, producing new knowledge and bringing data and knowledge to the attention of users. This article briefly describes the databases and their associated tools for the main data acquisition programmes of the GIS Sol. Then the work of analyzing these data to produce statistics and predictions on soil properties is presented. Finally, the tools and developments for consultation and dissemination of soil data are described. This panorama of tools currently available or under development shows the importance of the efforts made by GIS Sol since 2001.El Grupo de Interés Científico del Suelo (GIS Sol) fue creado en 2001 con la misión de diseñar y coordinar el inventario y seguimiento de suelos en Francia. Esta misión requiere capitalizar datos existentes o recién producidos en bases de datos, analizarlos para producir nuevos conocimientos y devolver datos y conocimientos a los usuarios. Este artículo describebrevemente las bases de datos y sus herramientas asociadas para los principales programas de adquisición de datos del GIS Sol, luego el trabajo de análisis de estos datos para producir estadísticas y predicciones sobre las propiedades del suelo y finalmente las herramientas y desarrollos para la consulta y difusión de datos del suelo. Este panorama de herramientasactualmente disponibles o en desarrollo muestra la importancia del esfuerzo realizado por GIS Sol desde 2001.Le Groupement d’intérêt scientifique sur les sols (GIS Sol) a été créé en 2001 avec la mission de concevoir et de coordonner l’inventaire et la surveillance des sols en France. Cette mission nécessite de capitaliser les données existantes ou nouvellement produites dans des bases de données, de les analyser, de produire de nouvelles connaissances et de restituer données et connaissances aux utilisateurs. Cet article décrit succinctement les bases de données et les outils associés aux grands programmes d’acquisition de données du GIS Sol, puis les travaux d’analyse de ces données pour produire des métriques et des prédictions sur les propriétés du sol dans l’espace et le temps, et enfin les outils et développements pour la consultation et la diffusion des données sur les sols. Ce panorama des outils actuellement disponibles ou en cours de développement montre l’importance des efforts réalisés sur ce plan par le GIS Sol depuis 2001

Working Together at CDS: The Symbiosis Between Astronomers, Documentalists, and IT Specialists

International audienceSince the CDS (Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg) began a little more than forty years ago, astronomers, documentalists, and information technology (IT) specialists have been working together. The synergy between these three professional groups support the core of the work and is becoming more and more crucial with the increasing volume and complexity of data handled. The astronomers use their understanding of the subject and of users' needs to help to maintain the accuracy and the relevance of data. The computer engineers enhance these data by maintaining the database framework and continuing to add useful tools to retrieve and reuse this content. Finally, the documentalists, by definition, manage the content. They do so with the help of IT tools developed at CDS; they analyze the publications, extract the relevant information, verify the data, make comparisons with existing data, add the useful information in VizieR and SIMBAD, and confer with astronomers to make corrections, if needed. After an historical review of the evolution in data and the way data have been provided at CDS, we will further discuss the fundamental roles of the three professional groups to support the mission of the CDS

L'état des sols de France

Cet ouvrage a fait l'objet d'une synthèse éditée par le Groupement d'Intérêt Scientifique sur les Sols : Gis Sol. 2011. Synthèse sur l'état des sols de France. 24 p.absen

Synthèse sur l'état des sols de France

Cette synthèse est issue d'un ouvrage édité par le Groupement d'Intérêt Scientifique sur les Sols : Gis Sol. 2011. L'état des sols de France. 188 p.absen

The state of the soils in France in 2011 - A synthesis

Cette synthèse est issue d'un ouvrage édité par le Groupement d'Intérêt Scientifique sur les Sols : Gis Sol. 2011. L'état des sols de France. 188 p.absen