This presentation describes the scientific data sets and user services accessible through the public archive at the Michelson Science Center (MSC). The MSC is charged by NASA with providing long-term data archiving capabilities for the Navigator Program, whose goal is to detect and characterize Earth like planets around stars other than the Sun. The archive makes extensive re-use of the component-based software architecture of the NASA IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA). It also re-uses IRSAs Configuration Management system, user support tools, and development and data ingestion processes

Berriman, G. Bruce

English

Caltech Authors - Main

Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XVI
ASP Conference Series, Vol. 376, 2007
R. A. Shaw, F. Hill and D. J. Bell, eds.
The Public Archives at the NASA Michelson Science
Center
G. Bruce Berriman, The MSC Archive Team
Michelson Science Center, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center,
Pasadena, CA, USA
Abstract. This presentation describes the scientific data sets and user ser-
vices accessible through the public archive at the Michelson Science Center
(MSC). The MSC is charged by NASA with providing long-term data archiving
capabilities for the Navigator Program, whose goal is to detect and characterize
Earth like planets around stars other than the Sun. The archive makes extensive
re-use of the component-based software architecture of the NASA IPAC Infrared
Science Archive (IRSA). It also re-uses IRSAs Configuration Management sys-
tem, user support tools, and development and data ingestion processes.
1. Introduction
The NASA Navigator Program conducts advanced telescope searches for extra-
solar planets and habitable environments. The Michelson Science Center (MSC)
is the Navigator Programs Science Center. The MSC provides long-term data
archiving capability for data that is in direct support of extra-solar planet ac-
tivities, including extra-solar planet hunting and planet characteristics; radial
velocity (spectroscopy); astrometry (interferometry); transits (high precision
photometry); direct detection (high contrast detection); characteristics of ex-
oplanet host stars; and validated data sets of stellar characteristics for known
and potential exoplanet bearing stars.
The MSC currently serves the following data sets:
• Level-1 data from the Palomar Test-bed Interferometer (PTI), a pairwise
combination of three 0.4-m siderostats.
• Level-1 data from the Keck Interferometer (KI), an interferometric com-
bination of the two 10-m Keck telescopes on an 85 m baseline.
• Level-0 data from the CCD mosaic upgrade to the High Resolution Echelle
Spectrograph (HIRES), at the W. M. Keck Observatory (The Keck Ob-
servatory Archive).
• The Stellar Archive and Retrieval System (StARS) database, which aug-
ments the Hipparchos catalog with stellar parameters from the literature,
intended to identify candidate stars for planet finding missions (Stellar
Archive and Retrieval System)
• Transit stars: Stellar Variability and Transit Searching datasets: Several
scientists at the MSC are involved in ground-based surveys to search for
transiting extra-solar planets. The data from these surveys, which are
archived and served to the public by the MSC, provide information about
the intrinsic variability of stars and the frequency of transiting extra-solar
planets.
205
206 Berriman and MSC Archive Team
Table 1 summarizes the data sets that are scheduled for ingestion into the MSC
archives; the table includes a summary of the content of the data sets and their
scientific applicability.
Table 1. Planet Finding Datasets at the MSC
Data Set Archive Status Data Type
Keck Interferometera Public Interferometry
Palomar Test-bed Interferometerb Public Interferometry
Large Binocular Telescope Interferometerc Development Interferometry
Space Interferometry Missiond Launch 2012 est Interferometry
Keck Observatory Archivee Public Spectroscopy
Stellar Archive and Retrieval Systemf Beta release Compiled Data Set
Transit and Variable Star Archiveg Advanced Prototype Photometry
aExo-zodiacal dust, direct detection of brown dwarfs and Jupiter-mass planets
bAstrometry, orbits, stellar astrophysics
cEx-zodiacal dust, direct detection of brown dwarfs and Jupiter-mass planets
dExo-planet astrometric searches, stellar astrophysics
eExo-planet radial velocity searches, stellar astrophysics
fCompiled data on solar-like stars to support target selection for planet-finding missions
gExo-planet transit searches, stellar astrophysics
The rest of this paper summarizes the archives or data sets that have been
released to the public, or are scheduled for release this year. They are the W.
M. Keck Observatory Archive, the Keck Interferometer (KI) and Palomar Test-
bed Interferometer (PTI) archives, the Stellar Archive and Retrieval System
(StARS) and Transit Search and Variability Archive (TranSVar). The MSC
archive re-uses the component-based software architecture of IRSA, which is
based at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center. Berriman et al. (2006)
describe in more detail the architecture and its extension to the MSC.
2. W. M. Keck Observatory Archive
The KOA1 is a collaboration between the MSC and the W. M. Keck Observatory.
It is ingesting level 0 (unprocessed) data from the CCD upgrade to the High Res-
olution Echelle Spectrograph. The upgrade installed three new CCD chips that
greatly improved the sensitivity of the spectrograph in the blue spectral region,
while preserving the wavelength coverage into the red. Science and calibration
data, quick-look JPEG images of each CCD, weather information, and telescope
logs are ingested into the archive within 30 days of the observations. As of 2006
September, there are 1.08 TB of data in the archive, inclusive of over 59,000
science and calibration files, quick-look images, and ancillary information.
Principal Investigators have proprietary access to their data for at least 18
months from the date of observation; extensions may be granted per CCD. The
1http://msc.caltech.edu/archives/koa/
Michelson Science Center Archives 207
KOA was released to the public on 2006 July 17. New data are made public
each day as proprietary periods expire. Calibration files, program metadata,
and quick-look images are released as the science files are released. As of 2006
September a total of 9,170 science frames had been released. The archive has
received over 3,500 queries, and over 100 GB of data have been downloaded from
it.
The KOA user interface offers searches by position and target name, instru-
ment parameters and program information, and supports searches for weather
information for each night. The return page includes metadata, as well as links
to the science files and the quick-look images. Files may be down-loaded one-
by-one or bundled on the fly. Should any of three CCDs in a program remain
protected, the data are set to zero values in the files returned to the user, and
the quick-look images for the protected frames are not returned. Future plans
include serving level 1 (calibrated) observations.
3. Keck Interferometer and Palomar Test-bed Interferometer
The KI and PTI Archives serve level-0 and level-1 observations from KI, and
level-1 observations from PTI. The data become public following expiration of
the proprietary period. The PTI archive publicly serves 700 sources with 300,000
data points in over 950 nights. The KI archive holds 2 TB of data from 50 science
sources and calibrators. The two archives offer two user interfaces: searches on
individual targets or projects for the KI2 and the PTI3; and spatial searches,
inventories and sky coverage statistics at the IRSA4. Future plans for PTI
include level-2 products (fully calibrated visibilities), and for KI include nulling-
mode support, and phase referencing and astrometry mode.
4. Stellar Archive and Retrieval System
StARS archives and serves relevant data for the planet finding and astrobiology
communities. It provides traceability of all data to their sources, and delivers
tools to derive astrophysical parameters from archived data. As of 2006 October
StARS5 is in beta-release, with a full deployment expected in early 2007. The
beta-release supports access to the Hipparcos catalog, which has been extended
with information from the following sources:
• IRAS Point-Source Catalogs (≈ 100, 000 stars)
• Spectral types from the HD catalog (≈ 100, 000 stars)
• New radial velocities, rotational velocities, and iron abundances (Fe/H)
(≈ 2000 stars)
• Data on known extra-solar planets from radial-velocity surveys (≈ 200
stars)
2https://mscweb.ipac.caltech.edu/mscdat-ki/secure/main.jsp
3https://mscweb.ipac.caltech.edu/mscdat-pti/secure/main.jsp
4http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/MSC PTI KI/
5http://stars.ipac.caltech.edu
208 Berriman and MSC Archive Team
Future releases will support other data sets that are relevant to planet finding,
including HIRES spectra from the N2K program and intermediate-resolution
spectra from the NSTAR program.
5. Transit Search and Variability Archive
The first data set in the TranSVar archive consists of observations of the open
cluster NGC2301. A total of 14 nights of observations yielded 4000 differential
light curves in B and R. The data were generously donated by donated by
Drs. J. Tonry and S. Howell (see Tonry et al. 2005; Howell et al. 2005). The
dataset can be considered a path-finder for developing user services for transit
and variability data sets.
A user interface for querying the data is an advanced prototype, with release
scheduled for early 2007. Future plans include more data sets and tools for
visualizing and processing light curves.
Acknowledgments. The MSC is funded by the NASA Navigator Program,
under contract to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
References
Berriman, G. B., Ciardi, D. R., Good, J. C., Laity, A. C., & Zhang, A. 2006, in ASP
Conf. Ser. 351, ADASS XV, ed. C. Gabriel, C. Arviset, D. Ponz, & E. Solano
(San Francisco: ASP), 120
Howell, S. B., VanOutryve, C., Tonry, J. L., Everett, M. E., & Schneider, R. 2005,
PASP, 117, 1187
Tonry, J. L., Howell, S. B., Everett, M. E., Rodney, S. A., Willman, M. & VanOutryve,
C. 2005, PASP, 117, 289


The Public Archives at the NASA Michelson Science Center

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The Public Archives at the NASA Michelson Science Center

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