Technical solutions in preparing data for the Keck Observatory Archive (KOA)

Hien D. Tran; Jeff A. Mader; Robert W. Goodrich; Myrna Tsubota

doi:10.1117/12.924089

24 September 2012 Technical solutions in preparing data for the Keck Observatory Archive (KOA)

Hien D. Tran, Jeff A. Mader, Robert W. Goodrich, Myrna Tsubota

Proceedings Volume 8451, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy II; 845129 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.924089
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

The Keck Observatory Archive (KOA), which began curating and serving data in 2004, was developed many years after the W. M. Keck Observatory (WMKO) came into operations. Since much of the data produced from instruments on the twin Keck telescopes were never designed with the archive in mind, the metadata contained in the original FITS headers were not adequate for proper archiving. Some examples of the challenges facing the process of making the data suitable for archiving include: assigning data to the correct owner and program, especially on nights split between two or more PIs; distinguishing science files from calibration files; and identifying the type of calibration. We present some software techniques that prepare and evaluate the data, adding content to the FITS headers and "retrofitting" the metadata in order to support archiving Keck legacy data. We also describe tools developed to ensure a smooth ingestion of data for current and future instruments. We present briefly our method for controlling and monitoring the data transfer between WMKO in Hawaii and the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI) in California, where the data are physically hosted.

Citation Download Citation

Hien D. Tran, Jeff A. Mader, Robert W. Goodrich, and Myrna Tsubota "Technical solutions in preparing data for the Keck Observatory Archive (KOA)", Proc. SPIE 8451, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy II, 845129 (24 September 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.924089

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