Follow UsThe Multimission Archive at STScI Newsletter
| November 14, 2005 | Space Telescope Science Institute | Volume 16 |
| The Multimission Archive at STScI (MAST) Newsletter disseminates information to users of the HST, FUSE, GALEX, IUE, Copernicus, EUVE, HUT, UIT, WUPPE, IMAPS, BEFS, TUES and VLA-FIRST data archives supported by MAST. Inquiries should be sent to archive@stsci.edu. |
Table of Contents
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Archive Status
Over the past 6 months, MAST provided nearly 11 TB of mission products and an additional 1.3 TB of High-Level Science Products to the astronomical community. HST data deliveries account for 88% of the mission products delivered. The Digital Sky Survey data is also heavily utilized. In October 2005, on average, over 6500 DSS images were downloaded per day. On the peak day in October nearly 15,000 images were downloaded in a single day.
As the archive grows, the science that can be done with the archived data is growing in scope and is changing the
way the archive will be used and how data is retreived from the archive.
The current HST search and retrieval system is well designed to deliver
high-quality data processed with the best calibrations to Guest Observers and also works well for delivery
medium-sized requests for data. However, the current configuration does not accommodate large requests easily.
In the past proposal cycle, several archive proposals were accepted that require large searches and
requests for a significant amount of data.
While planning for changes to better accommodate large requests is underway, the archive is looking for
way to serve this part of community using exisiting tools.
Check the new web page http://archive.stsci.edu/hst/bigsearch_request.html to find some suggestions and guidelines for large searches and requests.
System resources required for On-The-Fly Reprocessing may significantly delay data availability
for programs requiring large volumes of data.
Even smaller requests may sometimes encounter delays because of competing requests.
If you are making a large request
(greater than 350 ACS, 700 STIS, 700 NICMOS, or 1500 WFPC2 datasets at one time),
coordinate your request with the archive hotseat by email
archive@stsci.edu or by phone (410-338-4547)
during regular business hours.
Please submit the requests early on a Friday for weekend processing to avoid peak processing times.
Generally large requests will be run over a weekend and time will be allocated on
a first-come first-served basis.
Soon, you may be able to request that your data to be written to an external hard disk
that will be shipped to you when full.
Since, at least initially, we will only be using disks purchased with HST Project funds,
you will need to read the disk and return it to the archive before you can retrieve more data to a disk.
This service will be limited to requests that result in data retrievals of over 100 GB over a short period of time (e.g. a weekend).
If you think that a set of requests over a short period of time will result in a very large volume of data,
call the hotseat during regular business hours (410-338-4547) to coordinate both submission of your requests
and to arrange for your data to be written to a disk.
This service will be limited to requesters of large amounts on a first-come first served basis.
While this retrieval mode is in a testing phase, we expect it to be completely operational by early January 2006.
Most are accessible via anonymous ftp from archive.stsci.edu. After logging in, cd pub/hslp.
To find HLSP of interest, please visit our HLSP project search page at:
http://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/index.html.
To find if there are HLSP for a specific target visit the web page
http://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/search.php.
MAST welcomes contributions of new HLSP. Please see our page of guidelines or send mail to archive@stsci.edu for more information.
Three sets of HLSP have been added since the last Archive Newsletter.
GEMS is a large-area (800 arcmin 2) two-color (F606W and F850LP) imaging survey
with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope. This project was led by Hans-Walter Rix
and the project is described in Rix, et.al. 2004.
Centered on the Chandra Deep Field-South, it covers an area of ~ 28'x28', or about 120 HDF areas, to a depth of MAB(F606W)=28.5(5σ) for compact sources.
In its central ~1/4, GEMS incorporates ACS imaging from the GOODS project.
Focusing on the redshift range ~ 0.2<z<1.1, GEMS provides morphologies and structural parameters
for nearly 10,000 galaxies where redshift estimates, luminosities, and SEDs exist from COMBO-17.
At the same time, GEMS contains detectable host galaxy images for several hundred faint active galactic nuclei.
MAST maintains a web page that provides links to the data, two different browse tools and a table providing information about the data products.
The data can be downloaded via the web at
http://archive.stsci.edu/pub/moon/
or via anonymous ftp.
This data was covered by a
NASA/STScI Press Release.
These applications all use MAST web services that provide access to
newly created VO-compatible FITS files based on the VO SED data model standard.
Definition and creation of the VO-compatible FITS files is a joint project with STScI,
ST-ECF, and CADC HST archives.
A poster about the project titled, "A VO-Compatible Spectral Container for HST and other Missions"
was presented at the October 2005 ADASS meeting.
Data currently accessible by these applications include a subset of 1-D
spectra from STIS, GHRS, FOS, HUT, EUVE, and WUPPE. The GHRS data are from a set reprocessed
by CADC with the most appropriate calibrations. We expect to add low resolution IUE data in the next couple of weeks.
MAST often receives queries from users with some SQL experience for help in building tables containing GALEX metadata for lists of objects or object types satisfying certain criteria. For use with GALEX queries, MAST/GALEX has adapted the CasJobs service from the Sloan (SDSS) project. This service permits one to upload a list of object designations and coordinates for cross correlation of the listed objects with GALEX/GR1 and/or SDSS data. We want to encourage astronomers once again to explore the capabilities of this tool. At this writing the Project has not announced a date for availability of GALEX Release 2 (GR2), but we expect delivery very early in the year, before the publication of the next MAST newsletter.
Over the next year, the FUSE project plans to reprocess the entire FUSE archive with CalFUSE v3.1.
This will be the final calibration of the FUSE data set.
Users can determine if retrieved data have been subject to the final processing by consulting
the Archive Date on the data retrieval page (or of course in the header of the FITS files).
Some past users have allowed us to post their suggestions. Those suggestions and the MAST responses can be found at
http://archive.stsci.edu/suggestion_response.html.
Let us hear from you!
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MAST is continually looking for ways to help you find the data you want
and we would really like to hear your ideas.
We have provided a "suggestion box" at
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