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Simple Image Access Specification
Version 1.0

IVOA Proposed Recommendation 08 October 2009

Interest/Working Group:
http://www.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/IvoaDAL
Author(s):
Doug Tody, Ray Plante
Editor(s):
Paul Harrison

Abstract

This specification defines a protocol for retrieving image data from a variety of astronomical image repositories through a uniform interface. The interface is meant to be reasonably simple to implement by service providers. A query defining a rectangular region on the sky is used to query for candidate images. The service returns a list of candidate images formatted as a VOTable. For each candidate image an access reference URL may be used to retrieve the image. Images may be returned in a variety of formats including FITS and various graphics formats. Referenced images are often computed on the fly, e.g., as cutouts from larger images.

Status of this document

This is an IVOA Proposed Recommendation made available for public review.
It is appropriate to reference this document only as a recommended standard that is under review and which may be changed before it is accepted as a full recommendation.



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