International  Virtual  Observatory  Alliance
 
IVOA Documents
ivoa.net


Data Model for Astronomical DataSet Characterisation
Version 1.12

IVOA Recommendation 08 November 2007

Interest/Working Group:
http://www.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/IvoaDataModel
Author(s):
IVOA Data Model Working Group
Editor(s):
Mireille Louys, Anita Richards, François Bonnarel, Alberto Micol, Igor Chilingarian, Jonathan McDowell

Abstract

This document defines the high level metadata necessary to describe the physical parameter space of observed or simulated astronomical data sets, such as 2D-images, data cubes, X-ray event lists, IFU data, etc.. The Characterisation data model is an abstraction which can be used to derive a structured description of any relevant data and thus to facilitate its discovery and scientific interpretation. The model aims at facilitating the manipulation of heterogeneous data in any VO framework or portal. A VO Characterisation instance can include descriptions of the data axes, the range of coordinates covered by the data, and details of the data sampling and resolution on each axis. These descriptions should be in terms of physical variables, independent of instrumental signatures as far as possible. Implementations of this model has been described in the IVOA Note available at: http://www.ivoa.net/Documents/Notes/ImplemtationCharacDM/ImplementationCharacterisation-20070813.pdf Utypes derived from the UML model are listed and commented in the following IVOA Note: http://www.ivoa.net/Documents/latest/UtypeListCharacterisationDM.html

Status of this document

This document has been produced by the Data Model Working Group.
It has been reviewed by IVOA Members and other interested parties, and has been endorsed by the IVOA Executive Committee as an IVOA Recommendation. It is a stable document and may be used as reference material or cited as a normative reference from another document. IVOA's role in making the Recommendation is to draw attention to the specification and to promote its widespread deployment. This enhances the functionality and interoperability inside the Astronomical Community.



Available formats: .pdf


maintained by  ::ivoa document coordinator::