VOSpec
Original author(s)ESAVO Team
Developer(s)Isa Barbarisi, Jesus Salgado, Andrea Laruelo, Juan Gonzalez
Stable release
5.5 / 9 February 2009; 15 years ago (2009-02-09)
Written inJava
Operating systemLinux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
TypeEducational software
License[[]]
Websiteesavo.esa.int/vospec

VOSpec is a tool for scientific analysis of astronomical spectra. Its handles many different types of spectra from different projects, as long as they are compliant with the standards from the Virtual Observatory. It is written in Java.

From a very simple interface VOSpec has gone through a series of changes and evolutions converting it in an Analysis tool of VO data.

History

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VOSpec was born at the beginning of 2004 as an attempt to solve the problem of how to share spectra within the VO.

There were lots of tools for spectra analysis and display in the astronomical community. However, there was a need for a “VO-enabled” tool that could superimpose spectra coming from different projects within the VO and in VO-format.

One of the main reasons for the current absence of such a tool was the fact that astronomical spectra were not as well defined as, e.g., images are. The IVOA has made a significant effort in trying to define a Simple Spectral Access Protocol by which part of this problem is solved, giving the rules to be able to handle spectral data in the VO context.

An old problem in dealing with flux energy densities is the handling of different units. This problem has been traditionally dealt with by calling string parsers that convert between unit names fixed by some standard. Despite the different efforts to create a single standardized convention for unit names, several of these standards do currently exist. This creates a burden in the handling of units in the traditional way. On top of this, making legacy data available to the VO is crucial to the success of the VO as a whole. Those legacy data are normally not well formatted to conform to any standard, and therefore it is important to be able to deal with them with a simple definition of certain metadata.

Led by the aforementioned reasons, the Sciences Archives Team at ESAC decided to develop a tool to handle VO-compatible spectra and implement an algorithm based on dimensional analysis to handle units in a simple yet effective way. (see paper by Osuna-Salgado: Dimensional Anaysis applied to Spectrum Handling in Virtual Observatory Context). [1]

Features

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  • Able to load local spectra (FITS or VOTABLE format)
  • Can create and SED available and local spectra coming from any part of the wavelength spectrum
  • Can create SSAP[2] wrapper around user's local spectra for immediate display
  • Common graphic manipulation options are available
  • Easy superimposion of spectra in different units and units handling
  • Possibility to save results as Image or VOTable
  • Polynomial, Black Body and Gaussian fitting, Normalization, Dereddening, Red-shift correction, Luminosity difference calculation, Mathematical Operations.
  • Access to theoretical spectra through the TSAP-like protocol
  • Best Fit to theoretical spectra
  • Access to Spectral Lines through the IVOA Simple Line Access Protocol (SLAP, ref Salgado et al(2005)[3])
  • Handling of Photometric Data Model[4]

Screenshots

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VOSpec Publications

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  • EURO-VO Workshop 2008, Madrid, Spain - Multi-wavelength Astronomy using VOSpec[5]
  • A VO-based solution to the origin of soft X-ray emission in obscured AGN[6]
  • EURO-VO Workshop, March 2007, Villafranca del Castillo, Madrid, Spain - Astronomical Spectroscopy in the VO era: VOSpec[7]
  • EURO-VO Workshop, March 2007, Villafranca del Castillo, Madrid, Spain - Spectroscopic lines in the VO context:IVOA model and Access[8]
  • EURO-VO Workshop, Villafranca del Castillo, Madrid, Spain - VOSpec and highresolution X-ray line catalogues[9]
  • PV2007, Oberpfaffenhofen/Munich, Germany - ESA Scientific Archives and inter-operable Virtual Observatory systems[10]
  • ADASS Sept 2007, London, UK - VOSpec Spectral Analysis Tools[11]
  • ADASS Sept 2007, London, UK - ESA Science Archives, VO tools and remote Scientific Data reduction in Grid Architectures[12]
  • ADASS Sept 2007, London, UK - Data Visualization in the ESA Science Archives and ESA Virtual Observatory[13]
  • ADASS 2006, Tucson, Arizona, USA - How to Access Spectral Line Databases in the IVOA: SLAP Services in VOSpec[14]
  • ADASS 2006, Tucson, Arizona, USA - ESA VO: VO Services and Activities[15]
  • PV 2005, Edinburgh - ESA RSSD Science Archives Inter-Operability and Virtual Observatory Services[16]
  • ADASS 2005, El Escorial, Madrid - Theoretical Support to Observational data in VO Context[17]
  • ADASS 2004, Pasadena, California, USA - ESA VO : Archives and VO Services[18]
  • ADASS 2004, Pasadena, California, USA - VOSpec: A Tool for Handling Virtual Observatory Compliant Spectra[19]

References

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  1. ^ "Dimensional Anaysis applied to Spectrum Handling in Virtual Observatory Context" (PDF). Astronomy & Astrophysics. Retrieved 2005-11-21.
  2. ^ "Simple Spectral Access Protocol" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-02-10.
  3. ^ "Simple Line Access Protocol" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-09-10.
  4. ^ "Photometry Data Model" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-10-13.
  5. ^ "Multi-wavelength Astronomy using VOSpec". In D. Baines & P. Osuna, editor, Multi-wavelength Astronomy and Virtual Observatory, pages 99–+, July 2009.
  6. ^ "A VO-based solution to the origin of soft X-ray emission in obscured AGN". Highlights of Astronomy, Volume 14, p. 582-582.
  7. ^ "Astronomical Spectroscopy in the VO era: VOSpec" (PDF). In M. Guainazzi & P. Osuna, editor, Astronomical Spectroscopy and Virtual Observatory, pages 83–+, October 2008.
  8. ^ "Spectroscopic lines in the VO context:IVOA model and Access". In M. Guainazzi & P. Osuna, editor, Astronomical Spectroscopy and Virtual Observatory, pages 187–+, October 2008.
  9. ^ "VOSpec and highresolution X-ray line catalogues".
  10. ^ "ESA Scientific Archives and inter-operable Virtual Observatory systems" (PDF).
  11. ^ "VOSpec Spectral Analysis Tools". Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XVII, volume 394 of Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, pages 227–+.
  12. ^ "ESA Science Archives, VO tools and remote Scientific Data reduction in Grid Architectures" (PDF). Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XVII, volume 394 of Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, pages 227–+.
  13. ^ "Data Visualization in the ESA Science Archives and ESA Virtual Observatory" (PDF). Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XVII, volume 394 of Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, pages 227–+. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |work= at position 104 (help)
  14. ^ "How to Access Spectral Line Databases in the IVOA: SLAP Services in VOSpec". Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XVI, volume 376 of Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, pages 603–+.
  15. ^ "ESA VO: VO Services and Activities" (PDF). Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XVI, volume 376 of Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series,pages 611–+.
  16. ^ "ESA RSSD Science Archives Inter-Operability and Virtual Observatory Services" (PDF). The Royal Society, Edinburgh.
  17. ^ "Theoretical Support to Observational data in VO Context" (PDF). In C. Gabriel, C. Arviset, D. Ponz, & S. Enrique, editor, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XV, volume 351 of Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, pages 363–+, July 2006. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |work= at position 58 (help)
  18. ^ "ESA VO : Archives and VO Services" (PDF). Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XIV, volume 347 of Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, pages 198–+.
  19. ^ "VOSpec: A Tool for Handling Virtual Observatory Compliant Spectra". Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XIV, volume 347 of Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, pages 198–+.


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