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| Paper: |
HEALPix Based Cross-Correlation in Astronomy |
| Volume: |
475, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XXII |
| Page: |
135 |
| Authors: |
Fernique, P.; Durand, D.; Boch, T.; Oberto, A.; Pineau, F. |
| Abstract: |
We are presenting our work on a cross correlation system based on HEALPix cells indexing. The system allows users to answer scientific questions like “please find all HST images on which there is an observation of a radio quiet quasar” in a single query. The baseline of this system is the creation of the HEALPix indexes grouped hierarchically and organized in a special format file called MOC (see http://ivoa.net/Documents/Notes/MOC) developed by the CDS. Using the MOC files, the cross correlation between images and or catalogues is reduced to searches only in meaningful areas. Under the condition that the survey database also internally uses a HEALPix positional index, the search result comes back almost immediately (typically a few seconds). We have started building the index for some surveys, catalogues (VizieR catalogues, Simbad, etc.) and some pointed mode archives (like HST at CADC) and are developing an elementary library to support basic operations on any input MOC files. The usage of the MOC files is starting to be used throughout the VO community as a general indexing method and tools such as Aladin and TOPCAT are starting to make use of them. |
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