CIAO: Chandra's data analysis system

Antonella Fruscione; Jonathan C. McDowell; Glenn E. Allen; Nancy S. Brickhouse; Douglas J. Burke; John E. Davis; Nick Durham; Martin Elvis; Elizabeth C. Galle; Daniel E. Harris; David P. Huenemoerder; John C. Houck; Bish Ishibashi; Margarita Karovska; Fabrizio Nicastro; Michael S. Noble; Michael A. Nowak; Frank A. Primini; Aneta Siemiginowska; Randall K. Smith; Michael Wise

doi:10.1117/12.671760

30 June 2006 CIAO: Chandra's data analysis system

Antonella Fruscione, Jonathan C. McDowell, Glenn E. Allen, Nancy S. Brickhouse, Douglas J. Burke, John E. Davis, Nick Durham, Martin Elvis, Elizabeth C. Galle, Daniel E. Harris, David P. Huenemoerder, John C. Houck, Bish Ishibashi, Margarita Karovska, Fabrizio Nicastro, Michael S. Noble, Michael A. Nowak, Frank A. Primini, Aneta Siemiginowska, Randall K. Smith, Michael Wise

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6270, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems; 62701V (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.671760
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2006, Orlando, Florida , United States

Abstract

The CIAO (Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations) software package was first released in 1999 following the launch of the Chandra X-ray Observatory and is used by astronomers across the world to analyze Chandra data as well as data from other telescopes. From the earliest design discussions, CIAO was planned as a general-purpose scientific data analysis system optimized for X-ray astronomy, and consists mainly of command line tools (allowing easy pipelining and scripting) with a parameter-based interface layered on a flexible data manipulation I/O library. The same code is used for the standard Chandra archive pipeline, allowing users to recalibrate their data in a consistent way. We will discuss the lessons learned from the first six years of the software's evolution. Our initial approach to documentation evolved to concentrate on recipe-based "threads" which have proved very successful. A multi-dimensional abstract approach to data analysis has allowed new capabilities to be added while retaining existing interfaces. A key requirement for our community was interoperability with other data analysis systems, leading us to adopt standard file formats and an architecture which was as robust as possible to the input of foreign data files, as well as re-using a number of external libraries. We support users who are comfortable with coding themselves via a flexible user scripting paradigm, while the availability of tightly constrained pipeline programs are of benefit to less computationally-advanced users. As with other analysis systems, we have found that infrastructure maintenance and re-engineering is a necessary and significant ongoing effort and needs to be planned in to any long-lived astronomy software.

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Antonella Fruscione, Jonathan C. McDowell, Glenn E. Allen, Nancy S. Brickhouse, Douglas J. Burke, John E. Davis, Nick Durham, Martin Elvis, Elizabeth C. Galle, Daniel E. Harris, David P. Huenemoerder, John C. Houck, Bish Ishibashi, Margarita Karovska, Fabrizio Nicastro, Michael S. Noble, Michael A. Nowak, Frank A. Primini, Aneta Siemiginowska, Randall K. Smith, and Michael Wise "CIAO: Chandra's data analysis system", Proc. SPIE 6270, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems, 62701V (30 June 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.671760

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