Bibliography, catalogs, pixel data: Management of heterogeneous Big Data at CDS by the documentalists

Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, Observatoire astronomique de Strasbourg, UMR 7550, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

^* e-mail: Mihaela.Buga@astro.unistra.fr ORCID: 0000-0002-0845-7705
^** e-mail: Pierre.Fernique@astro.unistra.fr

Published online: 27 July 2018

Abstract

High speed Internet and the evolution of data storage space in terms of cost-effectiveness has changed the way data are managed today. Large amounts of heterogeneous data can now be visualized easily and rapidly using interactive applications such as “Google Maps”. In this respect, the Hierarchical Progressive Survey (HiPS) method has been developed by the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS) since 2009. HiPS uses the hierarchical sky tessellation called HEALPix to describe and organize images, data cubes or source catalogs. These HiPS can be accessed and visualized using applications such as Aladin.

We show that structuring the data using HiPS enables easy and quick access to large and complex sets of astronomical data. As with bibliographic and catalog data, full documentation and comprehensive metadata are absolutely required for pertinent usage of these data. Hence the role of documentalists in the process of producing HiPS is essential. We present the interaction between documentalists and other specialists who are all part of the CDS team and support this process. More precisely, we describe the tools used by the documentalists to generate HiPS or to update the Virtual Observatory standardized descriptive information (the “metadata”). We also present the challenges faced by the documentalists processing such heterogeneous data on the scales of megabytes up to petabytes.

On one hand, documentalists at CDS manage small size textual or numerical data for one or few astronomical objects. On the other hand, they process large data sets such as big catalogs containing heterogeneous data like spectra, images or data cubes, for millions of astronomical objects. Finally, by participating in the development of an interactive visualization of images or three-dimensional data cubes using the HiPS method, documentalists contribute to a long-term management of complex, large astronomical data.