Guidelines for Contributing High-Level Science Products to MAST

Guidelines for Contributing High-Level Science Products to the Multimission Archive at STScI

July 2009

The Multimission Archive at Space Telescope (MAST) welcomes the contribution of high-level science products (HLSP) from the astronomical community. The purpose of this document is to establish the guidelines and policies for the contribution of HLSP to MAST. Note that contributions of HSLP are now a requirement for the HST Treasury and Legacy programs. The guidelines for archiving non-reduced data from entire missions is a separate document. If you wish to contribute HLSP or have any questions concerning these guidelines please send mail to archive@stsci.edu.

Accepted Data and Product Types

Images and/or spectra from any MAST-supported mission (e.g. HST, FUSE, GALEX, IUE, EUVE etc.).
Ground-based observations closely related to a MAST mission.
Output produced from theoretical models closely related to the MAST data and not generally available through another permanent archive.
Object catalogs and lists of identified spectral lines
A "README" file that includes file descriptions and documents details of data reduction, pipeline processing version is required.
Plots relevant to the HLSP and quicklook/preview images in common display formats such as PostScript, GIF, JPEG, PNG and PDF.
Thoroughly tested and well-documented specialized analysis software relevant to the HLSP, Java applets, and other image display software. (MAST will archive such software but will not accept responsibility for maintaining it).

Literature, including paper preprints and reprints and analysis products several steps removed from the HLSP are not considered HLSP and are inappropriate for this site.

It is important that contributors designate a contact person who will be available to answer technical questions from users regarding details of the actual observations, the processing techniques, or scientific quality issues that MAST may not be in a position to answer. From experience, we expect that such queries will be infrequent.

File Formats

Accepted Formats

FITS for images and spectra; FITS ASCII tables are also useful for catalogs having a large number of columns
plain text ASCII (catalogs, some software, README files)
PDF (plots, and large README files)
Any common image format (e.g. GIF, JPEG, PNG) for preview, color and annotated images (MPEG is also allowed)

Unacceptable formats

File formats specific to particular software such as Microsoft, Tex, LaTex, and IDL save-set formats.

Filenames

Names must follow the following file-naming convention. This convention permits easy integration with the Hubble Legacy Archive.

Format is: hlsp_project_mission_instrument_field-name_filter_version_product.extension
- hlsp - identifies the file as a community-contributed dataset.
- project - an agreed upon name for the HLSP set. This name is also used as directory name and as a database keyword.
- mission - mission/missions acquiring the data. If two missions used they should be separated by hyphens.
- instrument - Instrument (e.g. acs-wfc). When not applicable as for GALEX data, a description like imaging or spectra should be used.
- field-name - filed name or target as designated by the team. Parts should be separated by hyphens.
- filter - filter or filters used. If HST this should be the full filter name (e.g. f606w). If more than one filter is used, separate the filters by hyphens.
- version - Version Number
- product - type of data as designated by the team. e.g. img, drz, sci, weight, wgt, cat.
- Extension - e.g. fits, txt, jpg
Examples:
hlsp_goods_hst_acs-wfc_north-sect13_f435w_v2.0_drz.fits
hlsp_angst_hst_wfpc2_11307-ngc0055-wide2_f606w-f814w_v1_gst.fits
hlsp_cosmos_galex_imaging_cosmos-01_fuv_v2_int.fits
hlsp_udf_hst_nicmos-nic3_treasury_f110w_v2_img.fits
Use lower case characters only.

FITS Keywords and Verification

Lists of required and recommended FITS keywords for:

images
spectra
spectral line lists

All FITS format files will be verified before inclusion in the MAST archive. We recommend that the team use the FITSVERIFY validator available from HEASARC and fix any problems with the files BEFORE delivery of the data, thus reducing the number of iterations required. You can also verify your FITS files online at http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_verify.html.

Instructions for reading and writing FITS files can be found within the standard data reduction packages such as IRAF and STSDAS, and within the CFITSIO package distributed by HEASARC at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/fitsio/fitsio.html.

Delivery of Files to STScI

Data may be delivered electronically or on hard media such as DVD, CD or tape, whatever is most convenient for you.

Some additional information may be useful at the time of initial contact:

Name of a Contact Investigator for the program, along with contact information including email address and telephone number
Program of origin, e.g., HST/Treasury for HST Treasury program data, or HST/GO for HST Guest Observer data; Contribution from an ADP, LTSA or AISRP programs.
The program number, if there is any, e.g., HST proposal ID or ADP number
The primary target of the observations, e.g. "Hubble Deep Field" or "NGC1068"
A list of the missions from which the HLSP are derived, e.g., HST, IUE, and GALEX
References of up to three papers closely related to the contributed HLSP, excluding authors, in standard format, e.g., 2001, ApJ, 551, 23

Web Support

MAST will point to any websites the project or contributors set up but we prefer to maintain at least a small web presence on our website. We work with contributing teams to put in place a suitable web presence. We have developed full web site with search interfaces or just maintained a single web page pointing to the data and the teams website. Some studies have shown that urls published in scientific journals have an average lifetime of about 18 months. Maintaining the data and web pages at MAST will insure that the site is active indefinitely. Even if you are planning your own web site, we will want to archive the data at MAST where we can provide a long-term home for it. We also would like you to consider having your web site point to the data here rather than to a local copy. That ensures that the same data gets delivered from both sites and allows us to easily and consistently track use of the products from the Treasury programs. We can also more easily integrate these valuable products with our other search interfaces.