Search with the VO

The Virtual Observatory (VO) is the concept that astronomical research should be able to seamlessly incorporate data from active missions, archives, and other institutional resources worldwide. Many projects and data centers collaborate toward this goal. MAST has been involved in the IVOA (International Virtual Observatory Alliance) community since its inception, and is dedicated to sharing our holdings in VO-compatible ways. Many MAST catalogs, images, spectra, and even raw database tables are available through VO standard services, described below. MAST also provides a service registry, listing VO services worldwide that can be correlated with our own holdings.

  • Search the Virtual Observatory in the Portal

    Search the Virtual Observatory in the Portal

    In drop down, select "all virtual observatory collections" to search for MAST data using the Virtual Observatory. Using the VO, you can access data from not just MAST, but other archives at universities and data centers worldwide. Search MAST along with Spitzer, IPAC, Chandra, WISE, ADS, HEASARC, CDS, and many others.

Catalogs

Simple Cone Search (SCS) is an International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) protocol defining a web service for querying catalogs of astronomical entities that have well-defined positions on the sky. The query describes sky position and an angular distance, defining a cone on the sky. The query results are a list of the astronomical entities whose position overlaps the given cone. The formal IVOA document describing the SCS protocol is here: http://www.ivoa.net/documents/latest/ConeSearch.html

Once we have a source catalog available for JWST, we will implement an SCS service to access that catalog. For now, we will instead implement the SCS service to access the catalog of JWST observations. Each result will represent a JWST observation that overlaps the search cone, and will contain a variety of metadata about the observation.

Following is a description of information for how to call SCS services, and the main ones available at MAST. Many more are available through searching the registry.

Accordion

Images

Simple Image Access

Simple Image Access (SIA), is an International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) protocol defining a web service for querying for image products. The query describes sky position and an angular distance, defining a cone on the sky. The query results are a list of the images whose footprint overlaps the given cone. The formal IVOA document describing the SIA protocol (version 1.0, as supported at MAST) is here: http://www.ivoa.net/documents/SIA/20091116/

Following is a description of information for how to call SIA services, and the main ones available at MAST. Many more are available through searching the registry.

Accordion

Spectra

sample spectraSimple Spectral Access (SSA), version 1.03, is an International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) protocol defining a web service for querying for spectral data products. The query describes sky position and an angular distance, defining a cone on the sky, and also allows constraining the search by waveband and time range. The query results are a list of the products whose footprint overlaps the given cone and/or match the specified waveband or time ranges. The formal IVOA document describing the SSA protocol is here: http://www.ivoa.net/documents/cover/SSA-20071220.html

Following is a description of information for how to call SSA services, and the main ones available at MAST. Many more are available through searching the registry.
 

Accordion

Table Access Protocol (TAP)

Accordion

Registry

The NAVO Directory is an interface for finding data collections and catalogs by searching their descriptions. The Directory search interface queries an underlying registry, or database of descriptive metadata about collections and catalogs. The Directory has access to the metadata of every registry hosted by an astronomical project in the IVOA as well as locally managed information. The registry and its records are defined by VO standards derived from ones widely used in library science.

The Directory web portal has been developed to provide direct search access for the scientific, student, or casual user, and programmatic search capabilities are also available for interoperability with other research tools.

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