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arXiv · 1410.7513

Learning from 25 years of the extensible N-Dimensional Data Format

Tim Jenness·David S. Berry·Malcolm J. Currie·Peter W. Draper·Frossie Economou·Norman Gray·Brian McIlwrath·Keith Shortridge·Mark B. Taylor·Patrick T. Wallace·Rodney F. Warren-Smith
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Abstract

The extensible N-Dimensional Data Format (NDF) was designed and developed in the late 1980s to provide a data model suitable for use in a variety of astronomy data processing applications supported by the UK Starlink Project. Starlink applications were used extensively, primarily in the UK astronomical community, and form the basis of a number of advanced data reduction pipelines today. This paper provides an overview of the historical drivers for the development of NDF and the lessons learned from using a defined hierarchical data model for many years in data reduction software, data pipelines and in data acquisition systems.

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Tim Jenness, David S. Berry, Malcolm J. Currie, Peter W. Draper, Frossie Economou, Norman Gray, Brian McIlwrath, Keith Shortridge, Mark B. Taylor, Patrick T. Wallace, Rodney F. Warren-Smith. 2014-10-28. Learning from 25 years of the extensible N-Dimensional Data Format. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ascom.2014.11.001

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