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Concepts for astronomical data accessibility and analysis via relational database

L. Nicastro·G. Calderone
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Abstract

Relational databases (DBs) are ideal tools to manage bulky and structured data archives. In particular for Astronomy they can be used to fulfill all the requirements of a complex project, i.e. the management of: documents, software (s/w) packages and logs, observation schedules, object catalogues, quick-look, simulated, raw and processed data, etc. All the information gathered in a relational DB is easily and simultaneously accessible either from an interactive tool or a batch program. The user does not need to deal with traditional files I/O or editing, but has only to build the appropriate (SQL) query which will return the desired information/data, eventually producing the aforementioned files or even plots, tables, etc. in a variety of formats. What is then important for a generic user is to have the tools to easily and quickly develop, in any desired programming language, the custom s/w which can import/export the information into/from the DB. An example could be a Web interface which presents the available data and allows the user to select/retrieve (or even process) the data subset of interest. In the last years we have been implementing a package called MCS (see dedicated paper in this proceedings) which allows users to interact with MySQL based DBs through any programming language. MCS has a multi-thread (socket) architecture which means that several clients can submit queries to a server which in turn manages the communication with the MySQL server and other MCS servers. Here we'll focus on a the real-world case of the robotic IR-optical telescope REM (placed at La Silla, Chile) which performs real time images acquisition, processing and archiving by using some of the MCS capabilities.

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L. Nicastro, G. Calderone. 2007-01-04. Concepts for astronomical data accessibility and analysis via relational database. https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0701099

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