Characterisation draft

[Anita Richards]

Some background to how we arrived at suggestions for mandatory elements in 
Characterisation (see 
http://alinda.u-strasbg.fr/Model/Characterisation/CharacterisationDraftMai06/
):

I considered what information is required by the tools currently
available and what information could or could not be used by any
working tool.  I have also tried to consider all kinds of observed or
simulated data and I think that we should impliment the model as soon
as possible in order to find in practice if it works for real data and
applications; as long as the structure is OK we will best discover if
the elements need small revisions after the model has been in use.

Initially we will provide XML templates for manual editing.  We will
investigate what would be more convenient for large data collections
depending on how they store their existing metadata e.g. in databases,
as xml, as FITS headers, offline etc.\footnote{For example something
like
http://nvo.stsci.edu/VORegistry/UpdateRegistry.aspx?InsertMode=t&ResourceType=DATACOLLECTION
is suitable for coarse-grained regstry entries where one individual
person only has a few collections to register, but not for providing
Char descriptions for thousands of separate observations in telescope
archive. Would it, however, be practical to provide a form where the
curator enters the keyword in their database or FITS headers which
corresponds to an element in the model, or constant element values
(e.g. units on an axis).  What if the element needed by Char had to be
derived from the recorded metadata (e.g. the spectral location, bounds
etc. need to be derived from an instrument-specific code using a
look-up table or algorithm)? For metadata in a DB, we could persuade
data providers to make the derivation an extra column, but they might
be reluctant to modify FITS headers if these were the only source of
metadata.
}

We should make it as easy as possible to describe data; the model will
have to prove its use in pratice before many data providers will
invest significant effort - but we can only make it easier if we get
feedback. This means minimising the number of compulsory fields
although there has to be enough information to expand the ways in
which data can be selected or manipulated by VO tools.

A 'description' is an xml document, based on the Char schemata,
describing a specific data set.  This may contain one or many
instrumental pointings (e.g. the GOODS northern field), but a number
of separate descriptions would be used for e.g. HST UDF images, Team
Keck spectra and WSRT images all in the HDF region, if they have very
different coverage on many axes.
\footnote{The relationship between Char and the Obs data model will
eventually be available to indicate linked data sets, but we don't
presently have any real way to use complicated conditional
relationships between different properties on different axes. For
example, Resolution R and Wavelength l can be given as separate ranges
[min, max] but I don't know of any current VO tool which can handle R
= const/l, although that should come in future.}

Char was not designed to describe catalogues but has been used for
this successfully and I can see no reason not to use it for e.g. an
object list extracted from an image or an observing log. We should not
extend Char to provide for issues exclusive to catalogues
e.g. definitions of sources ('star', 'galaxy'...); there is a separate
model for that.

Cheers

Anita


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dr. Anita M. S. Richards, AstroGrid Astronomer
MERLIN/VLBI National Facility, University of Manchester, 
Jodrell Bank Observatory, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 9DL, U.K. 
tel +44 (0)1477 572683 (direct); 571321 (switchboard); 571618 (fax).