Spectralanalysisroadmap

Spectral Data Processing and Analysis Roadmap

Purpose

To try to coordinate the communities needs in this area so we don't end up with redundancy or inconsistencies in tools. STScI has specific funding to try to replace tools that exist in IRAF to do spectral data processing and data analysis. STScI also has funding to address 3-dimensional spectral data sets. We want our efforts to satisfy the needs of the community in general in Optical/UV/IR data (X-Ray and radio as well possibly, if they don't lead us too far astray). There are a lot of tools to replace so it is important to have a plan that

• Identifies which functionality is the most important to accomplish earlier
• Understands the total needs so the basics developed for doing the initial work are general enough to encompass all the work.

There has been some previous work (e.g., specutils), but much as awaited the development of the WCS approach that was going to be used, the modeling and fitting framework, and the units and quantities work.

Collecting Input from the Community

At the recent Astropy Coordination meeting it was recognized that this is a good time to try to start significant coordination on this kind of work. As a first step we are trying to gather from the community what they believe the most important first steps are. At the meeting it was said by a few that the focus should be on analysis tools rather than data processing (e.g., calibration, extraction, etc.). Is this view also held by the wider community?

In November, 2013, STScI asked the community to take a survey in order to gain some measure on what the state-of-art is in software, processes currently used, and potential future needs. A report summarizing the results and the detailed, anonymized, responses have been published.

STScI is going to discuss this a bit more and then probably propose an initial plan (at least for STScI and those that have expressed an interest in doing this initial work), post that plan, and solicit further comments on it. There may also be a follow up with specific questions for those that responded and were willing to provide more information.

STScI is interested in continuing to receive input on this subject. Please forward any comments, questions, ideas, grand plans, etc., to the address astropy dot spectra at gmail.com