VISTA data flow system: status

Data from two IR survey cameras UKIRT's WFCAM and ESO's VISTA can arrive at rates approaching 1.4 TB/night for of order 10 years. Handling the rate, and volume of survey data accumulated over time, are both challenges. The UK's VISTA Data Flow System (for WFCAM & VISTA near-IR survey data) removes instrumental artefacts, astrometrically and photometrically calibrates, extracts catalogues, puts the products in a curated archive, facilitates production of user-specified data products, and is designed in the context of the Virtual Observatory. The VDFS design concept is outlined, and experience in handling the first year of WFCAM data described. This work will minimize risk in meeting the more taxing requirements of VISTA, which will be commissioned in 2007. Tools for preparing survey observations with VISTA are outlined.

[1]  Egerton Wharf.  The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) , 2006 .

[2]  James P. Emerson,et al.  VISTA data flow system: overview , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[3]  Robert Mann,et al.  VISTA data flow system survey access and curation: the WFCAM science archive , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[4]  R. F. Jameson,et al.  The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey Early Data Release , 2006 .

[5]  Gavin Dalton,et al.  The Visible & Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy , 2004 .

[6]  Steve Warren,et al.  Scientific goals of the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey , 2002, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[7]  James P. Emerson,et al.  VISTA data flow system: pipeline processing for WFCAM and VISTA , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[8]  M. Irwin,et al.  The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) , 2006, astro-ph/0604426.

[9]  Dario Dorigo,et al.  From Handicraft to Industry: Supporting Surveys at ESO Telescopes , 2006 .