Towards a better coordination of Multimessenger observations: VO and future developments. (arXiv:1903.10732v1 [astro-ph.IM])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Ness_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">J.-U. Ness</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Fernandez_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">C. Sánchez Fernández</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Ibarra_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">A. Ibarra</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Saxton_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">R. Saxton</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Salgado_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">J. Salgado</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Kuulkers_E/0/1/0/all/0/1">E. Kuulkers</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Kretschmar_P/0/1/0/all/0/1">P. Kretschmar</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Ehle_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">M. Ehle</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Salazar_E/0/1/0/all/0/1">E. Salazar</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Gabriel_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">C. Gabriel</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Perdikeas_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">M. Perdikeas</a>
Context. Towards the multimessenger era, the scientific demand for
simultaneous observations with different facilities is continuously increasing.
The main challenges of coordinating observations is the determination of common
visibility and respective scheduling constraints to find common free slots.
While all this information is publicly available via the respective observatory
web pages, it is cumbersome to find this information from a large diversity of
web interfaces and web tables. Aims. Coordinated observations have been planned
already, but their number will continue to increase, and the larger complexity
requires much better use of automatic routines. Methods. Automatic tools are
not able to obtain visibility and planning information from web interfaces.
Standard interfaces between observatories need to be developed to use automatic
tools. We present two Virtual Observatory (VO) protocols ObjVisSAP and
ObsLocTAP that work with a URL-based query approach with standardized query
parameters and standardized output. Clients can pull the required information
directly from the respective observatories and compute overlapping, unplanned,
visibility intervals. Many other use cases are possible. Results. A prototype
service has been implemented by the INTEGRAL mission and a very simple client
script queries visibility intervals for given coordinates within the next 30
days. An observer can quickly see whether a source is observable within the
near future. Other missions are on their way to implement the services.
Conclusions. Once the major observatories have implemented the services and
powerful tools are available that rely on getting visibility and planning
observations via these protocols, we expect many other, also ground-based,
observatories to follow. We are developing documentation to support
observatories with the implementation.
Context. Towards the multimessenger era, the scientific demand for
simultaneous observations with different facilities is continuously increasing.
The main challenges of coordinating observations is the determination of common
visibility and respective scheduling constraints to find common free slots.
While all this information is publicly available via the respective observatory
web pages, it is cumbersome to find this information from a large diversity of
web interfaces and web tables. Aims. Coordinated observations have been planned
already, but their number will continue to increase, and the larger complexity
requires much better use of automatic routines. Methods. Automatic tools are
not able to obtain visibility and planning information from web interfaces.
Standard interfaces between observatories need to be developed to use automatic
tools. We present two Virtual Observatory (VO) protocols ObjVisSAP and
ObsLocTAP that work with a URL-based query approach with standardized query
parameters and standardized output. Clients can pull the required information
directly from the respective observatories and compute overlapping, unplanned,
visibility intervals. Many other use cases are possible. Results. A prototype
service has been implemented by the INTEGRAL mission and a very simple client
script queries visibility intervals for given coordinates within the next 30
days. An observer can quickly see whether a source is observable within the
near future. Other missions are on their way to implement the services.
Conclusions. Once the major observatories have implemented the services and
powerful tools are available that rely on getting visibility and planning
observations via these protocols, we expect many other, also ground-based,
observatories to follow. We are developing documentation to support
observatories with the implementation.
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