GNU Astronomy Utilities



5 Data containers

The most low-level and basic property of a dataset is how it is stored. To process, archive and transmit the data, you need a container to store it first. From the start of the computer age, different formats have been defined to store data, optimized for particular applications. One format/container can never be useful for all applications: the storage defines the application and vice-versa. In astronomy, the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) standard has become the most common format of data storage and transmission. It has many useful features, for example, multiple sub-containers (also known as extensions or header data units, HDUs) within one file, or support for tables as well as images. Each HDU can store an independent dataset and its corresponding meta-data. Therefore, Gnuastro has one program (see Fits) specifically designed to manipulate FITS HDUs and the meta-data (header keywords) in each HDU.

Your astronomical research does not just involve data analysis (where the FITS format is very useful). For example, you want to demonstrate your raw and processed FITS images or spectra as figures within slides, reports, or papers. The FITS format is not defined for such applications. Thus, Gnuastro also comes with the ConvertType program (see ConvertType) which can be used to convert a FITS image to and from (where possible) other formats like plain text and JPEG (which allow two way conversion), along with EPS and PDF (which can only be created from FITS, not the other way round).

Finally, the FITS format is not just for images, it can also store tables. Binary tables in particular can be very efficient in storing catalogs that have more than a few tens of columns and rows. However, unlike images (where all elements/pixels have one data type), tables contain multiple columns and each column can have different properties: independent data types (see Numeric data types) and meta-data. In practice, each column can be viewed as a separate container that is grouped with others in the table. The only shared property of the columns in a table is thus the number of elements they contain. To allow easy inspection/manipulation of table columns, Gnuastro has the Table program (see Table). It can be used to select certain table columns in a FITS table and see them as a human readable output on the command-line, or to save them into another plain text or FITS table.