Abstract

On-the-fly X-ray and Optical Analysis for the Virtual Observatory

Andy Ptak (JHU)

Andy Connolly (UW) Simon Krughoff (UW)

Web-Enabled Source Identification with XMatching (WESIX) is a web service for automatically detecting sources in a given optical image and cross-matching the results with requested databases. XAssist is a software package that automatically analyzes X-ray observations. We are expanding WESIX to support X-ray data by incorporating the capabilities of XAssist. Users will be able to upload an X-ray image for (preliminary) analysis as is done with optical images, for which we are calibrating "quick-look" approximations to complete X-ray analysis. Web services are also being developed to allow access to core XAssist functionality, such as source detection and data product extraction (images, light curves, spectra and instrumental responses) for a given region in an observation. The XAssist pipeline is continuously processing archival data which can be accessed via web services. An example application of these web services is the ability to maintain a "watch-list" of source positions and sky regions, with optical and X-ray data being analyzed automatically as it become publicly available. This work is supported by NASA AISR grant NNG06GE59G.

Mode of presentation: poster