Birds-of-a-Feather session 2-C
When
Where
Theme: User Experience for astronomical software
The FITS data standard has served astronomers well for four decades. The original integer image format has been revised to support additional pixel data types, to support world coordinates and other scientific metadata, to include an integrated data compression framework, and to support generalized binary tables, among other features.
Over the years, a variety of alternative scientific data standards have been proposed. These usually reach only a limited audience specific to a particular project or community. No other format has ever garnered the widespread support of FITS.
We'll hear from several groups who are generating data and how they have been using FITS standards and extending or creating standards for newer projects. Are people talking across projects about new standards, even partial ones? Have people published details of their standard formats? Where?
Various FITS topics will be discussed, including: