Документ взят из кэша поисковой машины. Адрес оригинального документа : http://www.adass.org/adass/proceedings/adass94/eichhorng.ps Дата изменения: Tue Jun 13 20:46:01 1995 Дата индексирования: Tue Oct 2 02:20:36 2012 Кодировка: Поисковые слова: astrophysics

Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems IV
ASP Conference Series, Vol. 77, 1995
R. A. Shaw, H. E. Payne, and J. J. E. Hayes, eds.
The New Astrophysics Data System
G. Eichhorn, S. S. Murray, M. J. Kurtz, A. Accomazzi, C. S. Grant
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA
02138
Abstract. The Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is moving towards
public domain access software for its data holdings. Several ADS ser­
vices are already accessible through the World Wide Web (WWW) (e.g.,
abstract service, catalogs, Einstein archive) and more are planned.
1. Introduction
The Astrophysics Data System has been restructured in the recent past. We now
concentrate on making data available through the World Wide Web (WWW).
The main emphasis of the restructured ADS Project will be the operation and
development of the ADS Astrophysics Science Information and Abstract Service
(ASIAS) (formerly the ADS Abstract Service). We also will consolidate the data
assets already created by the ADS Project so that they will be administered
within the restructured project and continue to be made available.
This paper introduces some of the new capabilities that are already available
and then describes some of the improvements that are in development.
2. Astrophysics Science Information and Abstract Service (ASIAS)
The ASIAS has been very successful in providing the astronomy researcher the
capability to search the astronomical literature. It currently provides access to
over 160,000 astronomical abstracts with a sophisticated search engine. The
WWW interface to the ASIAS was made available in 1994 February. It is acces­
sible through the ADS Abstract Service 1 . It uses the same search engine as the
original ADS abstract service. The data are returned as hypertext documents.
Figure 1 shows the results of two ASIAS queries. On the left is the result
of a query which returned three abstracts. The links at the bibliographic codes
point directly to the abstracts. This allows the user to retrieve one abstract at a
time. Several abstracts can be retrieved at the same time by selecting the check
boxes at the requested abstracts and pushing the ``Retrieve'' button. On the
right is a full abstract. This particular abstract has a link to data tables at the
Centre de Donnees in Strasbourg, France. The CDS provides on­line access to
data tables for some publications. These data are automatically cross­referenced
1 http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract service.html
1

2
Figure 1. ASIAS query result. Short results with three references
(left) and full abstract (right). Original PostScript figures
with the ASIAS abstracts. The link is displayed whenever a particular abstract
has data associated with it.
The query feedback feature allows the user to automatically build and ex­
ecute a new query from the current abstract. This allows the user to easily find
more information about a given subject.
3. Catalog Data
The ADS now provides access to most of the old ADS catalogs through the
WWW. It is accessible through the ADS Catalog Service 2 This WWW access
tool provides access to catalogs at SAO, at CASA (University of Colorado), the
Center for EUV Astronomy at Berkeley, and at the University of Minnesota. For
some catalogs, like the plate scan data at the University of Minnesota, the ADS
is the primary means of data access. It is therefore important that we maintain
this catalog access.
Figure 2 shows the query form from the Catalog Service for one of the plate
scan catalogs at the University of Minnesota. In this form the user can select
which fields of the catalog to retrieve, what selection criteria to apply for different
fields, and what output format to use for the individual fields. Currently the
data can be retrieved as ASCII tables, ADS tables, FITS tables, and, for the
plate scan catalogs, finder charts. The user can select to either display the data
or to store the file directly on disk.
2 http://adscat.harvard.edu/catalog service.html

3
Figure 2. ADS Catalog Service query form for an APS catalog.
Figure 3. ADS Einstein Archive Service query form (left) and query
results (right).
4. Archive Data
We are currently providing access to the Einstein Observatory data set main­
tained at SAO. This WWW interface again provides the same functionality
as the original ADS interface. Figure 3 shows one of the query forms for the
Einstein Archive Service (left) and the results of a query (right). The form on
the left provides the capability to query the Einstein archive by words in the

4
description of data files. Figure 3 (right) shows the result of such a query with
the word COMA in the title. It returns information about the data files that fit
the query. The filenames are hyperlinks that allow the user to directly download
these files. The Einstein Archive Service is available through the ADS Einstein
Archive Service 3
5. Future Plans
We plan to greatly enhance the utility of the ASIAS in the next year by expand­
ing its data base, providing access to full articles and other data associated with
the articles. Accomazzi et. al. (1995) describe the future plans of the ASIAS in
more detail.
The central location catalog service provided by the ADS helps to deal with
the general problem of how the user community can know about the existence
of valuable data. We plan to continue to provide this important (and unique)
function through our WWW Catalog Server. We encourage other data holders
to make their catalogs available on the WWW. We have a set of programs
that provides WWW access to catalog data. They currently work with several
databases and can easily be adapted to other databases. Instructions on how to
get and install the catalog server are at Catalog Server Installation 4
In order to facilitate the access to archive data, we will work with our current
data providers to help in the transition from ADS servers using our proprietary
protocol to servers based on WWW protocols. We will also include links within
the ADS WWW Services HomePage 5 to other sources of astronomical data so
that users can have a single starting point for finding these resources.
The efforts described above will extend the scope of the abstract service
and expand it into a wide ranging digital library service with greatly enhanced
utility for the astronomical community
Acknowledgments. This project is funded by the NASA Astrophysics pro­
gram under grant NCCW­0024.
References
Accomazzi, A., Grant, C. S., Eichhorn, G., Kurtz, M. J., & Murray, S. S. 1995,
this volume, p. ??
3 http://adsarc.harvard.edu/einstein service.html
4 http://adsdoc.harvard.edu/install.html
5 http://adswww.harvard.edu/ads services.html