The VESPA infrastructure makes use of various tools maintained by external developers, most of which predate VESPA.
The most closely related tools are:
- Aladin (images and cubes)
- CASSIS (spectra)
- 3Dview (various data types viewed in relation with spacecraft trajectories)
- MATISSE (various data types viewed in relation with 3D shape models)
- AMDA viewing tools (radio and plasma-related data)
- SSHADE viewing tools (spectroscopy data)
- APERICubes (PDS spectral cubes)
All of which benefit from direct inclusion in the VESPA activity.
In addition to these, an effort is made to connect or adapt existing tools for use with VESPA and the VO.
These currently include:
- WebGeoCalc
- Cosmographia
- ImageJ
Cosmographia
In a (not entirely) interactive context, Cosmographia can be used to visualize trajectories provided as SPICE kernels by some services, e. g., the DynAstVO computation system for Near-Earth Objects in Paris.
DynAstVO produces files such as .bsp (SPICE SPK ephemeris) and .json (both to be integrated in the EPN-TAP data service) for each body of interest. These files can be used in Cosmographia to plot trajectories computed in DynAstVO. The example below uses the reconstructed orbit of 2017AG13, an Earth-grazer asteroid early in 2017.
• Create a dedicated directory with object name (2017AG13) in Cosmographia root directory and move json (2017AG13-spice.json) & bsp (DAV_2017AG13.bsp) files inside.
• The json file is a configuration file for Cosmographia. In this particular case, the 2017AG13-spice.json is directly usable.
• For other objects, you have to edit it and change fields "name", "spiceKernels", and "target" (inside "trajectory") - the latter is the spk ID provided in DynAstVO (parameter id_spk, here = 532900332)
• Below line "bodyFrame": "EquatorJ2000" everything is optional and concerns rotation parameters and size (should be straightforward). A shape model is introduced by "source" (511davida.cmod) while size is provided in km (2017AG13 is 24m large, hence size = 0.024).
• Whenever no shape model is included, the body will appear as a point in Cosmographia! So mention a dummy one if none is available.
Then launch Cosmographia, click File>Open Catalog and select the 2017AG13 json file. This particular object should appear inside the Moon's orbit in January 2017.
ImageJ
A specific plug-in is being developed to provide SAMP connection and receive data from other VO tools.
This update also improves the support of fits files and compress formats in ImageJ. This requires a version of ImageJ running under java 1.8.
With SAMP connection, ImageJ will provide visualization, format conversion, and image processing functions to the VO.
Install procedure
- install a recent version of ImageJ on your computer
For Mac OS,the version "bundled with Java 1.8.0_101" is OK (requires OS X 10.8 or later) Install file
SAMP_HUB-0.1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
In directory ImageJ/plugins or plugins/Input-OutputInstall files
jsamp-1.3.5.jar
nom-tam-fits-1.15.2-SNAPSHOT.jar
commons-compress-1.14.jar
In directory ImageJ/plugins/jarInstall file
SAMP.ijm
in directory ImageJ/macros/AutoRun
(create AutoRun if not present)
Usage
Launch ImageJ on your machine and click on new menu item SAMP > SAMP to register it to the Hub (no need to launch TOPCAT first). ImageJ will now receive images send to the SAMP Hub by other VO applications.
ImageJ will accept fits, jpeg, png, and tiff images, among others. Most fits images are now supported (including multi-extension files). Tiff images are prime products in some EPN-TAP services (e.g., BDIP) but are not usually viewable in a web browser.
For the time being, ImageJ cannot send back images to the Hub. Results have to be stored locally in a VO compliant format (eg, fits, jpg, or png), and possibly loaded in another environment.
Use cases:
- ImageJ is now a VO viewer for Tiff images (provided e.g. by the BDIP data service)
- Any image sent to ImageJ can benefit from image processing functions
- Currently, the processed images have to be stored locally on the user machine
- Image format can be modified during save (via Save As…), providing effective format conversion functionalities.
Additional type conversions (e.g. 16 to 8 bits) are accessible via menu item Image > Type
Saved images can be reopened in a VO tool or a computing environment such as IDL
From the VESPA search interface
On a service result page, select one or more lines (dataproduct_type must be "image") and click the Selected Data > Send Images button (bottom left)
From VESPA, many image formats (Fits, JPG, PNG, TIFF, at least) will be samped to ImageJ
• Ex in APIS:
Uranus_-_2011_09-29_Nov/obrx18hbq_pol_s.fits
Jupiter_-_1999_14-16_Aug/o5g202x4q_proc.fits are OK
Uranus_-_2011_09-29_Nov/obrx18hbq_x2d.fits (multi-extension fits files, now supported)
• Geotiff images are not supported (included in CRISM service and under WMS links)
• Compressed images such as *.fts.bz2 from CLIMSO are not handled (even with commons-compress installed)
- A workaround is to samp them to Aladin, then from Aladin to ImageJ
From Aladin
Images can be samped to ImageJ via the menu items:
Interop > Broadcast selected plane
Interop > Broadcast selected image to…
However Aladin will only samp fits-formatted images (since the official MTYPE is image.load.fits); the menu items will be dimmed otherwise
From TOPCAT
Load a table providing links to images (can be a metadata table from a VESPA result page)
Click "Activation Action" in the main window
In the Set Activation Action window, click View URL as Image and identify the column including the link (access_url or thumbnail_url for an EPN-TAP service); select either All Clients or ImageJ in the Image Viewer menu
The image will be sent to ImageJ on mouse click
- if this does not work, check the Activation Action value in the main window; if set to (no action) try to open/close it again (by clicking the OK button)
From TOPCAT many image formats (Fits, JPG, GIF, TIFF at least) will be samped to ImageJ (no need to select image type in Activation window)
Possible developments
• Autostart the hub connection at launch (like in Aladin, with optional switch)
• Grab the cursor position and send it to / from Aladin via SAMP
• Send back images/results via SAMP
• Better support of compressed files
• Support of VOtable in I/O (to store analysis results and load them, in addition to current csv format)