Astronomy (HI) extension for 3DSlicer
Upcoming HI (neutral Hydrogen) surveys will deliver large datasets, and automated processing using the full 3-D information (two positional dimensions and one spectral dimension) to find and characterize HI objects is imperative.
In this context, visualization is an essential tool for enabling qualitative and quantitative human control on an automated source finding and analysis pipeline. Visual Analytics, the combination of automated data processing and human reasoning, creativity and intuition, supported by interactive visualization, enables flexible and fast interaction with the 3-D data, helping the astronomer to deal with the analysis of complex sources. 3-D visualization, coupled to modeling, provides additional capabilities helping the discovery and analysis of subtle structures in the 3-D domain.
- 1) proper visualization of astronomical data cubes: using data astronomical data formats, such as FITS, and astronomical world coordinates system (WCS);
- 2) generation of Histogram, flux density profiles, moment maps and position-velocity diagrams linked with the 3-D view;
- 3) enabling interactive smoothing in all three dimensions;
- 4) interactive HI data modeling coupled to visualization;
- 5) introduction of the SAMP protocol to enable interoperability with Topcat, and other VO tools and catalogs.
For more information regarding the project, its status and License, please check the following links: