FAIR approach for Low Frequency Radio Astronomy
2023-11-08 , Invited

The Open Science paradigm and the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) is aiming to foster scientific return, and reinforce the trust in science production. We present how the MASER (Measuring, Analysing and Simulating Emissions in the Radio range) implements Open Science through a series of existing solutions that have been put together, only adding new pieces where needed.

The MASER service is a “science ready” and “open science” toolbox dedicated to time-domain low frequency radioastronomy, which data products mostly covers Solar and planetary observations. The principal data product in this domain is a “dynamic spectrum”, i.e., a series of consecutive spectra with the same observing configuration. The observed physical phenomena are related to plasma instabilities and energetic particles in magnetized plasma. Hence low frequency radio astronomy is a remote sensing tool for plasma diagnostics.

MASER covers four community needs:
1. Discovering data products,
2. Exploring data collections before downloading TB’s of files,
3. Annotating and then storing and sharing annotations on radio dynamic spectra,
4. Accessing data in Python.

MASER solutions are based on IVOA protocols for data discovery, on IHDEA tools for data exploration, and on a dedicated format developed by MASER for the temporal-spectral annotations. The service also proposes a data repository for sharing data collections, catalogues and associated documentation, as well as supplementary materials associated to papers. Each collection is managed through a Data Management Plan, which purpose is two-fold: supporting the provider for managing the collection content; and supporting the data centre for resource management. Each product of the repository is citable with a DOI, and the landing page contains web semantics annotations (using schema.org).

See also: Proceeding manuscript (726.1 KB)

Baptiste Cecconi is a radio astronomer working at Observatoire de Paris. He contributed to many low frequency space radio instrument (Cassini, STEREO, JUICE, etc.)