AAS 197, January 2001
Session 116. Virtual Observatory: Data, Services, Tools and Software
Display, Thursday, January 11, 2001, 9:30-4:00pm, Exhibit Hall

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[116.03] An XML Representation of FITS - Introducing FITSML

B. Thomas, E. Shaya, J. Gass, J. Blackwell (Astronomical Data Center/GSFC-NASA, RITSS), C. Cheung (Astronomical Data Center/GSFC-NASA)

We describe a means by which FITS data may be encapsulated in XML using the eXtensible Data Format (XDF) - an XML based language for encapsulating n-dimensional scientific data. Our goal is to re-map (rather than to redefine) the FITS standards into an XML format. The advantages include: greater interoperability, parsing by XML aware browsers and applications, hierarchical structure for improved searchability, automatic validation, default values for header descriptions, extensibility for specialized usage and future development, and piggybacking on industry applications. We present our current work including a DTD and examples and discuss complexities, choices and future work.


If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://tarantella.gsfc.nasa.gov/xml/XDFhome.html. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: thomas@adc.gsfc.nasa.gov

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